Leadership in Project Teams: Inspiring Success and Collaboration

Leaders should possess both strong management skills as well as leadership skills. Leader in a project plays a crucial role as they help a team to work collaboratively. Project leaders are the individuals responsible for controlling and allocating work to team members. To handle a team effectively requires significant years of experience; this allows them to gain practical experience, which they implement further to handle workers effectively. This blog explores the various qualities that leaders should possess to lead a team effectively so that it leads a team and an organisation towards success. The readers will learn how they can develop leadership skills, and the blog will focus on skills that leaders must carry.

Who are called leaders?

A leader leads a team, inspires and encourages the team members to work actively and be focused towards the mission and vision of the project goals. A leader also assigns work to the team members and supports them in every situation where their team members get stuck (Ely and Thomas., 2020). Individual skills and work allow them to own this position; it is challenging and involves a lot of responsibility. Even if we are not employed, in many situations, we also play this role. This quality gets valued when you become an employee or a working professional. A leader ensures their team is equipped with every tool required to achieve a particular goal. A leader inspires and empowers their team and encourages them to work independently. They also motivate their team members to maintain long-term progress and often give them lectures on how they can achieve their goals.

Why is good leadership skill vital to an organisation’s success?

Good leadership skills in an organisation help to shape the organisational mission towards the right direction. They are the ones in an organisation who encourage their team members to work beyond their responsibility, thus bringing success to an organisation. They ensure that every team member is working towards a targeted goal, and they cultivate a learning environment in the office space. In addition, a project leader creates interactive sessions in tough situations to motivate everyone to perform their best and give their best possible outcome. With an effective team leader, an organisation can achieve its company’s goal; thus, to run a business successfully, it is essential to have good leadership qualities (Blanchard., 2018). They ensure every team member is focused and performing best to meet the organisation’s objectives.

What is the role of a Leader?

Now you have a clear picture of who is called a leader, and we can assume we all have played the role of leaders in our childhood or our school days. So you can guess the responsibilities of leaders. But in professional life, the skills and roles differ a lot, and it involves a huge responsibility as their cooperation allows an organisation or a company to succeed. The success of a company not only depends on the role of the project leader rather it is due to the whole team.

The role of project leaders often varies depending on the company’s size, and their values may depend on short-term and long-term goals. If we discuss in general, the primary responsibilities of the project leaders involve inspiring, motivating, guiding, encouraging and communicating with the team members (Johnson and Hackman., 2018). A leader takes responsibility for a project and clearly defines the project’s mission and vision to every team member. They also assign work to team members as per their efficiency and encourage everyone to work unitedly and also encourage them to work towards a shared goal. Overall they foster a collaborative and innovative work culture in the organisation.

What does a leader do?

As in the above section, we have discussed the primary responsibilities of a leader; now, let’s discuss those responsibilities elaborately.

• Inspiring: One of the most significant roles of a project leader is to inspire their team. To do this, leaders often narrate their successful stories as an example. This creates a unique feeling in team members, and they get inspired by their project leaders. Inspiring others is a big responsibility and contributes much to a leader’s role.
• Motivating: Secondly, a project leader always motivates their team and emphasises whether everyone is on the right track. Some projects may come up with challenges, and the project leader leads a team and supports them to achieve the project’s goals.
• Guiding: This is a big responsibility of the project leader; it guides the team on the right track. The project leader assigns their team members to work as per their specialisation and guides them through the entire process.
• Encouraging: When team members feel low confidence, it is the leader’s responsibility to encourage their team members and address the challenges with easy solutions.
• Communicating: A project leader must communicate effectively with their team member and make them understand what they are required to perform in a particular project.

