![]()
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Besides the traditional project management methodologies, tools, and techniques, leadership skills, which can be also called the human side or soft skills, have been widely accepted as a pivotal factor in the success of projects. There are usually two types of leaders in project management teams. One is the directive-managing, task-orientated leader, and the other is the non-directive, human-relation-orientated leader. Actually, especially in the latter situation, many project managers do not have real authority over their team members, which makes human side skills a key part of their work. Unfortunately, it is difficult for the project managers in such a situation to find an effective approach to successfully lead their project team.
Mullins (1996) defined leadership as a relationship through which one person influences the behavior of other people. A project leader must have the ability to learn, adapt, and overcome new problems through the sharing of experiences, questions, and solutions with other project members. Good leadership skills can help the project leader to liberate energies and capabilities of a project team greater than those of the sum of the individual members. With leadership skills, a project leader, who is responsible for group efficiency improvement, is able to understand how much the group efficiency arises and to capture it sequentially, immediately, and correctly.
The leadership skills of project leaders are different from those of enterprise leaders. The characteristics of a project—such as new colleagues, unclear framework, project context, etc.—usually adversely affect the group efficiency and the performance of the project leader. This leads to the fact that, although unacceptable, any research and experience of leadership skills for enterprise management cannot be directly employed for project management.
Therefore, building a body of knowledge of leadership skills for project leaders needs further study.
Nowadays, many projects no longer operate the business solely in the domestic markets. Consequently, the project leader has to deal with the individual situations of other countries, which makes the soft skills of the project leader extremely important for international projects. In the last 12 months we conducted research funded by PMI to identify the soft skills for project leaders in the Chinese context. The research plan is shown in the following chart:
On the basis of previous studies, this research has drawn on a systematic study that is helpful in building the body of knowledge regarding leadership skills of project leaders with specific reference to the Chinese context. The stages of our research include literature review, investigation and interview, theory analysis, experiment design, data collection, data processing, etc. The findings of this research will be generally applicable to a wide variety of projects and industries, and will address leadership skills needed not only in projects that are in trouble, but also in those that are running smoothly. The main objectives of this research are as follows:
- To find out the main factors that cause unsuccessful leadership of project leaders
- To find out the main factors that cause successful leadership of project leaders
- To find out the main factors that influence project team performance
- To find out the necessary characteristics and traits for a project leader
- To find out the main leadership skills for the project leaders to successfully lead a project team
- To build an assessment framework for selecting project leaders.
![]()
CHAPTER 2
Related Research
We spent two months accomplishing the first stage of our research—literature review. Shown in Figure 2-1, the literature review about leadership skills includes four parts: the concept of leadership; the leadership characteristics, traits, and behaviors; the leadership-related organizational performance; and the literature directly related to the human skills of leadership.
2.1 The Concept of Project Leadership
The concept of leadership can be traced back to the primitive age. The development of human civilization has always involved leadership, which is perhaps why there are so many definitions of it. Jago (1982) defined leadership as the use of non-coercive influence to direct the activities of the members of an organized group toward the accomplishment of group objectives. He described leadership in the context of a “set of qualities or characteristics attributed to those who are perceived to successfully employ such influence.”
Leadership is not the equivalent to management. Davis (1967) distinguished between leadership and management by claiming that leadership is part of management, but is not all of it. Leadership is the ability to persuade others to seek defined objectives enthusiastically. It is the human factor that binds a group together and motivates it toward goals. Management activities such as planning, organizing, and decision-making are dormant cocoons until the leader triggers the power of motivation in people and guides them toward a goal. Pointed out by McGregor (1960), there are four major variables related to leadership: (1) characteristics of the leader; (2) the attitude, needs, and other personal characteristics of the followers; (3) characteristics of the organization, such as its purpose, its structure, and the nature of the tasks to be performed; and (4) the social, economical, and political milieu. Leadership is not a property of the individual, but a complex relationship among these variables.
Due to the special nature of project management, project leadership is not equal to enterprise leadership. Comparing it to enterprise management, Cleland (1995) pointed out that the leader of a project team has some additional challenges: (1) providing leadership throughout a cross-functional and cross-organizational environment as the multiple “stakeholders” become involved in the team effort; (2) operating without documented formal authority over the team members, who may report, in a traditional authority-responsibility relationship, to their function managers; and (3) working in a “matrix” organizational design, which, because of its 2D structure, raises question relating to “unity of command” and “parity of responsibility,” which are two venerated principles in management theory.
According to these principles, Cleland (1995) suggested that project leadership is defined as a presence and a process carried out within an organizational role that assumes responsibility for the needs and rights of those people who choose to follow the leader in accomplishing project results.
2.2 Leadership Characteristics, Traits, and Leadership Behavior
Thousands of research studies have explored leadership characteristics and traits. In all these studies, there is a common conclusion that the desirable traits of leaders should include physical factors, abilities, personalities, intelligence, knowledge, dominance, and self-confidence, etc. The leadership characteristics and traits are reflected by leadership behavior.
In discussing leadership behavior, we can first turn to the famous “Vital Dozen Rules for Project Managers” concluded by Meredith and Mantel (2000). These rules include:
- Understand the problems, opportunities, and expectations of a project manager;
- Recognize that project teams will have conflicts, but that this is a natural part of group development;
- Understand who the stakeholders are and what their agendas are;
- Realize that organizations are very political, and use politics to your advantage;
- Realize that project management is “leader-intensive,” but that you must be flexible;
- Understand that project success is defined by four components: budget, schedule, performance criteria, and customer satisfaction;
- Realize that you must build a cohesive team by being a motivator, coach, cheerleader, peacemaker, and conflict resolver;
- Notice that your team will develop attitudes based on the emotions that you exhibit—both positive and negative;
- Always ask “what-if” questions, and avoid becoming comfortable with the status of the project;
- Do not get bogged down in minutiae and lose sight of the purpose of the project;
- Manage your time efficiently;
- Above all, plan, plan, plan.
On the base of the “Vital Dozen Rules for Project Managers,” we can classify leadership behavior into different types. Bass (1990) claimed that a transformational leader should possess characteristics including “charismatic,” “inspirational,” “intellectually stimulating,” and “considerate.” “Charismatic” leaders behave in such a way that they act as role models who are admired, respected, and trusted by their team members. “Inspirational” leaders motivate and inspire team members by providing meaning and challenge to their work. “Intellectually simulating” leaders stimulate their team members to be innovative and creative by questioning assumptions, reframing problems, and approaching old situations in new ways. “Considerate” leaders pay special attention to each individual’s needs for achievement and growth by acting as a coach and mentor. These research studies have classified leadership into different types and clarified the relationship between leadership style and project situation.
Cheung, Ng, Lam, and Yue (2001) classified leadership into five different types. In addition to the four types previously mentioned, “participative” has also been regarded as a leadership behavior. “Participative” leaders encourage participation from team members through appropriate delegation, value, and rew...
