PM: Leadership Style Essay

The Best Leadership Style for a Project Manager

By Eric Holmes

Project Managers (hereafter PMs) must define project goals, define resources such as cost, quality and time, and manage the most effective use of resources to obtain project goals. People are the most important resources at a PM’s disposal, and how a PM manages his team is crucial. Leadership has been defined as the “process of social influence”, (Chemers, 1997: p5). A distinction can be made between a leader and a manager (Daft, 1999: p35). A manager derives power from his position while a leader derives power from social influence which invariably demands effective communication with stakeholders and employees. There are many situations where a PM won’t have positional authority over his team members, for example in a matrix organization. In the absence of direct authority, a PM will need to use leadership skills to influence team members and accomplish project goals. This begs the question: “What leadership style is most effective for a PM?” This essay will discuss different leadership theories from a project management perspective, and conclude that a situation-based leadership style is the most effective.

Many researchers have described effective theories of leadership. Trait Based approaches were described by Locke (1991) and Daft (1999) who listed essential characteristics of leadership including self-confidence, honesty, and the will to succeed. Self-confidence and a strong will are important for PMs because of the limited time that a PM will have to build rapport with his team. If a PM lacks confidence in himself, it may be difficult to convince other project stakeholders of a project’s worth. A PM’s drive is a crucial tool to enable him to bind the loyalties of his workers and move forward to complete key project tasks.

Another category of leadership theory describes Behavioral approaches. The idea here is that leadership behaviors can be learned and practiced in opposed to traits which are inherent to an individual. Autocratic leadership behavior is characterized by an extremely directive leader who dictates to subordinates, allowing for very little autonomy or individual empowerment. This style may be effective in the case of training new military recruits, who cannot be expected to have the knowledge or willingness to engage in warfare, but for a PM, team-members will often be experts in their fields, and using an autocratic style would fail to utilize their expertise. Democratic leadership behavior is based on team consensus. For a PM, this style may be ineffective because individual team contributors often lack a sense of common purpose, and obtaining consensus can be time consuming and inefficient. Additionally, there are many circumstances when a team-member must act against his personal wishes to serve the project. Without the oversight of a PM to enforce project commitment, individuals will often serve their own interests or, in a matrix organization, the interests of their functional group before those of the project.

A contingency based leadership style has been adopted by many organizations, and asserts that leadership styles should be varied depending on the situation. Situational Leadership Theory, a leading contingency theory developed by Paul Hersey in the late 1970s, is the most effective and easiest framework to apply to Project Management.

Situational Leadership Theory (hereafter SLT) considers two roles, that of a leader and follower (Hersey, 1977). The theory asserts that the follower’s willingness and ability must be fully understood by the leader before an appropriate leadership style can be adopted. Hersey asserts that “Follower readiness”, is crucial to a leader’s success, and defines four categories, labeled R1 to R4, which characterize this follower attribute. The four follower readiness levels are shown in Appendix 1.1. In the SLT framework, the leader must first identify what level of readiness his follower has and adopt one of four corresponding leadership styles, known as “Supportive behaviors”, labeled S1 to S4. For example, the best approach for an R4 employee (willing and able employee) would be to use a S4 delegating leadership style in which the leader allows considerable autonomy to complete the task. SLT is essentially an observation about communication between leaders and followers. The communication framework that it establishes is useful for a PM. Communication between a PM and his team is a reciprocal process, and the PM must understand what level of willingness and skill each of his team members possesses before choosing a certain leadership and communication strategy.

The SLT framework must be adjusted somewhat to meet the needs of PMs. PMs employing a S4 delegating style should be aware that this style is not appropriate for sub-contractors, whose interests may not coincide with project goals. Here an S2 selling style is more effective because it provides some autonomy while closely monitoring progress. For most project stakeholders, PM’s will use either the S2 selling or S3 participating leadership styles because these promote communication and the free sharing of information in both directions. These styles can allow the PM to get a better understanding of project risk. There is a limit to the degree of communication that a PM will have time for. If a PM must choose between coaching a worker and delaying the project, the project goals must be put first. A PM must effectively balance the project needs and the needs of his team, particularly on long projects when worker fatigue may endanger project safety or present other key risks. A PM may employ the situational leadership framework outside of his team, “managing up” to obtain crucial resources for his team, or “managing sideways” to interact with stakeholders on equal footing. The PM must be an adequate seller to generate and maintain interest among stakeholders. SLT makes assumptions about the value of follower ability over willingness. Referring to Appendix 1.1, a follower is considered R3, or moderately able to direct themselves, by being able but not willing. In practice however, a PM may encounter highly skilled workers who are encumbered by an overriding negative attitude about a project. This risk is not considered within the SLT framework. In fact, SLT simplifies the situation to be simply the state of readiness of a follower. In reality the situation includes many other factors, some of them external to the project such as political or economic climate. Despite the above limitations, SLT recognizes the importance of communication with stakeholders. By creating an easy to apply framework, the situational leadership model gives PMs a place to start when planning their leadership strategy.

Leadership styles have been discussed with an emphasis on applying SLT to the field of project management. The SLT framework is the most useful leadership theory for a PM. PMs are busy and must quickly derive a practical benefit from any academic theory. Applying the SLT to their daily work can lead to more effective communication, a reduction in misunderstandings, and therefore more effective project leadership. Effective management of the PM’s most crucial resource, namely people, will help the project’s goals to be realized.