Leadership in the Project Management Function

What is the role of the Project Manager? It’s simple really, to “lead” the project to a successful outcome. In any project, the buck stops with the Project Manager. They get the praise when things go right, and their reputation is on the line when things don’t go well.

Part of leading the project is doing the hard yards; creating plans, monitoring risks, status updates, spreadsheets, documents, specifications. Doing this will get you part of the way towards a successful project.

But what about the soft skills? The team building. The motivation. The education. Surely these are essential inputs to any successful delivery? And if so, why do so many Project Managers abandon these soft skills by building a façade of processes and procedures to hide behind?

I’d like to take this opportunity to discuss why I think it’s important as a Project Manager to develop your leadership skills. By doing so, I believe that you will extend yourself as a Project Manager and more often than not, reach your goal effectively.

Leadership defined

There are millions of definitions out there on the internet about what leadership is. In the Web 2.0 world that we live in, here’s a link to Wikipedia’s definition: Wikipedia Leadership

It’s not the intention of this article to turn to psychology and discuss the different types of leaders that exist. Nor are we going to argue about whether leadership is either a trait that people are born with, or is something that can be taught. These are all topics that require more research than I have time for at present.

The message I wish to convey here is that leadership in Project Management is important. Being an effective leader will ensure that your team acts like a well oiled machine; delivering on time every time and to a standard that will make your peers envious.

Why do Project Managers need to be leaders?

In my opening I mentioned that when a Project Manager delivers anything, it has their name all over it. A Project Manager is conscious of this and therefore their workload tends to balloon out when they try to be the one who monitors quality, delivery to the specification and customer expectations. Something has to give.

Imagine a utopia where all you have to do is allocate a task and ask the delegate to report back when it is complete, knowing that it has been done 100% correctly. Does this situation exist? I’m sure it does, and I’m sure that the Project Managers in these situations are effective leaders.

Think about the airline industry for a moment. What comes to mind? Travel? Engineering? Service? Cost? I’m sure all these are things that we can associate with the airlines. But the term that sticks out for me is “safety”.

The life of an aircraft involves many periods of maintenance and checks to ensure your safety when flying. Airlines are mandated to adhere to set safety standards. Their brand depends on it. To this point, all aircraft after a certain amount of flying hours are required to undergo a D Check. A D Check is where the aircraft is stripped back to its frame and every single piece is inspected to ensure that it is still safe and the aircraft is airworthy. Parts that need to be replaced, are replaced, and the aircraft re-assembled ready for service. D Checks can take up to 4 weeks to complete.

You can think of a D Check as a project. It has a mandate, a goal, a plan, and a team. And of course, a Project Manager.

Going back to my point again about responsibility for delivering an objective, it’s the Project Manager that is judged on the outcome, not the team. If the aircraft carries on to its next D Check (after it has completed an A, B and C check – these do exist, feel free to look them up), the Project Manager has done their job. The plane falls out of the sky and questions will be asked.

Do you think that the Project Manager of a D Check is out on the hanger floor checking every single washer, seal and rivet for compliance? Unlikely. Managers of these projects have stringent procedures and checklists that their team follow. In the end, all the PM does is tick the boxes.

Where am I going with this? Does this not go against my point earlier that Project Managers need to get out of the habit of hiding behind paperwork?

No it doesn’t. In most projects, the conditions are not rigid enough to allow us to come up with some checklist to ensure that things are being properly. There is too much of a human element involved that must be controlled.

Leadership – developing the “Human” checklist

Becoming an effective leader will mean that your team will almost become you. They will approach every task with the attitude that it’s THEIR reputation on the line if things don’t go well, not yours.

Team members will become autonomous and will know what is expected of them. This will mean that you won’t need to spend as much time briefing them on their tasks, and you’ll be comfortable knowing that they have a full understanding of the job ahead of them.

New standards for excellence will be defined, and then exceeded by your team. You won’t feel that every piece of work that has been completed will need to be thoroughly checked before being presented to a client.

There will also be long term benefits. Your reputation as a manager and leader will precede you. You will begin to attract the best staff from within your given industry, and therefore develop the best team.

Your ability to network will also be enhanced, allowing amongst other things, the opportunity for you to keep abreast of developments in your industry through your contacts.

You will be in a position to reap all these benefits because you spent the time to develop your leadership skills.