P&P641 Leadership Essay Assessment 2

Name: IMRAN KHAN

Student I.D: 18215821

Email: imi.khan1988@hotmail.com

ASSESSMENT 2 - LEADERSHIP ESSAY

Topic : Leadership in project teams

"Leadership is the art of influencing others to their maximum performance to

accomplish any task, objective or project.(Cohen 1990)
Or
"Leaders are individuals who establish direction for a working group of
individuals who gain commitment from these group of members to this
direction and who then motivate these members to achieve the direction's
outcomes.(Conger 1992)
Leadership is the act of motivating others to do your work or a common goal of team
or organisation. Some people define leader as a person who directs other people or
who give guidance .while others define leader is a person who motivate a group of
people to achieve a goal. But a good leader is the one who ensures that the group
achieves the targeted goal if not, then motivates them to achieve the desired goal.
From the past, there are many theories and styles regarding leadership which has
refined it to make better leaders. Leaders are important in every work wether its
project, company, business, leading a nation or country. In the end it all depends how
good a leader is. There are some qualities which makes a better leader e.g.
communication, confidence, commitment, sense of humour, creativity, motivation,
honest and etc."Leadership is an attempt at influencing the activities of
followers through the communication process and toward the attainment of
some goal or goals.(Donelly 1985). Leadership is crucial in project teams because
lack of leadership has been identified as the top obstacle in projects success rate.
Leaders define goals to team and share their vision about the goal, inspire them and
shows them the benefits upon its completion to motivate them and if there is some
difficulty they dont stuck but have solution ready for it.
There are many styles and theories about leadership but the one which proven to be
most successful was Psychologist Kurt Lewin styles of leadership in the 1930s,
which provided the foundation for many others to follow it. The three main styles of
leadership are as follows.
Autocratic leadership: In this styles the team leader is alone making all the
decisions without getting any advice from the team members even if their
advise can be useful for task completion. Leaders use this on very rare
occasion specially when they know every detail about the project task, short
on time, does not want anything to get in their task completion. But this style

can create many problems at work specially demoralizing the workers in

team because their participation is not anticipated and are strictly ordered to
follow the work instruction which lowers their work morale and some time
leaders misunderstood this style and becomes bossy and arrogant which is
the number one reason for this style to be use only in rare cases when time
is limited, need to make quick decisions and you are aware of the task fully
and does not need any advice in completing it.the second style is Democratic
leaders: In this style final decision is made by the leader. However, the
leader includes the other team members before making final decisions. This
style encourages the team members creativity which results in higher job
satisfaction and high productivity. This style can be use as a tool for
motivating team in projects that their ideas and advises are acknowledged by
the leader which builds confidence and energy while doing the project task.
This style comes handy when time is not the issue for the leader because it
consumes time when sharing ideas and then finalizing them but it keeps up
the morale of them team all the time.
Laissez-faire: in this style of leadership the leader gives the power to subordinates
to make decision themselves. However, leader gives support to them with advise
and resources if they needed otherwise they dont interfere. Team members get a lot
of freedom for doing their work and setting deadlines for task completion. This style
is successful when the team members are fully aware of what they are doing and
have the proper skills to complete the task in required time because in the end
leader will be responsible for the failure. This style can only be adapted if the leader
knows very well about his/her team capabilities, skills and level of work else it can be
disastrous for the leader for example if a worker is responsible for a certain task
under time limit but he does not have the skills to complete it then it will be
troublesome for the team leader because in the end it will be his responsibility that
why the task was not completed in given time period.
There are also two types of approaches which leaders can use in their work for
maximum work productivity. One is positive approach and second one is negative
approach. Positive approach leaders uses different types of rewards for their project
team upon completion of certain task like independence, education, cash, bonuses,
vacations and etc to motivate them and get maximum productivity of work on time.
Second approach is negative some leaders think or have the philosophy that if they
enforce or set punishment for workers like pay deduction or termination from job
upon late task completion will get them high work production but this approach does
not give them more work production rather their workers morale is down, they get
scare or even leave the work because in this type of situation they cannot perform at
their maximum level as they are mentally tortured or threaded from the leader.
"Leadership (according to John Sculley) revolves around vision, ideas,
direction, and has more to do with inspiring people as to direction and goals
than with day-to-day implementation. A leader must be able to leverage more

