{"id":4443,"date":"2010-06-25T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2010-06-25T14:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=4443"},"modified":"2010-06-21T20:56:14","modified_gmt":"2010-06-22T03:56:14","slug":"what-leadership-skills-does-a-project-manager-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=4443","title":{"rendered":"What Leadership Skills Does a Project Manager Need?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Indu Sattiraju<\/p>\n

UCSC Extension Project Leadership and Communication Student<\/p>\n

If I were to ask you to shout out the single most important leadership skill that a Project Manager must possess, what would you say? Are you thinking about all the leaders you admire? What is the one skill that separates your favorite leaders from the ones that you detest?<\/p>\n

While every leader has a unique leadership style, the single most outstanding skill that I am trying to get at is \u201cPeople Skills\u201d. Leadership involves interacting with people and hence this forms the foundation of an organization. This course has been a great learning experience so far and I am excited to share my perspective on this topic so let’s explore what are key project management leadership skills.<\/p>\n

To recap, most important leadership skill is \u201cPeople skill\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s talk about teams. Do all team members have the same personality or temperament? Do all team members speak the same language? Are they from the same cultural background? Do they have exact same career goals or interests? The answer is a glaring No! How can we as Project managers bring unity in diversity? The proper way to reduce variability of behavior is to have a clear vision and mission..This will help team members speak the \u201cwe\u201d language versus \u201cI\u201d. Once these are identified, lay out a clear plan describing how it will be achieved.<\/p>\n

To recap, have an inspiring vision and mission statement to unite the team\u2019s goal<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What comes next? Execution of project tasks. What causes teams to outperform or exceed expectations ? Organizational excellence is achieved when quality work is produced. This happens when right people do the right job. As project managers it is important for us to match a task with team member\u2019s skills\/interests.\u00a0 As described in the textbook \u2018Project Leadership\u2019 by James Lewis \u2013 ask the 2 questions before choosing a leadership style:<\/p>\n