Project Leadership in Project Management Assignment

Running head: PROJECT LEADERSHIP IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
PROJECT LEADERSHIP IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Course Id

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Self Development Plan....................................................................................................................3
Development Plan............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
This report provides an overview on the significance of project leadership in the project
management area. Project leadership is basically an act of leading the team towards successful or
effective completion of the project (Ahmed et al., 2013). It is a kind of project organization in
which its main competence is effective controlling of a project. It is generally represented by a
project leader who controls the whole project and may involve subproject managers in case of
bigger projects. The main objective of project leadership is to achieve the target within the
specified time by fulfilling all objectives. It is a highly complex procedure that is vital for
success of project management. The project leaders play a vital role in managing and achieving
success in project. The project leaders basically try to enhance development procedure in the
business decision making. In the present century, project leadership not only helps to manage the
project in effective way but also helps to cope up with several competitive challenges. Project
leadership affects on enhancing project management practices for reducing complexity as well as
uncertainty linked with the project pursuit (Martinelli & Milosevic, 2016).
Strategic project leadership is needed for dealing with administrative projects. Strong
leadership along with weak management leads to ineffective outcome of the project. Now- a-
days, project leadership not only focuses on time as well as budget but also takes into account
customers requirements, present market trends and the competitive advantage for managing
project strategically. The essence in project leadership is to concentrate on empowering
employees in order to create business environment for efficient performance. This study focuses
on the instrumental values that contributes to project leadership, weakness that affects the ability
to lead individuals and the leadership skills that contributes to project leadership practice

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(DuBois et al., 2013). The development plan for working towards the goals of project leadership
capabilities is also outlined in this study.
Self Development Plan
Personal Assessment
a) Two instrumental values that contributes to project leadership
Instrumental values refer to the particular behavioral methods by which an individual
achieves the target of a project. Instrumental values based leadership basically implements their
influence for making difference through alignment of actions as well as decisions with the
chosen values (Packendorff, Crevani & Lindgren, 2014). Moreover, values often affect the
perceptions of a leader regarding enterprise and societal success. There are several instrumental
values that contribute to the success of a project. The two most instrumental values which
contribute to my project leadership are integrity and innovativeness.
Integrity means the adherence to ethical as well as moral principles and honesty of an
individual. It is one of the important values that a leader is required to have for leading a
project. . It has been opined by Laufer (2012) that, the authenticity is one of the basic building
blocks in the project leadership. Authentic project leaders are mainly the individuals who have
extraordinary integrity and are willing to maintain their key values. Integrity contributes to my
project leadership in huge way by facilitating the project leaders to focus on their actions during
their work. Integrity helps to maintain consistency in behavior and attitude while having a
conversation with the team members. However, proper behavior and dedication towards honesty
with the team members also helps to build good relationship with them. Apart from this, it also
connotes deep commitment for taking appropriate action regardless of any individuals influence

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and circumstances. It also aids to establish good ethical policies and also implement these in the
project processes. Besides this, integrity values also facilitate to provide clear view about the
client’s true requirements and work according to their preferences (Eweje, Turner & Müller,
2012). This in turn also seeks in empowering individuals in order to contribute to client’s vision.
As a result, it helps to attain trust of their clients and acquire more projects in business.
Innovativeness value is another instrumental value that has huge contribution to my
project leadership. An innovative approach is vital for my project leadership as it brings about
new thinking as well as different actions for managing the project. Innovativeness value helps to
think differently about the role and all the challenges occurring during the ongoing of the project.
It also facilitates all the individuals who are involved in the particular project to think in creative
way and works in different ways for mitigating issues and facing challenges from other
competitors. In addition to this, it also contributes in project leadership by generating more
insights through experimentation as well as exploration. It also contributes in bringing about
innovative culture in the workplace. Owing to this, the team members also make creative
contributions in the project, which in turn helps to achieve success in the project. It has been
opined by Fleming & Koppelman (2016) that, innovative value involves refining as well as
revising ideas that is to be integrated in the project. This also contributes in enhancing flexibility
in leadership , thereby providing ability to switch the leadership behaviors when it is required.
This instrumental value mainly encompasses various activities, behaviors and actions that
interact for producing innovative outcome. But this innovative value also leads to involvement of
new risks in the project. This in turn contributes to radical thinking and implementation of
appropriate leadership style in order to mitigate this risk and issues occurring during the project

