Bus 518 Project Management Leadership

Assignment 5: Organizational Change and Personal Leadership Plan

Alan Catalan Alba

BUS 518 – Project Management Leadership

Dr. Paul Richardson

September 6, 2015

Project managers play a significant role in building effective teams, keeping members on track, and motivating them to stay focused. Specific practices that successful project managers apply in exercising leadership and management include open communication, team-building, competence, decision-making, problem solving, and reevaluation/auditing (DuBoise, et al, 2015). Open communication is necessary to facilitate trust. Communication whether verbal or written that provides information on project changes, roles, problems, successes, etc. is a key characteristic to leading and managing a team.

Additionally, a project manager who has a clear vision and can inspire others to move forward towards that goal by fitting the team’s strengths together, is another component of effective leadership and management. The project team also has to feel that the leader is competent and that the guidance provided is valid because the project manager has the experience and skills to provide the team with sufficient knowledge. Good decision-making by the project manager is also heavily influenced by the manager’s competence. Problems almost always come about during a project. A good leader and manager does not display fear, panic, or anxiety. Rather, the project manager should gather the team together to capitalize on their knowledge for ideas and solutions. Project managers must also exercise leadership by reevaluating and auditing the project. This may include making the decision to reassigning tasks and workers, looking for solutions for reoccurring issues, using lessons learns for application to other projects, or terminating the project.

Effective leadership also includes being flexible with the culture that surrounds the project. This includes understanding the political and business biases that have an impact...