Leading Project Teams
From the Strategic Project Management Blog
by Ty Kiisel
Henry Ford once said, "Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."
In personal relationships and project teams, I've noticed the traits that make people successful leaders are not always the same traits that make people successful managers. I agree with Rear Admiral Grace Hopper when she said, "No one ever managed men into battle." Unfortunately, some of the skills and attributes that make a good project leader aren't always associated with the metrics that determine whether or not they are successful at managing projects.
Typically, project managers are measured against things like how well they are able to master and execute project management methodology, process, build project plans, and control project meetings. As important as those skills are, they provide a limited view of what a project manager really does. The most successful project leaders I know are also skilled at communicating with people, motivating a project team, and keeping everyone focused on those things that matter the most.
I believe there is a difference between leadership and management.
Dealing with the minutia of work management can be accomplished with the right project management tools. Successful project leaders take advantage of the available tools to make planning, reporting, and implementing process easier—allowing them to focus on "leading the team."
Successful project-based work is led, not managed. What are you doing to improve your "leadership" skills?
Posted on: April 15, 2010 09:49 AM |
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Josh Nankivel
Engineering Project Manager| Apple
Sioux Falls, Sd, United States
I'm going to disagree, at least slightly on what may just amount to terminology.
Successful project-based work is led
AND managed.
There is a false dichotomy between leadership and management that I often see. While it is true that you can be a leader without being a manager, and you can be a manager without being a leader, the highest state (for a project manager) to achieve is both simultaneously. As my former PM mentor and engineer Brian Bernhard used to say, it's the "genius of the AND".
A general, CEO, technical innovator, or scientist can get away with being a great leader and lousy manager
if and only if they surround themselves with great managers. The general and CEO in that case rely on their vision and strategic capabilities, and the technical innovator and scientist rely on their ability to create movements through technical breakthroughs.
A team manager can get away with being a great manager and a lousy leader if the environment doesn't call for innovation or great leaps forward; change is infrequent and most of the activity is similar to the way it was the day before or last year. Here, you need a great manager who understands how to manage people effectively day-in and day-out.
For a project manager, you really need to aspire to having both qualities. With the change and constant need to generate and sustain momentum towards a common goal, you can't be successful for long without developing at least a minimum amount of both qualities.
-Josh
pmStudent e-Learning
I''''m going to agree to both Ty and Josh point of view and I am going to disagree :-)
You can'''' get a great successfull project if there is no leadershiip and you can''''t get great successful leadership if there is no management skills.
When we think about project mmanagement, we think about project objectives. These objectives will be attained through great project management skills.
What we tend to underestimate some times are the relationship objectives. The projec manager must set up high relationship objectives in order to expect great operational objectives.
Those relationship objectives are attained through great leadership, which is a must to obtain the operational objectives.
So what is the most important?
- I have worked through projects which did not need any project manager skills. Only ommunication skills were enough to reach the operational objectives.
- I have worked through projects which did not need (or just a min... :-) any humain relation skills; Only great planing and execution provved to be enough to reach the objectives
- I have worked through projects where leadership and management were a must to be successfull
What i want to put in light here, is may be adaptaiton, flexibility and agility (doing the right stuff at the right time) is may be even more important than leadership and managementskills.
That''''s, I think, why we must progress and develop in management skills, leadership and agility...
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