Qualities of a leader

Leaders always lead their teams, help them move forward, and never leave them behind. They empower their team with every necessary resource to achieve a shared goal. Leaders embrace several leadership qualities; the following shows the most important qualities that a leader should possess:

• Identifies Purpose: Leaders always keep themselves updated with the purpose and mission of the company. This empowers them to build a personal purpose in the company, and they can effectively strategise what they will do next to achieve business goals. Often team members also get motivated by their leaders and try to reflect their leadership qualities.
• Motivators: Leaders are considered great motivators in the organisation; leaders motivate their team to work hard and passionately and work towards a shared goal.
• Empathy: A leader should have this quality and understand their team members’ problems from their point of view. They should empathise with their team members and motivate them to work beyond their responsibility. When their team members witness their project leader is empathetic, they acknowledge this, work beyond their responsibility, and work towards a shared goal.
• Innovative and Creativity: A project leader should incorporate some creativity and innovative idea in their plan of action; this grows the team members’ interest and motivates them to keep themselves engaged with the process. As employees often get bored with the same chain of command, adopting some creativity in the work culture is better. This helps to foster productivity.
• Value your team members: Leaders should value and respect their team members’ opinions and suggestions. A project leader should allow everyone to work independently, which helps improve the quality of the result.
• Effective Communication Skills: A project leader should possess effective communication skills as this will allow them to maintain a relationship with their team members, and team members will not be afraid to share their opinions. A leader should actively narrate the team members’ roles; effective communication skills prevent communication gaps between team members and project leaders.

How can you become a perfect leader?

To become a perfect leader, you should have the qualities mentioned above; otherwise, you can follow the steps mentioned to become a perfect leader.

Step 1: Listen and Learn

Leaders should have strong listening and learning skills; these two core elements will empower you to update yourself with the latest updates. Also, being a leader, you will be responsible for listening to all queries of your team member. A good team leader always takes a significant number of hours to listen to their team members and learn about every team member’s unique qualities and specialisation. This allows project managers to identify the weakness and strengths of their team members. Effective learning and listening skills also allow them to create opportunities for their team members. Always listen carefully to your team members’ opinions; this builds a feeling of value among them, encouraging them to work hard towards a shared goal.

Step 2: Value team members’ goals

Valuing team members’ goals and vision encourages them, and they feel motivated. Learn about what your team members dream of and where they want to place themselves, and it is the responsibility of the project leader to lead every team member; no matter the situation, you should always stay with your team. Valuing your team members brings the best possible outcome from the team members in every situation. Try to build connections with your team members and give them ideas on how to work beyond assigned tasks.

Step 3: Always try to improve

Often team members get bored with the same chain command, so try to incorporate something new, which reflects creativity; this allows members to remain connected with the team and work beyond their tasks and targets.

Principles for Project’s Success

Leaders play a crucial role in directing the whole team towards the success of a project; also, five powerful principles help project leaders to run through the success path. The five principles are listed below, with a brief introduction:

Principle 1: Build Vision

Firstly dedicate ample time to build a vision of the project’s objectives; this plays a key factor and helps in achieving success. The layout of the project’s vision will allow team members to work strategically, and the right project vision is the foundation for achieving success. In addition, project leaders should build strong project objectives that are crucial to the project’s success. A project with a set of objectives directs you in the right direction. Also, the success of a project depends upon the SMART objective, where SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-boxed.

Principle 2: Nurture Collaboration

A project gets success and rewards for a team, and every member is the heart of a project. Behind the success story, the team members work beyond their responsibility and assigned tasks and bring success to their organisations. And this can happen when a team works collaboratively. Collaboration among team members plays a vital role, and they work actively towards the project’s objectives.

Principle 3: Promote Performance

A leader is responsible for encouraging team members; this creates an environment where project leaders promote the performance of the team members. To this, leaders often arrange for feedback sessions and give feedback to every member. The feedback session allows them to understand their weaknesses and where they need to work. The feedback sessions not only help individual rather it helps the entire team. A leader may follow the following rules to create an environment that promotes performance:

Rule 1: Try to be a role model for your team members

Try to deliver your thoughts and keep a personality and share your principles. Try to demonstrate your skills in your way and maintain authenticity while you deliver your thoughts. Try to be real, and don’t fake yourself.

