Behavioral Aspects of Project Management

The leader must be sure to take the group dynamics into consideration. It is important to make everyone involved feel that their needs are important. For the project to be a success, everyone participating must feel as if they are contributing and that they are being valued equally.

According to Kotter (1990), “Leadership seeks to produce organizational change by: developing a vision of the future and strategies for making necessary changes; communicating and explaining the vision, and motivating and inspiring people to attain the vision.”

Three factors define the success of any project; these are time, cost, and quality (Wysocki and RK 2013: 4). This paper identifies three main facets of project management that were inappropriately implemented, namely; Resourcing, Stakeholder Management, and Risk Management and how their improper implementation led to the violation of the three constraints (i.e. time, cost, and quality).

My definition of Leadership has changed so much over the years...I once believed that being a leader is JUST being in charge of people and that you are able to get whatever you want. But as I grew older, I know that leadership is caring for your peers, being able to handle responsibility, and guiding others the right way. When you are leading a project and everyone is looking at you...You need to be the person that is honest with others and is able to own up to their mistakes by fixing them. Guide them to do the right thing with you as their role model.

According to Vance Packard, leadership appears to be the art of getting others to want to do something that you are convinced should be done (Lewis, 2003). Leadership is a pertinent part of project management. James Lewis (2003) says leadership is not a position; it’s the ability to gain commitment from people. According to Professor Warren G. Bennis, “Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right”. The importance of leadership in a project is demonstrated in the case study, “A Peaceful Evacuation: Building a Multi-Project Team Battalion by Leading Upward”. This case study involves two leaders, who had similar, but mostly, different

Consequently, it is a privilege to lead, however it is critical for leaders to remember that they were not always leaders; a good leader would acquire empathy. It is also important that once the leader ask the supervisee to take on a project, to check up on the supervisee periodically to gather how the project is coming to fruition

The project manager has almost total authority over the members of her team in the projectized structure. She makes assignments and directs team members’ task efforts; she controls the project budget; she conducts team members’ performance assessments and approves team members’ raises and bonuses; and she approves annual leave.

Project managers play the leading role in the project management process: They are accountable for the completion and delivery of projects. They create an atmosphere of teamwork and collaboration in which a defined goal can be achieved in a controlled and structured manner by a group of people. Project managers manage projects on a day-to-day basis, maintain a continuous focus on moving projects toward their defined objective, drive the decision-making process and execute milestones according to plan

A good leader led his team to improve their skills in order to achieve the goals, as Lafaste stated “as a leader, you must be able to relate to the team and earn their respect and loyalty to the goal. This cannot be accomplished by being a dictator and micro-managing the team and the members. A leader must manage and master the core competencies”. Once again, I can point the role of the Project Manager, leading and motivating, not solving the problems but being sure that the problems are solved, by his team.

Also critical to the development of an effective quality management strategy is the insertion of leadership with the ability to working within and lead a project team.

Leadership is about creating a vision for that function and gaining peoples commitment by strategic direction.

“The leadership is the desire to make the change, willingness to encourage others to accept you to make the change. So, a leader has a version how things should be and a leader cannot make those change by self, ”said Mr.Licata, “so you need support from others and to earn these support you need able to listen, take criticism and make a decision you think will benefit everyone.”

Without leadership, a team lacks direction and cohesion. Leadership is there to solve challenges associated with teamwork and to insure the attainment of the main objective of the team effort. Leadership reduces the risks associated with a project. This happens because the person or team providing direction for the project do not get involved in detailed implementation freeing them to see the big picture from which they identify and reduce or eliminate risks. Leadership increasingly means the difference between a successful project and a failed one despite the availability of resources. This is because of the role leadership plays in the effective allocation of resources to achieve the projects objectives.

Leadership is a construct used to define the relationship between leaders and followers including the skills and behaviors that make an effective leader. Transformational leadership is an approach to leadership that focuses on the emotional and social interaction with followers; it is categorized as being influential, inspirational, and intellectually stimulating. (PSU, L1, P5.). Transformational leadership is the desired approach to being an effective leader. Like any skill, the way to obtain and improve them is through a development process. Leadership development requires an understanding of human nature, including personalities, ethics, and motivations. At its core, leadership is about human interaction between leaders and

Project Human Resource Management – identification of project team and assigning roles and responsibilities to each task.