Analysis of Leadership's Impact on Team Motivation

This report analyzes the impact of leadership on team motivation and project success, drawing on several research papers. The analysis highlights the importance of Earned Value Management (EVM) in enabling project managers to lead their teams effectively and make informed decisions. Strong leadership fosters trust, which in turn motivates team members to perform at higher levels. The report references studies that emphasize the attributes of high-performing teams, such as continuous learning, proactive communication, and feedback seeking. Furthermore, it explores how leaders can leverage their knowledge of individual team members' strengths and weaknesses to tailor motivational strategies, ultimately enhancing team performance and project outcomes. The research emphasizes the positive correlation between strong leadership and superior team performance, highlighting the significance of leadership skills in project management.

Running head: MOTIVATION
Motivation
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Analysis:
Farok and Garcia (2015) in their work ‘Developing group leadership and
communication skills for monitoring EVM in project management’ mention that project
managers can ensure superior team work and motivate their respective teams to deliver higher
levels of performances by using ‘Earned Value Management’ or EVM. EVM enables the
managers to schedule the different activities, sub activities and costs pertaining to the projects
against the initial plan prepared. Thus, it is evident that EVM can enable the project managers
lead their respective teams and take appropriate decisions according to the situations. In other
words EVM facilitates stronger leadership which enables the project managers to gain trust of
their subordinates which in turn motivates them to deliver higher levels of performances.
Savelsbergh, Poell and van der Heijden (2015) in the article titled. ‘Does team stability mediate
the relationship between leadership and team learning? An empirical study among Dutch
project teams.’ support the previous authors by shedding light on the attributes of a good team.
The 408th page of the article mentions that the teams illustrating superior team work display
attributes like continuously taking initiative to learn new skills, reflecting on the outcomes of
their individual actions on the team performances, maintains continuous communication with the
team members, discussion errors and unexpected situations and seeking feedbacks from both
team leaders as well as team members. The team members of also take initiative in
experimenting in order to bring about innovations. Brooks (2009) in their book ‘Organisational
behaviour: individuals, groups and organisation’ point out that project managers can
implement to ensure that their teams are composed of members who operate as groups by using
appropriate leadership skills. The fourth chapter of the book emphasizes on the fact that project
managers should motivate the team members to focus on the goal they aim to achieve, form

2MOTIVATION
strategies to enable employees in the participation of employees and encourage team members to
persistently endeavor against challenges which they may face in the path of achievement of the
goal. These factors alignment of the team members with the goal, thus ensuring the team
members operate in a more synchronized manner which would encourage teamwork. Nixon,
Harrington and Parker (2012) point that leaders can use knowledge of individual motivation to
ensure that team deliver high levels of success. This is because the leaders have knowledge about
the strengths and weaknesses of individual team members. Thus, the leaders would be in a better
position to motivate employees appropriately. The analysis of the above discussion reveals that
strong leadership has strong positive impacts on the performances of the team members. Teams
achieving superior performances show certain attributes like proactive participation in the
strategy formation, continuous participation in trainings and mentoring to improve skills and
giving feedbacks to leaders on the challenges they face in achievement of the target. Finally, the
discussion can be closed by pointing out that the knowledge which team leaders and project
managers have on the strengths as well as weaknesses of individual team members allows the
latter to motivate the team members in appropriate manner. This ultimately boosts performances
of the team.

3MOTIVATION
References:
Brooks, I., 2009. Organisational behaviour: individuals, groups and organisation. Pearson
Education.
Farok, G.M.G. and Garcia, J.A., 2015. Developing group leadership and communication skills
for monitoring EVM in project management. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 45(1), pp.53-
60.
Nixon, P., Harrington, M. and Parker, D., 2012. Leadership performance is significant to project
success or failure: a critical analysis. International Journal of productivity and performance
management, 61(2), pp.204-216.
Savelsbergh, C.M., Poell, R.F. and van der Heijden, B.I., 2015. Does team stability mediate the
relationship between leadership and team learning? An empirical study among Dutch project
teams. International journal of project management, 33(2), pp.406-418.