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1. Does leadership have significant influence in the working of project management technique?

2. What sought of leadership in needed in resource management and project scheduling?

3. Does leadership influence team collaboration and timely delivery of a long-term project?

Leadership and Project Management Literature Review

Many scholars have researched and written about leadership in project management. Aga, Noorderhaven and Vallejo are some of the scholars who studied project management, according to them leadership is the one that determines the operation of the project. A project may have everything but when it lacks good leadership it flops. A leader uses knowledge to ensure that there is team spirit. For the leader to meet this, all the people should work together in the organization. People should share ideas and tolerate each other. Workers should have unity of purpose, are supposed to be united in the operations (Aga et al., 2016). A leader must ensure the togetherness of the workers in working towards common goals.

Aga et al. (2016), insists that building a team always impacts positively a project, when there is teamwork all operations flow smoothly. For instance, when a person is absent or sick other fellow workers steps in willingly. A united team will take responsibility for every happening in the organization. A leader who builds team spirit eliminates instances of blame games which act as barriers for a project to succeed. Besides, leaders who emphasize team spirit create a conducive environment that is liked by all workers. In this reference, employees work tirelessly to fulfill the goals of a project at hand (Aga et al. (2016).

Mazzetto is also one of the scholars who extensively discuss leadership in project management. Mazzetto argues that leaders should bring together all the departments in project implementation to realize high output. For him, he believes that the success of every organization depends on how different departments collaborate to ensure the efficiency of the work (Mazzetto, 2019). When interdisciplinary complement each other a challenging task is handled with ease since different experts come together to provide technical knowledge necessary for the job.

According to Mazzetto (2019), when different departments work as one they offer alternative ways of approaching the task. A manager who adopts different approaches to handling a problem is what brings the difference in the implementation of projects. Managers that bring different discipline together is assured of getting adequate and varied skills to tackle any challenges that come because of technicalities in the implementing the project. Also, interdepartmental unity eliminates negative traits that hinder the operation of an organization like unhealthy competition in the departments (Mazzetto, 2019).

Cunningham, Salomone&Wielgus (2015), deliberates on the leadership of projects. Basing on the research and evidence documented, for a leader to manage well, styles of leadership must be observed. Cunningham et al. (2015), suggests that a leader should provide coaching by making frequently engaging people, creating an understanding environment, and emphasizing with employees. The success of the organization is dependent on coaching style because through this method workers are reached out to give personal opinions that are of great help in management. A leader who understands the problems of other people makes them love the job and will do their best to improve in every sphere of work.

Fiaz, Su and Saqib (2017), states that for a manager to realize the goals of an organization, democratic leadership should be practiced. In project management, a manager gathers information from the workers to come up with a conclusion. By employing this method, every worker feels valued because of their contributions to management. This style of leadership is effective since people implement policies because are part and parcel of the employees (Fiaz, Su &Saqib, 2017). The democratic method allows workers from the lower rank to exercise authority. This gives them a chance to practice what to do in the future.

However, Cunningham et al. (2015), holds that for a project to be executed on time, the leader should adopt autocratic leadership. This is contrary to the democratic method because a manager comes up with decisions without consulting employees. According to the writers, many people discourage this method but it is an effective method in project management because it saves time taken for a manager to take inputs of every member (Cunningham et al., 2015). When a manager makes the correct decision, it is implemented faster leading to the success of the organization without wasting time. The autocratic approach saves on money and time needed for to the project to go through.

Empirical evidence by Cunningham et al.(2015) shows that many projects have made strides as result of laissez-faire leadership. Laissez-faire leadership is giving workers the freedom to exploit their methods in achieving specific goals. Human beings don’t want supervision all the time, therefore, leaving them to work on their own increases effectiveness because employees exploit unique approaches to deal with a situation. For example, this leadership style worked well in a team of programmers during the development of feature-driven software. Freedom was accorded to the programmers and eventually, feature-driven software was developed.

Shenhar is a renowned writer who majored in strategic project leadership. In his work, he emphasizes the need for a manager to motivate and inspire workers to achieve success in the projects. The leader should inspire the workers by instilling success in the mind. Should communicate in a way that touches people’s minds to make workers think of success every time. The manager must serve as an example for people to emulate. Also, a leader should strive to motivate workers; the goals of the project are achieved if the workers are motivated. Motivation is done in many ways like praising individual workers who have done well and giving prizes to the employees who are exemplary in their areas (Shenhar, 2015).

A project needs a leader who approaches ideas basing on the industry. The leader should know the trends in the industrial environment and align the goals of a project in line with the trends. The leader should be dynamic and flexible by changing the approach to issues and also the objectives of the project to fit in the ever-changing nature of business (Shenhar, 2015). Besides, it enables the manager to identify any opportunities and threats that affect the project. A manager uses these mechanisms to reflect on the present and future situations of a project. These assist leaders to avoid obsolete projects.