than his own capabilities. He must be capable of inspiring other people to do

things without actually sitting on top of them with a checklist.(Bennis 1989)
A good leader cannot only depend upon styles or different approaches only but to
lead a project team that leader must also have some good qualities to lead the team.
A leader must have excellent communication skills to coordinate well with his project
team at all levels so that the vision or goal he wants to share with his team can be
delivered exactly as the original goal with any changes. Leader must be passionate
and show dedication towards his work is such a way that should be consider as
source of inspiration for the team members so that they can be get motivation from
leader actions. According to Transformational leadership theory of organisational
behaviour which discusses the leaders behaviours to inspire followers to high levels
of performance and motivation. A good leader must also be confident and honest
even when sharing his goal or vision with the team and setting directions for the goal
with confidence. Such quality leader build the relation of trust among team members
and best efforts in completing the task. In order to enhance further work productivity
and quality work, a leader must be committed with his team when making promises
like some party after work or bonuses he promised for quality work or even get down
to the field with workers and show practical examples.

Leadership and project teams are interrelated with each other means both must be
balanced from each sides for maximum and quality work production. Path-goal
theory and contingency theory of organisational behaviour also emphasises on
leadership styles according to organizational conditions, and subordinate personality,
If a leader can adopt multiple styles and then combine them into a unique style
according to project work situations and using his leadership skills, qualities with
positive attitude towards his project team members, he can attain quality work from
his team members because that leader is the light of guidance for them and the
source of inspiration which keeps them motivated all the time while working and puts
their maximum efforts in completing the task. A good leader is like a shining star in
absolute darkness for the team members because they will blindly follow that path of
light as they have their faith and trust in that light which will take them to their
destination.

Discuss how this topic is relevant for project managers

Leadership is one of the crucial skill of a project manager which he must have in
order to complete project. A project is a unique product or service to be completed in
a define time period and project managers uses the tools, skills and techniques to
complete the project. Mostly project managers are closely related in completing
processes like planning, budgeting, executing and etc to complete the project while
on the other hand leaders are responsible to lead people to complete a milestone or
task to achieve the goal. But to be a good project manager he must have leadership
skill. Without leadership skill, even if a project manager have all the latest tools,
techniques and certification this alone cannot make him outclass from others he
must possess strong leadership skill in order to communicate well with teams which
will work on the project, understand their personality and their levels of skills that
how much they are capable of so that work load can given to them according to their
capability. Also for successful meetings again a good leadership skill becomes
handy, only on explaining a chart or process will not make a meeting successful.
Leadership skill is gain and polished with years of practical experiences. Reading
only books or certification will not allow you to gain the valuable skill of leadership.
PMBOK Appendix G, also emphasises on particular interpersonal skills which a
project manager must have to be effective in their role is Leadership, Team building,
Motivation, Communication, Influencing, Decision making, Political and cultural
awareness, Negotiation.(Institute 2008). According to PMBOK project managers
closely work on the following work groups in order to complete a project.

Initiating

Planning

Executing

Monitoring and Controlling

Closing
But that does not mean project managers only work complete processes using tools
and techniques only because good project managers are also good leaders. Without
leadership in project teams mostly project fails because a project manager can
spend huge amount of money in buying the latest tools to plan the project in the end
leadership is the skill which will be required to complete those tasks by directing
teams in proper direction to achieve desire goals. Without leadership skills it is
impossible to complete a project solely depending on tools and techniques. By using
the leadership skills a project managers set examples by doing work himself in the
field not just doing bossy things and only orders people around. He becomes the
inspiration for team and motivates them to complete the project with quality on time.
That aside if we do some comparison project managers and project leaders do have

