During the month of October, Projectmanagement.com will focus on Leadership. This is a really important topic for me and one that I'm really interested in hearing the voice of the community. My question to you all is:
What are the skills that make a good leader? Are you a born leader? or is it something that you need to learn?
I think that there are people who are better suited to leadership roles but the skills can be learned by anyone if they are willing to learn and adjust their behaviour.
I'd also like to know: what makes a bad leader? What examples do you have about bad leaders? Saving Changes...
William TurnoDeputy Project Manager| ILJIN Electric Co., Ltd. Singapore BranchSingapore, Singapore, Singapore
Hello Ms. Emily,
To answer your questions, I will take it from my experience.
a. What are the skills that make a good leader?
The skills to make a good leader are the following:
1. You must learn how to listen to your team.
2. You must know all the details before reacting / responding.
3. Show to the team that the task assign to them can be easily accomplished by giving examples and proper training.
4. Treat the team as a family.
5. Learn from the team.
b. Are you a born leader? or is it something that you need to learn?
I am not a born leader. I learn by observing other people higher than my position by absorbing the good habits and remembering and keep in check the bad habits.
c. What makes a bad leader?
A bad leader is someone that is "knowing everything" and makes a lot of noise by just talking and forcing people to do things even him/her do not understand the work at hand. This is one of the example and I believe is the worst.
d. What examples do you have about bad leaders?
I already mention in letter c.
I want to improve more in my leadership skills. I still have a long way to go...
Cheers! and thank you.
...
1 reply by Darren Paladino
Oct 15, 2020 8:42 PM
Darren Paladino
...
Will, I can see the diver's influence in your answer! If you can sort these issues like this, your leadership path has already begun.
Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
We have to be managers, not leaders. An effective manager has the ability to detect the leader and support her/him to achieve the objective. Just in case some person can be both good. There are lot of examples about I am writing mainly in sports. Unfortunatelly is a wrong message to publish that leader is what matters to work as project/program/portfolio manager. Saving Changes...
Ashish BhartiTechnician| American Electric PowerLynchburg, Va, United States
Hi Emily, This is a very important topic indeed and I see many good answers here. I especially like what Verónica, Thomas and Tamara have said on the topic. I think leadership is quite a broad topic, so I will try to stick to the idea of leadership in the context of project management.
Motivation, personality, and ethics are the three pillars of good leadership in my opinion. Let's take a look at each of these characteristics of a good leader in more detail:
David McClelland, in his theory of needs, wrote about achievement motivation (n - achievement) which is an innate drive in a person to achieve challenging goals. A good leader is a goal driven person.
Personality type plays a key role in making a person succeed as a leader. I find Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) to be a good system to refer to for understanding how people function and why certain personality types are more successful than others in a leadership role. It's not only about having the right personality type but also about being able to understand the people that you are leading. Based on my understanding of the MBTI system; Introversion, Feeling, & Perception preferences may not be the best combination for leadership while a combination of Extroversion, Thinking, & Judging is found to be more common among the successful leaders. However, I must mention that there have been many great leaders with a preference of introversion.
Ethics, play a crucial role in the success of a leader. The problem is, who decides what the baseline definition of the ethical standards should be. What if the ethical standards of the leader are different from those of the team members? A good leader must be sensitive towards the beliefs and the values of the team members.
When I was in school, I was far from a leader. I was shy and timid but had a very strong sense of protecting my friends and ability to distinguish between right and wrong. I started to realize my leadership qualities at the age of 23 and then worked on these skills consciously and it helped. I believe that, like any skill, leadership skills can be learned. That being said, we must acknowledge that some people find leadership roles enjoyable while others find such roles extremely stressful. If I were among the latter kind I would try to find a role which I enjoy performing.
A bad leader, in my opinion, is a person who has the following characteristics: 1. Driven by need for power or need for affiliation (in context of McClelland's theory of needs) 2. Self centered, not trustworthy, indecisive, and inconsistent 3. Corrupt, inconsiderate, or exploitative Saving Changes...
Riad AlhammoudProject management| LanganAbu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
The main difference for me is as following - Great leaders are source of security and knowlege and inspiration for others. Innovative in their organization.
Bad Leaders are power abusers, they think only about themselves. Saving Changes...
Darren PaladinoEngagement Director| SalesforceDenver, Co, United States
At the elemental level, you know a good leader when you feel led, encouraged, and with trust. If you are in a position of responsibility, are people coming to you to speak about their visions, ideas, and concerns? It's definitely an unremitting responsibility and outlook on life. Saving Changes...
Darren PaladinoEngagement Director| SalesforceDenver, Co, United States
Oct 06, 2020 5:32 AM
Replying to William Turno
...
Hello Ms. Emily,
To answer your questions, I will take it from my experience.
a. What are the skills that make a good leader?
The skills to make a good leader are the following:
1. You must learn how to listen to your team.
2. You must know all the details before reacting / responding.
3. Show to the team that the task assign to them can be easily accomplished by giving examples and proper training.
4. Treat the team as a family.
5. Learn from the team.
b. Are you a born leader? or is it something that you need to learn?
I am not a born leader. I learn by observing other people higher than my position by absorbing the good habits and remembering and keep in check the bad habits.
c. What makes a bad leader?
A bad leader is someone that is "knowing everything" and makes a lot of noise by just talking and forcing people to do things even him/her do not understand the work at hand. This is one of the example and I believe is the worst.
d. What examples do you have about bad leaders?
I already mention in letter c.
I want to improve more in my leadership skills. I still have a long way to go...
Cheers! and thank you.
Will, I can see the diver's influence in your answer! If you can sort these issues like this, your leadership path has already begun. Saving Changes...
Wan-Phek HowCareer and Project Management Coach| Wan How ConsultingBurnaby, British Columbia, Canada
In my humble opinion, servant leadership is an appropriate leadership style that aligns with the broad influence that a project manager needs to be effective across a broad network of stakeholders. Here's a post I wrote two months ago.
This event is seared into my memory for life! It was after lunch at an all-day leadership meeting. We were chatting away at our table, oblivious to the dishes and leftovers. The CEO walked over, asked if I was done, then cleared my plate and cutlery away. I was fairly new to the organization, so I searched the faces of my colleagues at the table, wondering, “Is this normal? Has this happened before?” The look of shock on the face of a director who reported directly to the CEO said it all. Her jaw dropped, she held up her hands in disbelief and shook her head slowly. Obliviously, this had never happened before. And it was a powerful, unforgettable demonstration of servant leadership in action. Now, if the CEO could do this, then every other leader of the organization could emulate it.
Weeks ago, a reader asked what attributes a project manager needs other than specific technical PM skills? Servant leadership topped my list. How does a project manager demonstrate it? There are many simple ways. On one project, there was an item on the critical path, and it all depended on one busy, yet unnoticed, low-key person performing a labourious task on a specific day. I was going to be away at a conference. So I arranged for someone else to get her favourite drink for her on that particular day. That gave her the added boost she needed to get the task done.
As a project manager, your success depends on the contribution of many indirect reports. These project team members have other daily duties competing for their time. Their perception and experience of you will impact how engaged they are and whether they will go the extra mile for you and the project. Recently I heard one person reminisce that project managers used to be kind but many of them have since retired; in the next breath, they complained that new project managers are selfish. Now that is one person’s experience in one company and I would like to believe that it is not generally true. I hope you will do your part to help create the reality of project managers as servant leaders. You will be surprised at how tiny acts of service can help lift the morale of your project team and influence the culture of your organization.
I would like to hear your thoughts. Saving Changes...
