Project Management: Team Leadership, Project Team Effectiveness, And Communication

Part A – Team Leadership and Management

Project Management approach

The discipline that is tasked with systematic initiation, planning, execution, controlling, and closing a team’s work to accomplish particular objectives and successfully meet a specific success criteria is referred to as project management. Basically, project management is involved with deliberate planning as well as control procedures. There are two distinct approaches to project management, including traditional project management (TPM) approach and agile project management approaches (APM) (Meredith Belbin, 2011). This part seeks to bring to light the disparity between agile and traditional project management.

The project is a leader who must posses key skills set in order to comprehensively and seamlessly manage the project as well as the project team. Given this understanding, the following six skills are critical for any project manager and thus are ssential in project management (Srivastava, et al., 2006).

Communication skills: project managers spent substential time communicating with the project team. For this reason he/she must possess the ability to effectively convey the issues, goals, ideas and vision as well as come up with comprehensive reports and presentations. In this regard, the project manager must have a mix of communication skills such as listening, ability to appreciate and use nonverbal communication, friendliness, clarity and concision, and be an open-minded person (Srivastava, et al., 2006).

Leadership skills: Leadership is critical in project management industry; in essence is a project manager can lead it means that he/she can deliver. Leadership skills for project managers differ from tbhose needed in other disciplines; project managers must cultivate proficiency in areas unique to project management. In this regard, a project manager must facilitate engagement, communicate effectively, create synergy as well as implement a supportuve but hands-off management approach. Furthermore, other critical leadership skills for project managers include problem solving, able to share project vision, integrity, team builder, problem solver and able to delegate duties (Srivastava, et al., 2006).

Team management skills: in spite of leading the project management team from a strategic perspective, the project manager is required to manage from the operational perspective. Effective team managers are successful at coordinating and administering groups through teamwork promotion, work delegation, conflict resolution, goal-setting and performance evaluation. Leadership is majorly concerbed with inspiring  others while management of a team ensures that the team has the right resources and capabilities to perform (Shriberg & Shriberg, 2010).

Personal Organisation: it is significantly important for project managers to have self-organisation in order to organise work for the team (Shriberg & Shriberg, 2010).

Risk Management: successful project managers mus posses essential risk management skills; understanding that the best way to analyse risk is by talking about it with all those involved.

The manner in which an individual uses power to lead others is referred to as leadership style. Various studies into leadership have identified various leadership styles that are used by leaders in leading their followers. Nonetheless, business people as well as psychologists have come up with different useful frameworks that effectively describe how people lead others. For example, Kurt Lewin a psychologist developed his leadership framework in 1930s that acts as a basis for the current approaches of leadership (Shriberg & Shriberg, 2010). The three major leadership styles according to Lewin:

Part B – Project Team Effectiveness

Autocratic: a leadership style where the leader makes decision without involving followers of team members.

Democratic: leadership style where the leader has the responsibility of making the final decision but involves team in the process of decision making.

Laissez-fair: here, the leader gives followers a lot of freedom in doing their work as well as setting their deadlines (Shriberg & Shriberg, 2010).

Other leadership styles include:

Charismatic leadership style: these are leaders who inspire their team members; however, charismatic leaders are criticized of following their own ambitions rather than the team’s goals and objectives.

Transformational leadership: this leadership style entails leaders inspiring their followers because they expect the best out of everyone and they hold themselves accountable for their actions. For instance, transformational leaders set clear objectives and goals and have excellent conflict resolution skills which culminate into high productivity (Shriberg & Shriberg, 2010).

Servant Leadership: these are leaders who lead by meeting the needs and requirements of their team members. Servant leadership encourages the creation of a positive corporate culture which on the other hand translates into high morale among members of the team.

Transactional leadership: this leadership styles dictates that members of the team agree to obey their leader on accepting the job. Organisations that use transactional leadership style pay members of the team in return for their effort and compliance on the short-term task.

For project managers, transformational and servant leadership styles are the best leadership styles to adopt for outstanding performance (Shriberg & Shriberg, 2010).

