It was written by Nick Saunders, a Project Officer. It was edited by Evalyne Githinji, a Policy and Strategy Lead in Adult Social Care; and George Beesley, a Junior Project Manager.

Projects are delivered through methods and frameworks: but they depend upon people working together. That means the success of any project requires able leaders.

The Association for Project Management (APM), the UK’s professional body, defines leadership as “the ability to establish vision and direction, to influence and align others towards a common purpose, and to empower and inspire people to achieve success”.

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So how do project managers demonstrate leadership while handling the day-to-day business of keeping their projects on track? Recall that from week 1 that scope, schedule, cost, risk, quality, and resources are the six key aspects of project management. In this article, I’ll demonstrate how project managers can draw upon leadership attributes at each stage of implementing a project management plan (PMP) We’ll also see that the most successful leaders deploy other people skills too, such as emotional intelligence, adaptability, and development.

Vision and direction

A PMP “establishes vision and direction” at the beginning of a project. However, as unexpected challenges arise and contexts change, the project manager needs to be adaptable and willing to change the schedule as required. As your understanding of the project improves, you may also need to redefine your project’s scope.

Adaptability has become even more important during the 2020s. During the Covid-19 pandemic, as restrictions to control the spread of the virus changed, I needed to adapt both the vision (scope) and the direction (schedule) of the support that I have helped to deliver to my colleagues.

Influence and align

The PMP also covers the resources needed for a project. For many in the public sector, the most important resources are likely to be people. Here, the PMP seeks to influence each member of the project team by outlining their responsibilities, roles and reporting lines. The PMP also aligns people by mapping the connections and dependencies between the work of different team members, or it might spell out the ways that the team will come together to deliver the project.

If you, as the project manager, want to influence others and successfully align your team behind a project, you also need to show emotional intelligence. This will allow you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your team. You can use this understanding to allocate responsibilities to team members and to determine the actions that you need to take as a leader. For example, project teams move through different stages of development. At each stage of development, different actions are needed to align the team. Therefore, if you have a better understanding of your team and its development, you will be more capable of bringing the team together.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, project managers haven’t been able to meet their teams in person to achieve alignment. Effective virtual teamwork also requires emotional intelligence. It depends on good communication, the ability to build connections, and an awareness of potential conflict. You will also learn more about emotional intelligence in the next week of this boot camp.

Empower and inspire

Project managers will often lead cross-functional teams, especially when they work in large public sector organisations This means that the specialisms of the project manager and the team could be different. As a result of this, the project manager may not always have a complete understanding of the work of their team and they may have less direct involvement with the outputs of the project. This makes the leadership skills of the project manager, and specifically their ability to empower others, especially important.

There are a number of ways that the PMP helps the project manager to empower others. First, it prompts the project manager to assess and mitigate against risks. Risks can become a threat to the success of the project. Therefore, assessing and mitigating risks empowers others - it helps them to respond to threats and to achieve success. Second, the PMP sets expectations about quality, and this can encourage team members to achieve higher standards of work. Third, the strategy section of the PMP can empower others by giving them the tools they need to succeed; these could include processes and document templates.

However, empowering others is also dependent upon people skills. For example, the project manager can create a conducive environment for creativity. When colleagues trust each other, the project manager can step back where appropriate, meaning that their specialised, cross-functional team is empowered to succeed. Personal and professional development is also important – over time, the manager can learn more about their team and their specialisms. This may allow the manager to take a more active approach to empowering their team.

We’ve discussed how a PMP can support project managers to show leadership: establishing a vision, influencing others and aligning their work, and empowering and inspiring people around you. But a strong set of people skills are also imperative for your success as a leader. While the PMP is very important, documentation will not be enough to inspire a team to success. This responsibility rests with the project manager, and success is often determined by effective communication.— Nick Saunders

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