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Project Management Leadership is a comprehensive guide outlining the essential leadership skills to manage the human side of managing projects. Key topics include; organization structures (matrix), leadership styles, delegation, motivation, negotiation, conflict resolution and team building.

 

Target Market:

• Project Managers who need to lead and manage project teams
• Team members who participate in project teams.

 

Support Material:

 

Table of Contents: 

Author’s Note: Steve Barron

The term “leadership” is being applied more frequently these days, it seems that everyone wants to become a leader.  I hope it is clear in this book that leadership is not a job title or a label that we can adopt.  Leadership is a way of being that is clear from our values, behaviours and attitudes.

I am constantly reminded about this through my dealings with people.  There are some who clearly “have it” and those who clearly do not.  I have been fortunate to have worked with a number of inspirational people that I claim are great leaders.  They have appeared at significant stages of my life and career – perhaps only significant because it is the time that they appeared.

On reflection, and hindsight provides wonderful clarity, their outstanding qualities (for me) are threefold.  Firstly, they are able to address multiple needs – delivering the task, keeping the team on purpose and, importantly for me, helping individuals.  One of my favourite metaphors for management and leadership is the juggler and this is another good example of why this metaphor works so well.  Secondly, they are good listeners with humility, prepared to spend time working to understand different points of view.  Finally, they take action and make things happen.

There are a small number of names of inspirational leaders that I can easily list them here.  I want to thank Dr Carl Loller, Peter Beckett and Steve Wilkinson for their support and guidance, it is still very much appreciated.  However, this means I have experience of many more people in leadership roles who are at best coping as managers but are more likely out of their depth.  Fortunately, we can learn about leadership and adapt our style and behaviours to become better leaders – if we want to. I hope this book is a good starting point for those embarking on this journey.

When I am in a difficult situation, I think about what one of those inspirational people would do or say at this point.  Always, this helps me to see the situation in a different way and gives me a new approach.  It is wonderful to hear their voice in my head as I imagine how they would deal with my difficult situation.  I must thank Stephen Doughty, Martin Wells and Steve Kempster for being those voices and for all their support and guidance in recent years.  They have shown me that the world is not black-and-white - it is not even shades of grey - they have helped me to see the wonderful natural colours that can illuminate inspirational leadership.

 

Author’s Note: Rory Burke

Now that the PMBOK and the APM BoK are well established, project management is starting to explore other areas of interest - and one of these is Project Management Leadership.

If you are reading this book you probably have a personal and direct interest in project management and project leadership. Project Management Leadership focuses on the leadership skills and leadership styles project managers use to manage their projects. This book is ideal for project managers who need a solid platform from which to lead and manage a project team.

There have been two major changes in the project environment in recent years which have motivated significant changes in the project manager's leadership style – namely the introduction of project teams working within a matrix organisation breakdown structure (OBS), and a general increase in the work force’s level of education and ability.

These organizational changes mean project managers may not have full line authority over the resources they need to carry out the work. Project managers must, therefore, develop negotiation and networking skills to enable them to obtain labour and equipment from the resource providers.

The other factor motivating a change in leadership style is the ability of the workforce who are now better educated, more experienced, more competent and more articulate. This greater competency has led to greater expectations and demands to have a greater say in their working environment, and they are quite prepared to question their leader’s instructions.

These two factors alone have encouraged a dramatic change from the command and control leadership style of yester year to a more participative and collaborative approach.

Project Management Leadership has been written to support courses and modules in project management leadership. The text is structured in line with the PMBOK, APM bok, Australian competency standards and the South Africa unit standards (US 120379, and US 120388-10148). The text includes plenty of examples and exercises, together with Power Point presentation slides for lecturers.

This is the fifth book in the Project Management series and complements the Entrepreneurship titles which focus on spotting opportunities and initiating new ventures, and the Project Management titles which focus on the planning and controlling projects.

Writing this book has been a joint effort with my co-author Steve Barron. Steve has done an amazing job to write his chapters while holding down a fulltime job at Lancaster University. A special thank you to Sandra Burke for setting up the book, to Kirk Phillips and Rolf Kuhnast for proof reading, to Michael Glasswell for the sketches, to Simon Larkin for the cover, and to Pieter Steyn and Steve Kempster for their inspirational forewords.