It is human nature to be more productive; however, getting motivated to accomplish tasks at times may seem impossible. Nonetheless, social scientists have studied motivation and have come up with different theories about what motivates behavior. The popular motivational theories include:

Hertzberg’s Two-Factor Theory: this motivational theory observes that employee satisfaction is influenced by two factors; motivator factors which include enjoying your work, recognition, and progression in career; and hygiene factors such as wages, policies of the company, managers and coworkers relationships, and benefits (Brown & Capozza, 2016).

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: this theory dictates that the basic needs of a person must be satisfied prior to him/her being motivated to achieve needs of a higher level. Under the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs there are 5 levels of needs, including physiological, safety, love/longing, esteem, and self-actualization (Brown & Capozza, 2016) .

Hawthorne Effect: this theory observes that when a number of physical conditions such as lighting, working hours and breaks at the workplace are changed, employee productivity increases (Nahavandi, 2016).

Expectancy Theory: people choose how to behave with regard to the expected outcomes as a result of their behavior. For instance, an employee may decide to work for long hours because he/she expects a pay rise.  The expectancy theory is based on expectancy, instrumentality, and valence (Brown & Capozza, 2016).

Project team

A group of people belonging to different sections of the project functions and are allocated different responsibilities under the same project is referred to as a project team. Furthermore, a project team can be subdivided into small teams with regard to the needs of the project. Accordingly, project teams are used for a specified time period and are dissolved on completion of the project.

Project manager skills

A project is only successful when it accomplishes its objectives and meets or exceeds stakeholders’ expectations. Stakeholders are individuals who have vested interests or care about the project; those individuals who are actively involved with the project work or have something to lose or gain as a result of the project. It is essential to note that key stakeholders can make or break the project’s success.  Stakeholders identify the needs of the project activity and thus they are critical in ensuring that the identified needs are fulfilled. Key project stakeholders are pivotal to the success of the project because they tasked with various responsibilities that they must adhere to (Hoch & Kozlowski, 2014). Accordingly, stakeholders understand business drivers and hence make sure that the project is in line with the organization’s business the strategy.  Stakeholders also provide exhaustive requirements of the project and financial plan that are vital for the overall project success.

Stakeholders also commit necessary resources to make sure that all project needs required for the success of the project are available. In addition, stakeholders keep abreast of the project progress as well as giving information to those who need to know. Similarly, stakeholders create the support and training needs; for instance they identify those who will be affected by the project and hence establish the necessary training and support requirements. In the same line of discussion, stakeholders are tasked with discovering and coming up with solution to any project risks and issues, particularly those related to management of change during the phase transition (Hoch & Kozlowski, 2014).

Not all conflicts are bad in project management as long as there are established boundaries to adhere to; conflicts can b productive for growth and development of the project. This section discusses the destructive and supportive roles in project management.

Aggressors: this role describes those individuals who openly oppose the goals and objectives of the project in a hostile manner. This role is not productive and thus it serves no purpose for the project.

Blockers: a team member that blocks or restricts access to information and always disrupts the flow of communication during project work. Given the fact that efficient communication is essential for project success, blockers are destructive to the project objectives and its overall success.

Topic jumpers: an individual who constantly changes the subject and brings up facts that is irrelevant. This is a destructive role due to the fact that it disrupts effective communication thus preventing important topics from being discussed fully and brought to closure.

Recognition seekers: individuals who look at the project to determine whether it will personally benefit him or her. As the individual is largely interested in personal gains than the success of the project, he/she can jeopardize the entire project (Hoch & Kozlowski, 2014).

Devil’s Advocate: individuals who take up the opposing view just for the sake of the argument rather than the arguments merits. The devil’s advocate’s role is destructive as it often disrupts and frustrates effective communication whilst discouraging other team members to participate (Baiden & Price, 2011).

Leadership styles

Supportive roles in project management are those roles that individuals take up to ensure the successful execution of the project. And they include:

• Project manager: the person tasked with defining the project hand in hand with the project sponsor.
• Project Sponsor: the individual responsible for commissioning others to develop and deliver the project as well as spearheads the course of the project throughout.
• Project Board: a group of people comprising of the management and personnel and is tasked with overseeing the overall project and reacting to any strategic issues
• Project Team Member: a person who works actively on the project during the project’s life.
• Project administrator/Coordinator: an individual tasked with preserving the plan of the project, updating and maintaining the project’s website. Also the project coordinator is responsible for providing the project manager with administrative support (Baiden & Price, 2011).

