Effective project management is a cornerstone of professional life. Being able to deliver projects on time and on budget helps a business to meet its goals, ensure its customers are satisfied and work towards ever-greater success.
As a leader, it’s part of your role to ensure projects are delivered successfully. The approach you take can inspire your team members, keep motivation levels high and help to overcome any challenges that may crop up along the way.
So, what is the best leadership style for project management? How can you adapt your approach to get the best from your employees?
Situational Leadership
In order to be an effective project manager, you need to be adaptable. Projects very rarely run exactly according to plan, so it’s essential that you’re able to adjust your approach when things change or go wrong.
The situational leadership style involves tailoring your leadership methods to the specific needs of your team as the project evolves. For example, at the beginning of a project, you may want to adopt a directive leadership style. This involves establishing clear roles for your team members and ensuring everyone knows what’s expected of them. You may then want to move on to a more supportive or delegative role as the project progresses.
Task-Oriented Leadership
Task-oriented leadership can work really well when managing relatively short or simple projects. It can also be used on larger projects that can be broken up into bite-sized chunks.
This goal-oriented leadership style focuses on providing your team with clear objectives, timelines and deliverables. Adopting this approach can help you to ensure your team stays on track and meets its deadlines without compromising on quality.
One of the downsides of this type of leadership is the lack of emphasis it places on team morale. So, if you decide to go with this approach, you may want to check in with your team on a regular basis to ensure they’re engaged and motivated.
Democratic Leadership
More often than not, a project will only be a success if all members of the team buy into the concept and are committed to its delivery. Democratic leadership can help you to achieve this team consensus.
By involving all your employees in the decision-making process and taking their concerns and ideas into account, you can give your team members a certain level of ownership over the project. This can help to boost innovation, bring new insights to the table and ensure team members go that extra mile to ensure the project is a success.
Adapting your leadership style to get the best from your team members and achieve your professional goals can be very good for business. To learn more about different leadership styles and find out how we can help you hone your leadership skills, get in touch with a member of our team today.
Image Source: Canva