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(Fleming & Koppelman, 2016). Overall, these two instrumental values facilitates in completing
my project in innovative way and gain competitive advantage against all the rivalries.
b) One Greatest weakness that impacts on the ability to lead other people
The weakness of an individual hinder ones abilities to lead people around them and hence are
the flaws in ones personality. These weaknesses could generally complicate the relationships
with all the people during the leadership practice. One of my greatest weaknesses that impacts on
my ability to lead other people is arrogance. Arrogance means engaging in behaviors that is
intended to embellish an individual superiority sense by disparaging other people. Being very
confident about my abilities, it is sometimes considered as egotism and arrogance. Arrogant
behavior sometimes becomes a challenging problem while leading all the team members. This
kind of behavior during work makes interpersonal interactions highly difficult, create
uncomfortable as well as stressful workplace environment for all the people. This weakness has
led to huge impact on my ability to lead other people and hence becomes detrimental to all the
people involved in it. Some of the severe impacts are given below:
 Due to lack of appreciation for other people , it often leads to dysfunction. It is thereby
hard to properly function when the targets are messed up by misplaced focus
 This weakness also breaks down connection with other people involved in the project.
As a result, it creates lack of trust among all the people who are working in the project.
 Sometimes my arrogant behavior also creates tension among the people, which in turn
leads to resistance. Hence, it leads to decline in productivity during completion of project.
 This weaknesses also blocks innovation during the work, which in turn impacts on the
overall project.

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 It also adversely affects the social exchange in the business and creates problems during
completion of project.
 In some cases, it destroys the relationship with other people involved in the project.
Moreover, it also creates difficulty in building good relationship with other members
involved in the project.
 Due to this weakness, there occurs lack of listening skills and thus it causes conflict
within the business operations.
As arrogance is generally typified by poor performance as well as low self –confidence,
developmental interventions required for this is training intervention that is aimed for improving
leadership skills. For instance, training usually aims at enhancing interpersonal awareness and
also helps to understand how this behavior impacts other people. It has been opined by Yang,
Huang & Hsu, (2014) that, this kind of weakness must be addressed in order to improve the
performance of leadership and achieve success in completion of project. Moreover, weak
learning orientation might cause t recognize others for blaming during setbacks or experience
failure in the project. Despite making revision on the performance strategies, strong orientation
process has been adopted in order to uncover the reason behind these issues and overcome this
kind of weakness. Thus, implementation of this orientation also outcomes in efficient
professional development and increase my ability to lead other people in effective way. In
addition to this, it also facilitates me to interact with other people in more effective way and
increase productivity in the project operation. More the effective communication takes place,
more impressive will be the performance of the leaders. Hence, it has been suggested by Yukl
(2012) that, proper orientation is necessary for those leaders who have this kind of weakness.
c) Two leadership skills that contribute to present project leadership practice

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Two leadership skills that contribute to my present project leadership practice are-
communication skills and self-awareness skills. All these skills help my ability to encourage or
inspire the project team and develop all the team members in the way for achieving the target of
project.
Communication skill is one of the important leadership skills that help a project leader to
communicate efficiently (Yukl, 2012). This skill facilitates me to assure that the resources adopt
effective strategy, decisions as well as values and thereby inevitably possess good
communication skills. It also enhances my ability to effectively interact with the clients as well
as other professionals. In addition to this, it also aids to build cooperative relationship with all the
team members of project and ensure that good environment exists during their project work. It
also helps me to properly identify the skills of participants before assigning the task to them
(Schoemaker, Krupp & Howland 2013). However, proper assigning of task to the team members
enhances their efficiency and aids to complete the project with specified time. Besides this,
vertical, diagonal and horizontal communication facilitates me to manage the project in effective
way. This skill also helps me to enable, create and foster proper understanding as well as trust to
motivate other people in focusing on the project. Effective communication also helps me to
practice leadership in efficient way. In addition to this, this skill also aids me to develop proper
leadership style, which foster efficient as well as effective communication with the stakeholders
of the project. This in turn helps to avoid conflicts within the workplace and make proper
decision regarding completion of project. Overall, this communication skill helps to attain trust
of my team members and achieve success in the project.
Another important skill that makes huge contribution in my present leadership practice is
self- awareness skill (Laufer, 2012). Self-awareness refers to proper understanding of owns’

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emotion, strengths, values, attitudes, limitations and motives. Self-awareness skill permits an
individual to understand other people’s emotions in better way. it has been opined by Obradovic
et al., (2013) that, self-awareness skill is one of the cornerstones in leadership development. This
skill helps me to identify the gaps in leadership skill that promotes skill development. This skill
increases awareness of my strength as well as limitations and understand other members
personality traits as well as emotions. It facilitates me to find the situations that will be highly
effective, improve stress management, assist with decision making and encourage all team
members during the project operation. This leadership skill not only helps to reveal skill gap in
the project, but also helps to work on it for reducing the gap. As in some situation it becomes
difficult for me to make proper decision, this self-awareness skill helps me to develop intuitive
decision making skills. Besides this, this leadership skills also enables me to self- regulate my
thoughts, speech and action. It promotes my self- confidence by providing clear realization about
the project. In addition to this, this self-awareness skill increases my ability to self-regulate,
which in turn provides space that is required for knowing others motive and create trust among
them. Being the leaders of the project, it is necessary to influence others in a team so that they
can overcome all the challenges occurring during the project operation. In this situation, this skill
helps me to show my team members strength and also encourage them to do the same. Hence,
these skills contribute in improving my leadership practice and create open culture within the
project.
Development Plan
Two personal goals that contributes to project leadership capabilities