According to Tuckman, there are four stages of team development, including:

Forming: forming stage is the first phase of developing the team where people are thrilled to be involved with the team and are fervent about the work awaiting for them (Luis Daniel, 2010)

Storming: here the team starts moving towards the team goals; however team members discover that the team cannot actually fulfill their initial expectations and excitements (Luis Daniel, 2010). Individuals also discover that there are differences in the team and thus they start work out on how well to respond to their difference and how they effectively resolve conflicts.

Norming: at this stage, members of the team lean how to solve the discrepancies regarding their prospects and realism of the team’s experience (Luis Daniel, 2010).

Performing: at this stage, members of the team feel satisfied with the progress of the team. They have a shared purpose as a group and are aware of personal process and hence they understand each others’ strengths and weaknesses. The members feel attached to the team (Luis Daniel, 2010).

Ending/Termination: some teams may come to an end say after the project is finished or when the organization’s needs change. Although, this stage is not included in the original Tuckman’s model, it is significant for project managers to carefully observe the termination process of the team (Luis Daniel, 2010).

Companies from different industries are faced with performance challenges including speed, responsiveness, quality and on-line customization that supersede individual performance (Luis Daniel, 2010). A high performance teal is where individuals in a group share a common metrics, vision, goals, and collaborate, hold each other accountable and challenge each other order to accomplish project goals and objectives.

The formation of a high performance team entails the following:

• Having a vision that is clear where team members are focused on what they want to achieve
• Making sure that team members are part of the vision
• Clearly defining the team’s priorities (Luis Daniel, 2010)
• Establish success measures and create feedback channels
• Ensuring open communication and positive relationship with one another
• Successfully manage conflicts
• Ensures that leadership responsibilities are shared
• Participation in productive meetings is compulsory
• Roles and work procedures are clearly defined

RACI is model used for identifying roles and responsibilities during organizational change process. For example, transformational processes do not themselves but rarther individuals are tasked to do something in order to make the processes work. RACI is an acronym for

• Responsibility: an individual responsible for completing the task
• Accountability: who is responsible for decision making and taking action on tasks.
• Consulted: people to be communicated with regard to tasks and decisions
• Informed: people to be updated with regard to tasks and decisions undertaken. (Moe et al., 2010)

Purpose and value for planning communication

Communication within an organization is an activity that is ongoing activity particularly those organizations that serve or are directly in touch with the community. “The purpose, audience, message and channel may change but the need to maintain lasting relationships with people in the community is vital” (Grunig, 2013). Given this understanding the purpose for planning communication includes:

• To clarify the projects goals and objectives
• To clarify the relationship between the audience, message, channel, activities and material
• To identify and implement different communication activities
• Clarifying team members’ and stakeholders’ roles in the communication process
• For developing creativity and solidarity among the team
• To get stakeholders and team members to understand what is going on
• To ensure that you stakeholders and other constituents are reached effectively
• To allow all members of the team to be part of the success
• To gauge the communication plan’s success and areas that needs strengthening (Schwalbe, 2015).

The Mathematical Theory of Communication also referred to as Shannon-Weaver model of communication was designed with a singular objective of making the communication between the sender and the receiver effective. According to this model of communication, there are factors that affect the process of communication (Meredith & Mantel, 2011). The Mathematical Theory of communication deals with different communication elements such as the information source, message, channel, transmitter, noise, receiver, destination of information, encode and decode as shown in the figure below.

• Sender: the person who designs and sends the message/information; the original source of information
• Encode: converting the message into a signal
• Decode: converting the signal back into the message as send by the sender (Meredith & Mantel, 2011).
• Receiver: the message’s destination form the sender
• Noise: messages are transmitted from the sender to the receiver through a channel; during this process the message may be affected by crowd noise, horn sound or thunder.
• Channel: the physical medium of transmission like wire or to a logical connection through multiplexed medium like computer networking, and telecommunication (Meredith & Mantel, 2011).

