Role Of Leadership Styles And Team Building In Project Management

Defining Leadership and Team

Discuss about the Role of Leadership Styles and Team Building in Project Management.

Leadership is about influencing others to integrate and channel their efforts towards achieving a common goal (Bolden, 2004, p. 2; Winston & Patterson, 2006, p. 6). Through the authority vested in their position, leaders establish direction, inspire and help their team members in developing their potential. To perfect their leadership, leaders should supplement their leadership styles with outstanding communication, decision-making, and delegation skills as well as adopting the situational and contingency leadership approaches (Bass, 2000, p. 20). Leaders get the things done through the efforts of the other people ( Ivancevich, et al., 2007 , p. 45). Therefore, they should ensure their leadership styles are in alignment with the interests of the people as well as with the interests of the organizations they lead. The performance of the team will greatly depend on the style of leadership adopted by the manager as well as motivation at hand (Tarricone & Luca , 2002, p. 38). In support (Fisher, et al., 1997, p. 235) noted that the ability of the leader to set up and lead a team of performers is very crucial in determining the success of the task at hand. Similarly, when the managers have engaged it the task of the project management, they need people to work with to realize the desired goals of the organization. The project manager has to select the appropriate team which has the portfolio of the required skills and expertise. However, all this will be futile if the manager lacks proper leadership skills which can get each team member to the common course of achieving the objectives of the project.

(Furash, 2004, p. 40), defined team as the group of people who works in unison towards the accomplishment of the common goal.  Similarly, (Northouse, 2007, p. 3) defined leadership as the act where a person influences a group of people with the aim of achieving a common goal. From the two definitions, it is clear that the leader gets his or desired goals achieved through the efforts of the group of people. Leadership is the process whereby a person gets things done through the efforts of the others by influencing them to act in a particular manner (Sharma & Jain, 2013, p. 310).  This group of individuals is the one which is referred to as a team. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the manager to get on board the of team members who possess the essential skills and knowledge in executing the task in hand. To achieve this, the leader has first to define his her team to ascertain whether all the members are characterized by the traits that make them to be group in the same class. For example, the leader can check out some of the common characteristics of the teams such as joint accountability, common goals, and required interdependence.

Leadership Theory and Styles

Different individual managers apply different leadership styles when managing people (Furash, 2004, p. 43). However, there are leadership styles that are predominant within the organization. It is the duty of the manager to adopt the appropriate leadership style which will ensure improved employee performance. Some of the leadership styles commonly in the organizations are based on the behaviorist theories and they include democratic, autocratic and laissez-faire ( Ivancevich, et al., 2007 , p. 23). However, other transformational and transactional leadership theories have become dominant in the modern project management (Kelchner, 2013). This paper addresses the effectiveness of each style concerning the performance of the team in project management.

Democratic Leadership: This leadership style focuses on the team participation in the decision-making process (Bolden, et al., 2003, p. 6). This is achieved through consultation and consensus. Once the leader involves the team in decision-making, their input improves. Additionally, democratic leadership improves the team performance because they feel empowered as well as bestowed with the responsibility to the decisions made by the management (Bass, 2005, p. 25). Employees normally provide the manager with the different perspectives due to their daily involvement in the work.

Autocratic Leadership: This style entails directing and controlling the team. The leader is the sole maker of the decision without consulting the views of the team members (Bolden, et al., 2003, p. 8). Besides, the leader also dictates the employee roles. This style of leadership limits the employee participation in the decision-making as well as their freedom of expression (Bolden, 2004, p. 12). It usually alienates the team members from the leadership and thus creates a poor relationship between the management and the subordinate staff.

Laissez-Faire Leadership: This leadership style requires a lot of communication between the management and the team members. This style makes employees responsible for most of the decisions made and therefore they are less supervised (Bolden, et al., 2003, p. 10). However, this leadership style holds that employees have the responsibility of motivating and managing themselves on the daily basis (Batista-Tara, et al., 2007, p. 19). Laissez-faire leadership style is most suitable when the team members have the expertise and knowledge need to execute the task at hand.

Transformational Leadership: Leaders who adopt this style of leadership have a clear vision of improving the welfare of each in the project management team (Lim & Cromartie, 2001, p. 113).  The leader allows all the team members to participate in the decision-making process as well as availing them with an opportunity to learn from others and grow their skills and expertise as individuals (Bolden, et al., 2003, p. 11). To perfect this, transformational leaders spent most of their time training their subordinates as well as learning from them.

Team Building

Transactional Leadership: The core attribute of this leadership style is centralized control of the team members (Bolden, et al., 2003, p. 12). Project managers adopting this style ensures the control of the project results by ensuring the behavioral compliance by all the team members. Transactional leaders motivate their teams through promise, reward or praise. 

