Leadership Skills for Project Managers

NK Shrivastava and Phillip George, RefineM LLC

With John Fleming from Enterprise Productivity Consulting LLC
Leadership skills are commonly sought-after, not just in project management. Within project
management, being an effective leader means developing several key skills, including delegating,
negotiating, and team-building. In addition, behavioral and contingency models of leadership, including
the situational theory of leadership, can be used by leaders to deploy these skills and effectively lead
their teams. In this article, we describe key leadership skills for project managers and identify approaches
they can use to lead their teams to success. To learn more about this topic, as well as view our blog and
upcoming training courses, visit us at https://refinem.com.
Why do some teams work well together and achieve their goals, while other teams lose focus and
morale and ultimately fail? While many factors could be at play in each scenario, one that is likely to be
found is a presence, or lack, of clarity. Leadership can be defined as the ability to influence others, with
or without authority; project managers may find the last part of this definition familiar.
To influence with or without authority requires a leader to be able to exhibit clarity of purpose, plan,
and responsibility. In other words, a leader has been effective if teams know why they are carrying out a
particular project, what the plan is to carry it out, and how each member of the team contributes to the
projects success. A leaders responsibility is to provide this clarity; how any leader does it is up to his or
her own comfort level, familiarity with the team and individual members, and mastery of leadership
styles.
We will examine leadership skills and different theories of leadership in this article and discuss how they
can be applied to project management. Next, we will discuss the behavioral concept of leadership and
explore several contingency models of leadership, including Hersey and Blanchards situational theory of
leadership.

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Leadership Skills and Traits

Vijay Verma (1996) in his book, Human Resource Skills for the Project Manager, defines five categories of
leadership skills that apply to project managers (Verma, 1996, p.213). These include the following:

Conceptual skills relate to the ability of a project manager to see the big picture and analyze
how a project fits into the companys overall objectives.
Organizational skills refer to a leaders ability to manage all of the moving pieces. In project
management, this can include resources, scope, schedule, budget, risks, communication,
stakeholders, and any of the other knowledge areas. In contrast to conceptual skills,
organizational skills refer to the fine details of the project.
Social skills relate to a project managers ability to get along with team members and
stakeholders and build rapport and team chemistry.
Diplomacy skills refer to a project managers ability to successfully negotiate in terms of
resources to scope or to resolve conflicts on a project. (which project managers often have to do
in terms of resources or scope),
Communication skills, which are important in any position, are often considered a project
managers number-one skill. Project managers are expected to communicate throughout a
project, and communication will support all other leadership functions, including building both
the big picture and project details, building rapport, and negotiating to resolve conflicts.

As we can see from this list, successful project leaders need to have a mastery of many different skill
areas. To some degree, they need to be able to grasp both the big picture and the fine details of a
project in order to guide it to success. They also rely on social and diplomatic skills, both of which are
supported by strong communication skills.
Top leadership skills have also been identified in surveys of project managers. Timothy Barrys article, in
which he identifies top leadership qualities of project managers, is one example (Barry, 2012, 16 May).
One highly-rated skill among the project managers surveyed was communication, with importance
placed on clear and transparent communication of goals, responsibilities, expectations, and feedback. If
a leaders responsibility is to provide clarity, then communication is a powerful tool to be used in
providing it.
Many other skills relate to the project team as well. Problem-solving skills were also identified as a skill
that the project leader needs to have in addition to the project team members (Barry, 2012, 16 May).
Project managers who display excellence in problem-solving can provide insights to help guide the
teams thinking or enhance their ability to provide an effective solution. Team-building is important,
since a leader needs to be trusted and have the ability to keep the team cohesive through trouble spots
in the project. One key aspect of building that trust is delegation, which is another skill that was
identified. Project managers show trust by delegating tasks effectively; rather than making the project
manager look lazy, it demonstrates faith in the ability of team members to accomplish key tasks. In this
way, effective delegation can also help team members develop their skills.

www.refineM.com [email protected] 405 N. Jefferson Ave, Springfield, MO 65806 417.763.6762