Communication Media: these are specialized mass media communication businesses including photography, print media, cinema, broadcasting (television and radio) and publishing. Accordingly, we have social media that include social platforms such Facebook, twitter, and Instagram (Reed & Knight, 2010).

Communication Networks: communication networks are the means of delivering and receiving information. Different communication networks are used in sending information from one point to a computer system within a network or to a central computer.

Developing a project communication plan is a vitally important step towards ensuring a successful project. Project communication planning lies in the company’s existing internal processes that are key in creating a flexible plan. There are various elements of a project communication plan including:

• Matching workflow to work style: it is critical for the manager of the project to understand the manner in which the project team works. During the implementation of a communication plan, no team will use a single method to communicate effectively articularly in the current digital age.
• Transferring ideas into information: developing a communication plan involves funneling details of the daily date into understandable pieces of information. The project manager is thus required to write down the critical issues and decisions into executive summaries that will make it simpler for team member to understand. Here, components such as reporting, alerts and updates, stakeholders’ requests and transparent public-facing information are important (Buljac-Samardzic, et al., 2010).
• They determine the details: the communication plan is the project manger’s roadmap to the success of the project whereby it must be detailed, thorough and answers questions about the project.  When determining details, the following elements must be incorporated in the communication plan: goals and objectives, materials and resources, and budget of the project (Buljac-Samardzic, et al., 2010).

To monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of a communication plan the following tools and methods should be used:

• Editorial review: the project manager must always conduct informal review of project communication routinely; regular reviews not only underscores the significance of communicating formally, but it also team members are encouraged to remain professional and focused when transmitting information across different layers of the project (Larson & Gray, 2011).
• Stakeholder feedback: seeking feedback from stakeholders through surveys provides an effective way of measuring the impact as well as the quality of formal communication (Haas, 2010).
• Routine audits: the project managers are tasked with reviewing and aggregating email traffic in order to find out the total volume of captured information of the project.

References

Baiden, B. K., & Price, A. D. (2011). The effect of integration on project delivery team effectiveness. International Journal of Project Management, 29(2), 129-136.

Brown, R., & Capozza, D. (Eds.). (2016). Social identities: Motivational, emotional, cultural influences. Psychology Press.

Buljac-Samardzic, M., Dekker-van Doorn, C. M., van Wijngaarden, J. D., & van Wijk, K. P. (2010). Interventions to improve team effectiveness: a systematic review. Health policy, 94(3), 183-195.

Grunig, J. E. (2013). Excellence in public relations and communication management. Routledge.

Haas, M. R. (2010). The double-edged swords of autonomy and external knowledge: Analyzing team effectiveness in a multinational organization. Academy of Management Journal, 53(5), 989-1008.

Hoch, J. E., & Kozlowski, S. W. (2014). Leading virtual teams: Hierarchical leadership, structural supports, and shared team leadership. Journal of applied psychology, 99(3), 390.

Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2011). Project management: The managerial process.

Luis Daniel, J. (2010). The effect of workplace spirituality on team effectiveness. Journal of Management Development, 29(5), 442-456.

Meredith Belbin, R. (2011). Management teams: Why they succeed or fail. Human Resource Management International Digest, 19(3).

Meredith, J. R., & Mantel Jr, S. J. (2011). Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Moe, N. B., Dingsøyr, T., & Dybå, T. (2010). A teamwork model for understanding an agile team: A case study of a Scrum project. Information and Software Technology, 52(5), 480-491.

Nahavandi, A. (2016). The Art and Science of Leadership -Global Edition. Pearson.

Reed, A. H., & Knight, L. V. (2010). Effect of a virtual project team environment on communication-related project risk. International Journal of Project Management, 28(5), 422-427.

Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.

Shriberg, A., & Shriberg, D. (2010). Practicing leadership principles and applications. Wiley Global Education.

Srivastava, A., Bartol, K. M., & Locke, E. A. (2006). Empowering leadership in management teams: Effects on knowledge sharing, efficacy, and performance. Academy of management journal, 49(6), 1239-1251.

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