Rule 2: Create an interactive environment

Encourage an interactive work environment where individuals can share their opinions and feel encouraged and motivated. So to be a good leader, focus on creating an interactive environment. By interacting with them, try to identify where your team member is facing challenges that will help to address their issues.

Rule 3: Empower your team

Always empower your team with all the required resources; this allows them to enhance overall productivity and improve their work performance. Always keep them updated with the latest project details; the available information will also help them excel in their knowledge.

Rule 4: Develop a solution for potential risk

The project always comes up with challenges and problems, and in such a situation, your team members may get confused and have low confidence; to avoid this type of situation, you should plan and have some effective mitigation risks so that you can work at that time effectively and empower your team with informed decisions.

Rule 5: Encourage productive competition

Always encourage productive competition; this brings a sense of competition among the employees or team members and forces them to improve their performance and work beyond their responsibility.

Rule 6: Celebrate success

Always cherish your team members’ success; this encourages them to focus on their work and to improve their overall contribution.

Principle 4: Improve Learning

As human beings, it is assumed that we make mistakes in our daily and professional lives. So to be the best leader, you should always encourage your team members to teach them how their mistakes can give them a good lesson. When your team members commit mistakes, consider them and advise them on improving their performance. Create an environment and facilitate a learning platform where everyone will feel independent to share their opinions. Create a space for your team members to become creative and innovative.

Principle 5: Ensure Results

Being a project leader, you should encourage your team members towards a single goal, and they are working hard to achieve success. Being a leader, it is your responsibility to make them understand how project delivery is important, and this is possible when the whole work is united. You should also emphasise teaching them project success and submission are not only their sole responsibility; other than this, they can contribute much more to an organisation. In addition to that, always encourage them to work beyond their responsibility.

Strategies to manage a team effectively

Some of the strategies are listed below that the project leader may adopt to manage a team effectively:

• Continuously motivate your team
• Ensure your team members have a clear picture of the objective of the project
• Interact with them and help them equip them with all necessary resources
• Ensure they are working towards a single goals
• Encourage and inspire them
• Cultivate a learning environment
• Cultivate a creative and innovative work culture
• Foster a culture of collaboration
• Value your team members
• Manage internal conflicts smartly and always make neutral decisions
• Assign work to team members as per their capability
• Treat equally with every team member
• Try to conduct feedback sessions once a week
• Also, celebrating team members’ success and rewarding the excelling members encourages and motivates them to give their best.
• You should ensure visibility and transparency of the project objectives.
• Try to address the challenges immediately; this enhances productivity and prevents delays in project delivery.
• Narrate your successful stories to your team members
• A team leader should focus on forwarding their team towards success and never leave their team behind.

Conclusion

A team is a leader who is responsible for monitoring, assigning, and assisting its team member. They play a crucial role in an organisation and help it advance with increased growth and success. In addition, a team leader encourages a team to be active and focused towards the goals and mission of the company. Also, a leader should be relaxed and flexible, so they should be friendly in nature so that the team members feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and opinions. Getting recognition in this position is not a cakewalk; it requires much effort and hard work, so all these skills allow an individual to gain this respect. A team leader inspires the team and empowers them with every required resource so they can work smoothly. A good team leader encourages their team to maintain long-term progress and equips them with practical experience. Thus a team leader acts as a role model and guides the members throughout the whole process. Also, they must possess good communication skills, which ensures good collaboration and cooperation, and they are also responsible for preventing internal and external conflict within an organisation and should focus on continuous learning and improvement of the organisation. Overall, leaders play a vital role in an organisation and ensure that the team members work towards single goals.

Frequently Asked Questions

References

• Blanchard, K., 2018. Leading at a higher level. Ft Press.
• Ely, R.J. and Thomas, D.A., 2020. Getting serious about diversity. Harvard Business Review, 98(6), pp.114-122.
• Johnson, C.E. and Hackman, M.Z., 2018. Leadership: A communication perspective. Waveland Press.

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