The team is the group people working together with the sole purpose of achieving a common goal (Bradley & Frederic, 2007, p. 345). The team members’ work is mutually responsible for execution of their assigned tasks to ensure that the objective of the project is attained. Organizations always build the teams with the aim of improving the performance, communication and cooperation (Scarnati, 2001, p. 8). Companies majorly use teams to improve productivity, enhance decision-making process, enable the less experienced to learn from others, to boost morale and improve communication between the employees as well as the management. Team building activities are not limited to the particular type of business, but they can be used by both managers and business owners (Bradley & Frederic, 2007, p. 348). For managers to be effective in team building they must define the type and nature of the activities to be executed by the team. This helps the management in coming up with the team that has got desired skills and expertise for the stipulated work.

Leadership and teamwork are the central points of the strength of the organization (Sohmen, 2013, p. 1). This is because the organization cannot exist without the leadership as well as without the employees. Similarly, in the project management there should a solid and robust relationship between the project manager and the team members for the efficient and effective realization of the project objectives (Sirota & Meltzer, 2005, p. 9). Alternatively, the organizational objectives cannot happen accidentally but only with the team efforts in addition to organizational resources. Therefore, this relationship provides a guide to ensure that the success of the organization is in alignment with the team members’ success. In support (Sohmen, 2013) argued that with poor leadership despite how the team is motivated the success in achieving project goals will be in futile. Similarly, with strong leadership in place working with the unmotivated and incompetent team will be a huge drawback to the success of the project (Kelchner, 2013). 

The team comprises of different people who are endowed with the different set of skills (Kelchner, 2013). Therefore, it is crucial for the project managers to adopt mechanisms and strategies that will ensure optimum utilization of the diverse skills and experience among the team members. To achieve this, the leader should come up with the ways of identifying and understanding the different cultures of the team members (Batista-Tara, et al., 2007). This will ensure the strengthening of the natural changes among the team members as well as in the entire team. Effective leadership is the foundation of the team’s success (Jing & Avery, 2008, p. 135).  For example, in the military, the success of the units depends on the leadership of the commander. Similarly, in the football sports, the variations portrayed by various football teams is highly attributable to the leadership effectiveness. These two examples serve as the evidence that project management success is a determinant of the project manager.  With the effective leadership, synergized, motivated and competent team the successful outcomes of the project management is a guarantee (Maak, & Pless, 2006).

Relationship Between Leadership Styles and Team Building

Today, team building and motivation are an essential ingredient for the success of the organizations (Abgor, 2008, p. 42). For example, the achievement of the company goals will require continuous nurturing and communication between the management and the team. The motivation of the team should be achieved using the necessary tools which are not commonly used in other organizations. This will create a perception from the perception of the team members that their interests are being addressed. However, if the normal and common facilities of the motivation are used, the team will assume them as their right and may not end up putting their maximum effort in the project execution. For example, if the project manager will consider motivating the employees through bonuses or allowing them some days off during the week they may end up terming the benefits as their rights rather than a motivation. (Patterson, 2010, p. 75), noted that for the team to be sensitized to success various attributes that include: trust between the team and the leader; mutual encouragement; interdependent members; clear responsibilities and roles; shared leadership and clear objectives must be allowed to prevail. This was supported by (Whetten & Cameron, 2011) who argued that leadership factors that are core in the effective team building include: team participation in the decision-making process; team members’ cohesion; communication of team goals and team motivation.  However, ( Schmid & Adams, 2008, p. 63) argued that the most important aspects in influencing the team performance during project execution process are motivation and communication.

The main objective of each leader is to get all the team members channeling their total efforts and energies towards the achievement of the project goals ( Schmid & Adams, 2008, p. 61). There are several means which goes beyond monetary compensation that the leaders can use to motivate the employees. Motivation drives and influences the team to work in line with the project strategies to achieve its objective (Bass, 2005, p. 14). For example, a project manager should be able to motivate his or her team by identifying the different needs of the team members. This should be accompanied by the understanding of the basic needs among the superiors, peers as well as other employees who are not part of his or her team. According to  (Maslow, 1970) in his work on the Hierarchy of needs theory argued that the human needs should be fulfilled starting from the basic, and the process should continue consistently up to the top most needs to ensure the continuous motivation among the employees. Therefore, the project managers should not only focus on the team’s basic needs but also should continue identifying their needs and establishing the necessary motivation strategy (Johns, 2006, p. 12). This technique will help in securing their continuous engagement and total devotion to the activities of the project. However, the motivation in the project management varies according to the various stages of the project. This calls upon the project managers to understand the status of the condition as well as the suitable forms of motivation to adopt at different cycles of the project (Almansour, 2012, p. 162).