There are many important skills for a project manager to master in order to be an effective project
leader. Now, we look at different approaches project managers can follow.
Behavioral approach
Verma describes the behavioral approach as an approach that emphasizes leader action over their
personal traits (Verma, 1996, p.214). The model of this approach breaks leader behavior into the two
dimensions of task orientation and relationship orientation. Task orientation is a focus on quality and
quantity of work accomplished, whereas relationship orientation is the supportive mode, encouraging
people to achieve their goals, keep morale high, and be creative. One advantage to this approach is its
action focus, rather than trait focus, making it more approachable since the actions can be developed.
Contingency approach
The contingency approach describes several models based on variables that influence leader behavior
(Verma, 1996, p.214). These include characteristics of the team leader, team members, and team itself,
as well as the structure of the team, department, or organization. Contingency models explore how
these characteristics interact to influence a leaders behavior. For example, Fiedlers model argues that
performance is related to what system the leader uses to motivate team members (Verma, 1996,
p.215). Houses path-goal model is based on the expectancy theory, in which it is argued that leaders
can influence performance by increasing employee satisfaction (Verma, 1996, p.217).
Another popular contingency model is the Vroom-Jago leadership model, which focuses on leader
decision-making and how managers can identify how not to lead based on a particular situation. For
example, democratic participative style is often perceived as popular, but may not work in all situations.
While it is good to get buy-in on decisions, if there are too many variables, team members can be
overwhelmed. In addition, team members can feel their time is being wasted if they are asked to decide
on mundane matters, like where to get lunch or what type of coffee to buy.
Situational Leadership
Another popular contingency model is Hersey and Blanchards situational theory of leadership.
Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard developed this theory of leadership for the first edition of their text
Management of Organizational Behavior. The fundamental underpinning of the situational theory of
leadership is that there is no single best style of leadership (Hersey and Blanchard, 2012). Successful
leaders adopt a task-relevant approach where they assess the needs of their team members and adapt
their leadership style to each person.
Hersey and Blanchard (2012) present a spectrum based on supporting and directive behavior.
Supporting behavior is an influencing mode, whereas directive is more commanding. High directive and
low supportive, S1, focuses communication on goal achievement. High directive and supportive, S2, is a
coaching style focusing on goal achievement and supporting needs of subordinates. S3, which is high
supportive and low directive, is a leader who does not focus solely on goals but rather uses supportive
behavior to bring out followers skills. Finally, low directive and supportive is a delegating style, S4,
which gives subordinates more control to accomplish tasks (Hersey and Blanchard, 2012).

www.refineM.com [email protected] 405 N. Jefferson Ave, Springfield, MO 65806 417.763.6762

Positive traits of the situational leadership style include the ability to effectively influence each team
member by tapping into his or her needs and leading in response to those. Under the situational
leadership style, work often gets done without surprises, because everyone knows what they need to do
and how they should do it. This approach leads to a better ability to develop team member skills and in
most cases will also result in higher morale.
There are also several downsides to the situational leadership style. First of all, it takes a lot of time to
execute this style well. For each team member, the leader needs to perform situational analysis to
determine what that team member needs and then decide how best to lead in order to fulfill those
needs. This process is a heavy time commitment, especially on larger teams. Second, because a leader
may be adapting his or her style to each team member individually, that leader may be seen as
inconsistent by others because of different ways of treating team members. Ultimately, if leaders can
master the behaviors of situational leadership and spare the time investment, they should consider
following the theory for the productivity and team development gains that can result.
Table 1 summarizes the four styles (Hersey and Blanchard, 2012).
Table 1. Styles of Situational Leadership
Style
S1-Directive
S2-Coaching

Directive
High
High

Supportive
Low
High

S3-Supportive

Low

High

S4-Delegating

Low

Low

Focus
Goal achievement
Goal achievement and
supporting followers
Bringing out followers
skills
Give followers more
control

www.refineM.com [email protected] 405 N. Jefferson Ave, Springfield, MO 65806 417.763.6762

Conclusion
In this article, we have presented several theories of leadership. Many of these are competitive with
each other, while some are complementary. Project managers may struggle to implement some
theories, especially situational leadership, due to time commitments.
Based on the leadership skills discussed by others, as well as our own experiences, our list of the top
eight leadership skills for project managers includes:
1. Ability to provide clarity
2. Communication
3. Ethical leadership (including integrity)
4. Team-building
5. Negotiation
6. Social skills
7. Delegation
8. Problem-solving
Any of these skills, from first to last, is vital for project managers to develop. One idea we hope you take
away from this article is that despite the theory used, the skills of leadership are highly attainable. We
do not believe that someone is born a leader and that anyone who doesnt naturally possess the traits
of leadership is incapable of learning to become a leader. With mindful practice in developing these
skills, anyone can develop into an effective project leader.
Looking for more knowledge to help you develop your leadership skills? Check out our Virtual Lunch and
Learn Presentations, which include several presentations on leadership. You can also learn more about
the training courses we offer.

www.refineM.com [email protected] 405 N. Jefferson Ave, Springfield, MO 65806 417.763.6762

References
1. Barry, Timothy R. (2012, 16 May). Top 10 leadership qualities of a project manager. Project Times.
Web. http://www.projecttimes.com/articles/top-10-leadership-qualities-of-a-project-manager.html
2. Hersey, Paul, Blanchard, Kenneth H., and Johnson, Dewey (2012). Management of Organizational
Behavior. 10th edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
3. Verma, Vijay (1996). Human Resource Skills for the Project Manager. Newtown Square, Pennsylvania:
Project Management Institute.

www.refineM.com [email protected] 405 N. Jefferson Ave, Springfield, MO 65806 417.763.6762