 Coordination is fundamental for a project to bear fruits. According to Mazzetto (2019), it requires strong leadership for an organization to achieve this. A leader must put everything that is needed together to ensure smooth operation. A project has different components that should come together to enhance the viability of the project. If there is inconsistency in the operation the manager should intervene and put everything on track. The leader should oversee the working of different departments, control the flow of activities and lastly, ensure everything is working as expected (Mazzetto, 2019).

Aga et al. (2016), discusses communication in project management. Communication is vital in every management including project management. In the organization there many levels of people that are reached through communication to accelerate operations in different departments. A leader is therefore needed to adopt effective means of communicating to people to ensure the success of the idea. The manager should adopt social platforms like WhatsApp in communication. Videoconferencing should is also an alternative. A manager should choose a convenient method of communicating to save on time and resources (Aga et al., 2016). Communication dictates the achievement of the project.

The leader should keep the project on the right track. Basing on Aga et al. (2016), the manager should bring everybody on board to draft the right objectives of the project. Thereafter, the leader mobilizes employees to fulfil the stated goals. To ensure this, the leader provides the necessary resources needed to accomplish the task. Activities of the workers are vetted because not all employees stick to the plan outlined in the project. For instance, an employee in New York used the company’s track to transport heroin. The manager must oversee major operations to realize the goals. 

Müller, Packendorff&Sankaran are known scholars because of their work labeled “A new perspective for leadership in organizational project management”. According to arguments, delegation is an integral part of leadership. Leaders need to give work to the juniors because they cannot monitor all operations at the same time. Those given jobs by the managers should give regular feedback. A manager that delegates the work creates an optimal environment for the project to be executed (Müller et al., 2017). The authors insist “leaders do not need to be formal” should give out some of the leadership duties to other people for the success of the project. 

The difference in implementation of the projects swings around the experience and competency of the leaders in charge. According to Maqbool et al. (2017), managers with adequate knowledge and skills are successful in the projects compared to their counterparts who inexperienced. Experienced managers use experiences to handle different situations accordingly. This is seen in the way they handle human resources and putting logistics in place. Competent managers never fail in the project. Leaders use skills obtained from training to formulate strategies that enhance the organization to implement its project effectively (Maqbool et al., 2017).

Leaders should communicate to the stakeholders the mind of the project an organization is undertaking. Stakeholders are important people who are given first-hand information before the implementation of the project. The project proposed convinces them to fund it or not. The leader must explain the importance of the project to the stakeholders to get needed support (Maqbool et al., 2017). If the manager receives the backing of stakeholders the project finds an easy way of thriving. Also, the manager should link well the employees with the stakeholders to make milestones in the leadership. The success of the project depicts the kind of leader in the organization.

According to Maqbool et al. modeling in leadership is paramount for the success of a company. Leaders direct many people in the organization who look up to the leader in everything. A manager who wants to achieve the success of a project must be a good role model. Leaders need to behave well by coming to work early, establishing good relationships between workers, and exercising integrity. Workers follow keenly and copy what a leader does; therefore leaders need to lay a strong foundation in terms of behaviors for the organization to move to the step. Role modeling should be outstanding in every leader because people learn through observing other people’s behavior.

Leaders should take risks in the management, especially in the project execution. Managers need to use dynamic knowledge to come with certain projects. The manager pursues projects that are feared by their counterparts. In most cases, risks are transformed into benefits when all goes as expected. A risk-taking manager excels in a difficult situation when the businesses have gone down (Maqbool et al., 2017). However, the manager also needs to foster resilience because every risk does not give positive feedback. In case things have not gone as expected, the leader should assist workers and stakeholders to cope with the reality. This assists them not to slip into depression rather it encourages them to proceed on working on the project.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Managers should formulate leadership that all members are subscribed to. Employees are attracted to an appealing vision, so the leader should ensure a good vision that binds the workers. Managers need to share future information about the organization to draw workers' attention. Apart from that, workers should be motivated to achieve what a manager envisions. Indeed a good vision attracts the customers and workers to the organization and eventually, the company implements all its projects (Müller et al., 2017). Although, there many things considered in a project leadership plays an important role in the achievement of the goals.

References

Aga, D. A., Noorderhaven, N., & Vallejo, B. (2016). Transformational leadership and project success: The mediating role of team-building. International Journal of Project Management, 34(5), 806-818.

Cunningham, J., Salomone, J., &Wielgus, N. (2015). Project management leadership style: A team member perspective. International Journal of Global Business, 8(2).

Fiaz, M., Su, Q., &Saqib, A. (2017). Leadership styles and employees' motivation: Perspective from an emerging economy. The Journal of Developing Areas, 51(4), 143-156.

Maqbool, R., Sudong, Y., Manzoor, N., & Rashid, Y. (2017). The impact of emotional intelligence, project managers’ competencies, and transformational leadership on project success: An empirical perspective. Project Management Journal, 48(3), 58-75.

Mazzetto, S. (2019).A practical, multidisciplinary approach for assessing leadership in project management education. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education.

Müller, R., Packendorff, J., &Sankaran, S. (2017). Balanced leadership: A new perspective for leadership in organizational project management. Cambridge handbook of organizational project management.

Shenhar, A. (2015). What is strategic project leadership?. Open Economics and Management Journal, 2(1).