Leadership of a Project Team

A project manager with limited technical skills who is somewhat awkward in interpersonal relationships can still successfully lead a project. A project manager who possesses outstanding technical skills and plans and organizes well, can blow a project.

The success of a project depends not on the project manager's technical expertise or know-how, but on the project manager instilling in the team the fact that they are the lifeblood of the project: That their input, expertise, and collaborative efforts are critical in every phase of the project from planning through execution. This is the job the IPM project manager is charged with doing!

As noted earlier, the authors have managed many projects. We have received praise, promotions, and rewards for what fellow workers and managers have described as good leadership abilities. Although not experts on the subject, we do know something about leadership as it applies to projects. In this chapter, we emphasize the points we believe are important and invite you, the reader, to think about them, fit them to your personality, and tuck them away for future reference.