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It has been cited by Brion et al., (2012) that, project leaders becomes successful by enhancing
on their personal goals. By setting the personal goals, it helps me to achieve the objectives of
project that might outcome in betterment of the situation or themselves. The goal has been set
through systematic procedure which involves effective determination as well as execution. The
goals that have been set is usually generic for all kinds of project. The two personal goals that
contributes to my project leadership capabilities are-
 Completion of project within specified time- The first goal that has been set for the
project is to effectively manage the workload and complete the project within time
(Hargie, 2016). This goal helps to improve the capabilities of my project leadership
practice. Proper implementation of effective strategies facilitates in finishing the task in
efficient as well as timely manner. This goal enhances my leadership capabilities to
delegate task to all the team members effectively, set realistic deadlines and avoid
distractions. It also facilitates in increasing sense of work satisfaction and produces the
project with higher quality. Moreover, it also enhances my focus on the project and work
according to the plan.
 Complete the project under budget and meet all the requirements- This personal goal
mainly contributes in controlling the cost of project within approved budget as well as
deliver expected goals of project. This goal also increases my capabilities to meet all the
requirements of the project. Furthermore, this goal contributes my leadership capabilities
in defining, executing, controlling and updating the whole project operation.
Reasons behind selecting these goals and its benefit to the professional development
The main reasons behind selecting these two goals are:

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 Effectively delivering the task and attaining better outcome of project
 Organizing the work in effective way
 Attaining higher satisfaction from work
 For keeping less pressure during work and focusing on efficiency
 Effectively organizing all the team members work
 Avoiding risk and conflict during the operation of project
 Motivating all the team members to concentrate on work.
These two goals benefit my professional development by boosting confidence as well as
sense of achievement and allow maintaining valuable resource. It helps to identify problems,
evaluate data, reviewing and applying this information. It benefits to manage as well as develop
my capabilities and make effective decisions. Moreover, it also assists me to set proper target for
myself as well as avoid procrastination at any cost. Effective management of budget and time not
only facilitates to enhance productivity but also attain less stressful way of doing operation.
However, these two indispensable goals aids in managing both professional as well as personal
balance program.
Outlining practicable plan that should be followed for working towards these goals
The practicable plan that I can follow for working towards achievement of these goals are
explained below:
Step 1- Identifying personal as well as work related priorities
This is one of the vital steps in this whole process. The goals to be accomplished must be
properly identified. Selection of the task to be done first based on the work priorities. However,
this step will help to lower the stress level while carrying on the work.

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Step 2- .Translation of specific priorities into proper target long with certain component activities
Each goal can be divided into component activities and then proper steps are to be adopted for
achieving the goal of the project. The requirements as well as resources that are to be required
for this project are translated into proper target (Kerzner, 2018). This facilitates to organize for
attaining success and move forward for attainment of these goals.
Step3- Identifying intermediary time period relating to activities step and attainment of goals
In this step, deadlines or time frame for personal or work related target including report deadlines
are to be identified properly. Moreover, proper scheduling that is to be done in this step aids top
provide proper direction as well as affirms the commitment for carrying them in proper step.
Step 4- Keep the record for saving the time and budget of project
The schedule made for attaining these goals must be kept in time saving device. This can help in
keeping track of my commitments done during work and assess the progress to accomplish target
(Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017).
Step 5- Identifying the barriers that occurs during project
Several barriers might occur during the operation of project, which might hamper the progress of
project. However, identifying these barriers can help to avoid risks during the project.
Furthermore, it can also help to take correct measures and achieve success (Müller, Geraldi &
Turner, 2012).
Step 6- Striving the balance between doing and being

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Implementation of effective strategies and striving balance between doing and being can help to
be more productive, improve relationships with other team members and reduce anxiety during
the project work.
Thus, proper implementation of this practicable plan can help me to successfully complete the
project work within specified time frame.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that project management is vital as it
brings in leadership as well as direction to the project. It also assures that goals of the project
align with strategic business goals. Apart from this, it also ensures that there is proper plan to
execute on the strategic goals. The project leaders however plays vital role in successfully
completing the project within specified time limit. Moreover, implementation of proper
practicable plan will facilitate to analyze as well as balance available resources within required
timeline and thus develop realistic schedule. Thus, proper scheduling will help to meet all the
requirements and achieve the goal of project.

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References
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leadership really do. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 4(1), 1-
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management, 30(6), 708-722.
DuBois, M., Hanlon, J., Koch, J., Nyatuga, B., & Kerr, N. (2015). Leadership styles of effective
project managers: Techniques and traits to lead high performance teams. Journal of
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