Successful management of the project entails more than just paperwork, templates, and schedules (Jing & Avery, 2008, p. 135). It is an application of robust interpersonal, managerial expertise and skills to work harmoniously and efficiently with the team in a variety of tasks. Strong project management leadership is built on the clear and extensive communication about the project goals, feedback, expectation, performance, and responsibilities (Patterson, 2010, p. 77). Again, the leader acts the link between the team and the organization and thus effective communication from both sides should be maintained (Whetten & Cameron, 2011, p. 32). Communication is a vital aspect of project management as it ensures the resolving of the differences that may occur during the lifecycle of the project. The project manager should be able to negotiate and communicate effectively to ensure success in the team performance. (Verzuh, 1999, p. 38), acknowledged that team members have core communication needs which should be fulfilled through effective communication from the management. For example, communication needs that include harmonization of decisions from the key stakeholders; updates of the project current condition; effective coordination among the team members as well as the leader and responsibility parameters need to be availed to the team members. All the leaders should apply adequate and sufficient communication bearing in mind that communication is not only essential and necessary in ensuring the enhancement of team performance but also it is the primary aspect of effective leadership (Sirota & Meltzer, 2005, p. 19). Similarly, as different forms of motivation are applied at various cycles of the project, so the different communication techniques and strategies need to adopted.

Motivation and communication are majorly associated with the leadership and power (Baldoni, 2005, p. 23). The findings indicate that the use of laisses-faire or autocratic leadership styles may have a negative impact on motivation. This sensitizes the leaders to adopt appropriate leadership skills that can suit with the different forms of motivation. For understanding of various forms of motivation this report seeks to discuss how the leaders can motivate their team members at the different stages during the life-cycle of the project. Motivation is the major element in the success of any project ( Schmid & Adams, 2008, p. 60). Therefore, project managers should include and involve motivation in each phase of the project management.

Project Initiation

This is usually the first phase of the project, and the core objective of this stage is to analyze and evaluate the project. This is stage where the research on the project is made to ascertain its feasibility in relation to the organization resources. At this cycle, it would be appropriate to involve some of the team members in the research whom leader anticipates he or she can work with, in the execution of the project activities ( Schmid & Adams, 2008, p. 67). Alternatively, the research findings should be communicated to those who did not take part in the research. This technique serves as the motivation to those who were given the privilege of participating in the research as well to the ones who were communicated with the research findings (Johns, 2006, p. 17). 

Project Planning

Once the decision has been made about the project in phase one the next stage that follows suit is project planning.  This an essential stage that determines the success or the failure of the project (Patterson, 2010, p. 83). It involves establishing the path which each concerned party should follow. Given the fact that the project manager has not yet defined the team he or she will work with, it will be vital for him or her to involve some of the employees who seem to be having the potential of being part of the project management team in the planning process. This will be a great sign of motivation to the team who at the later stage end up being the part of project team (Sohmen, 2013, p. 12). This is because they will feel that they are part of the project, and also their morale can influence other team members to behave the same.

Project Execution

This stage is the center of all the project activities. It is in this phase where the project team is developed, resources necessary for the feasibility of the project are assigned, task are allocated for execution, and the project manager exercises his or her leadership and managerial skills. This is phase were the total participation of the team is needed (Jing & Avery, 2008, p. 142). This stage calls upon the project manager to apply suitable leadership style depending on the circumstances of the project. At this phase, there is no single leadership style which the leader can strictly uphold due to the fluctuations involved. Again, it is at this phase where the motivation is highly needed. The leaders can try to adopt various forms of motivation ranging from rewards and appreciation to the challenging tasks (Tarricone & Luca , 2002, p. 7). In addition to effective leadership and motivation, also effective communication is highly needed.  The team leader needs to be provided with the feedback about the progress of the project activities. Similarly, the project manager needs to coordinate the activities and operations of the project to ensure everything is on the roadmap as per the laid down plans.

Project Monitoring

The performance of the project needs to be monitored to determine whether it is on the right course of achieving the desired project goals. If the deviation between the actual performance and the standard performance are identified, appropriate corrective actions should be established to return the project to the right path. If the performance is good, the leader should continue using the similar motivation techniques among the team members. However, if the targeted performance as per timeframe has not been attained, the project manager should consider changing his or leadership styles as well as motivation mechanisms (Maak, & Pless, 2006, p. 12).

Project Closure

This marks the end of the project.  The services of the team members are no longer needed. However, at this final stage, it is very important to recognize the efforts of all team members (Patterson, 2010, p. 77). For example, the project manager can do so by organizing a work event for a team which was involved in the execution of the project as a way of showing appreciation. Again, the leader can organize a post closure meeting to analyze and evaluate the process of the project.

Conclusion

Leadership style has the great impact on team building for the project management.  A project shrewdness in management and leading teams is the core determinant factor of the success or failure of the project. The leader must support the team through all the phases of the project management. In addition to effective leadership communication and motivation should be adopted to ensure each member of the team is in line as with the activities of the project. Moreover, motivation should be highly embraced to get the total support of the team throughout the entire process of project management. The leader should not only base his or her motivation only at the certain phases of the project but in all stages as a way of ensuring the total participation of a team from the first phase to the last phase. Therefore, with effective leadership, communication and motivation of the team the project management is deemed to achieve its desired goals successfully.

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