some differences. When working on large projects. Project managers cannot always
be present on the field for source of inspiration thats when good leadership is
needed to get the team on track. Project managers focuses on goals and objectives
of the project which has to be executed how and when while project team leader
focuses on what is the vision of the project and why it has to be done. Project
managers deals with maintaining, administrating, directing and controlling the project
on the other hand project team leader concentrates on the development of task,
innovation in work to make work more smoother, inspiration to raise morale of team
members and motivating people to keep up their morale high even if they accidently
makes mistakes while work, the leader laughs it off so that worker morale never
goes down or he feels low and make him believes that he can do better than this.
Project manager avoids risks but leader will take risk in order to enhance the work
productivity. Project managers oversee the organisation and its structure and project
leaders focuses on people of the team. Project managers also emphasise on
consistency in work on the other hand leaders gives flexibility to their team members
while completing a task.

To conclude this, a good project manager is the one who do the things right
and a good project leader do the right thing. But upon mastering the skills of
leadership a project manager surpasses his own capacity and sits on the top
level of project manager. Because now he has all the tools, techniques,
qualities and certification of an excellent project manager in order to
complete any level of project even if it has high level of complexity. When
dealing with international level complex projects, he has to face people from
different backgrounds, cultural, society and nations. At this time only
explaining them paper work will not grab their attention. You need to be a
great leader to inspire them with your personality of a true leader who has
dedication and passion for his work and can communicate with people
efficiently of all levels to deliver the clear picture or sketch what is in the
mind of a project manager.

Total words count : 2175 both task A and B.

References:
Bass, Bernard M. BASS & STOGDILL'S Handbook of Leadership THEORY,
RESEARCH, AND MANAGERIAL APPLICATIONS Third Edition. THE FREE PRESS.
Bennis, Warren. On Becoming a Leader . Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1989.
Cohen, William A. The Art of the Leader. prentice hall, 1990.
Conger, J.A. Learning to Lead. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992.
Donelly, J.H. & Ivancevich, J. M. & Gibson, J.L. Organizations: behavior, structure,
processes 5th Ed. : (1985 p362.) . Plano,TX: Business Publications Inc, 1985.
Institute, Project Management. A Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 4th Edition . 2008.
Maxwell, J.C. Business Leadership: A Jossey-Bass reader. San Francisco: JosseyBass, 2005.
Maxwell, John C. The 360 Degree Leader Participant Guide. Maximum Impact,
2006.
Parsaie, Houman John. PROJECT MANAGERS HANDBOOK. Bloomington IN:
Iuniverse, 2002.
taylor, james. a survival guide for project managers 2nd edition. newyork:
AMACOM, 2006.
Turner, J. Rodney. THE HANDBOOK OF PROJECT BASED MANAGEMENT. 2009.
Yukl, Gary A. Leadership in Organisations 6th edition. Prentice Hall, 2006.

Project And People

MarkingguideforAssessment2:LeadershipEssay(40%)
Name_____________________________________________
Mark/40

1. Summarise the key themes from the literature

- 60%

/24

Clear and coherent writing style

Use of critical thinking skills such as compare and contrast and putting
things into a context evident
Level of analysis
Writer demonstrates a good understanding of the topic
Research well integrated into the essay
Use of OB theories/models/concepts
Comments:

2. Discuss how this topic is relevant for project managers 30%

/12

Clear and coherent writing style

Use of critical thinking skills such as compare and contrast and putting
things into a context evident
Level of analysis
Relevance to project management is well done
Research well integrated into the essay
Use of OB theories/models/concepts
Comments:

3. Academic merit and clarity of writing 10%

/4

Clear and concise Introduction and Conclusion;

Use of appropriate literature;
Chicago referencing as per Curtin University Library Guidelines;
Good logical sequence of argument
Within word limit

 Structure, grammar, spelling, etc.

Comments: