Leadership: Fundamental Attribute for Projects



Leadership: Fundamental Attribute for Projects

 

Leadership is an important attribute of people in projects. The motivations of the project team, the project's mission, leadership skills and the context within which the leadership process is exercised are highlighted. Leadership can be analyzed for tasks and for people. In the case of leadership for a set of tasks, it is possible to elect the technical leader who has the role of assisting in the guidance of the team and the project.

The leadership's first commitment is to clarity and communication is very important in this regard (ENDERSBE et al, 2014 ). Team involvement is also a key part of meeting project requirements. And consensus planning tends to be heavily implemented , especially in agile environments. Additionally, relationships with acquisitions, communication, deadlines, quality, costs, from planning to execution, tend to be strongly coupled because they are invariably carried out and understood by people.

The leader can focus on attention to tasks and less to the team ( FLEISHMAN, 1953; HALPIN & WINER, 1957). Or , on the other hand, the leader may focus more attention on staff and less on tasks. If the manager emphasizes people's needs, he must ask himself if he is getting enough productivity.

It is possible to analyze leadership grids (BLAKE & MONTON , 1978 ) in which there are levels of concern with the team and tasks. In this regard, high and low levels of concern for the team and tasks are assessed. Some analyzes can be made in contexts in which they can have the following situations: low concern for the team + low concern tasks, low concern for staff + high concern tasks, high concern for the team + low concern the tasks and finally, high concern for the team and high concern for the tasks. A single style may not work in all situations and the manager is required to adapt to the circumstances.

Another division that deserves to be analyzed is the division by needs: individual, group and task. Often the individual's need can impact the team and in this case, their needs must be subordinated to the good of the team and / or the organization (ADAIR, 2011).

Closer to the organizational structures, leadership is also related to the position that it occupies in the organization. Situations can be unfavorable when the relationship between the leader and the staff is bad, the task is not structured and the (organizational) power of the leader is insufficient (FIEDLER , 1981 ).

Another style is the bargaining process. BURNS (BURNS, 1978) argues that the range of incentives and / or threats for a leader can be limitless and is not restricted to financial rewards or sanctions. On the other hand, the use of coercive transactions can cause stress and impact on cooperation and team spirit.

In the SCRUM methodology there is the role of the team leader who is responsible for ensuring that the team is in accordance with the values, practices and rules. The leader helps the team, educates, trains, leading the team to be more productive and to develop higher quality products (SUTHERLAND, 2014).

The agile Manifesto recommends individuals and interactions more than processes and tools (SUTHERLAND et al, 2015). On the other hand, the personnel management plan (from PMBok (PMI , 2017) ) can include how and when team members will be hired or mobilized, training needs, recognition and awards, security issues and the impact of the human resources plan on the organization (PMI, 2017). Both in the agile and in the PMBok approach, the leader will often be able to interact with the team to analyze requests for changes.

Other leadership styles reflect the behavior of the leader and the team such as: servant, assertive, delegation, autocratic, directive, laissez faire, supportive and task-oriented leadership (SBOK, 2017).

For the management of the project team, the manager can also apply his knowledge of behavioral and motivational theories. The leadership style is determined by the behavior that can change according to the requirements of the project, organization and circumstances. It is up to the manager to know the leadership styles and adopt the most appropriate one. Demonstrating ethical and integrity principles can help attract people because they may feel they can trust the leader. And one of the keys to success for any project, whatever the methodology, is TRUST.

 

References

ADAIR, J. JOHN. Adair,s greatest ideias for being a brilhantt manager, Minneapolis: Capstone, 2011.

BLAKE, R. ; MOUTON, J. S. O grid gerencial. 3ª ed. São Paulo: Pioneira, 1978.

BURNS, J. M. Leadership. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1978.

ENDERSBE, T.; THERRIEN, J.; WORTMAN, J. Os três compromissos da liderança. Como a clareza, a estabilidade e o ritmo criam grandes líderes. Clio Editora, São Paulo, 2014.

FIEDLER, F. E. Liderança e Administração Eficaz. São Paulo: Pioneira: Editora da

Universidade de São Paulo, 1981.

FLEISHMAN, E. The description of supervisory behavior. Personnel Psychology, n. 37,1953.

HALPIN, A. W.; WINER, B. J. A factorial study of the leader behavior descriptions. In:

The PMBOK-PMI - Project Management Institute - Assembly Guide of Knowledge in Project Management. 6 . ed. New Square: Project Management Institute , 2017 . ISBN 9781628251845..

A Guide to the SCRUM BODY OF KNOWLEDGE (SBOK™GUIDE) 3rd Edition, SBOK, SCRUMstudy™, VMEdu, Inc. Available in: .

SUTHERLAND, JEFF. Scrum - The Art of Doing Double the Job in Half the Time. LEYA HOUSE OF WORD, 201 4.

SUTHERLAND, JEFF et al. Agile Manifesto, 2015. Available:

About the Author

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Leonard Grandinetti Chaves, MSc, PMP is a graduate and postgraduate in IT in Fumec and MSC, master’s at Computer Science from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais -UFMG. He has experience in Computer Science, focusing on Database, Geoprocessing and acting on the following subjects: EAI, XML, GML. His experience includes Project Management in private companies and government agencies. Leonardo is an instructor in several training courses organized by PMI Minas Gerais-Brazil Chapter as volunteer. He is MBA Professor at Puc Minas and Senac, and a lecturer with several publications.  He can be contacted at leonardo.grandinetti@

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