Project Leadership

MPM7002

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Week 1
 Introduction to the Project Leadership
 Project Governance and Ethics

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 Module Objectives
 This module will offer an in-depth road map that
shows exactly how to effectively progress,
navigate and transform meaningfully from
managing projects at the task level (organization
structures, people, communication, resources) to
leading projects through vision and
empowerment.

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 Module Objectives
 It will also help individuals to learn how to
examine their own strengths and areas of
weakness and to capitalize on their own
behaviors to transform themselves from
managers or task managers into leaders who get
things done and help others get things done in a
global complex project management community,
organizational structures and context.

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Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students
should be able to:
• Critically evaluate the human aspects of project
management
• Demonstrate leadership skills for a wide range of
projects and sectors
• Demonstrate self-reflection on their own current
management style
• Demonstrate the ability to influence team
members in a project management context
• Use and apply industry leading personal and
competency development frameworks and tool

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Module Contents
 This Module provides a theoretical and practical
understanding of some key concepts and issues in
project leadership and organizational behavior
and in particular their implications for project
managers seeking to lead their project teams.
 The shifting emphasis from transactional to
transformational leadership and from hard to soft
skills as a response to increasingly complex
project environments, will be critically examined
and the implications for project management
practice and professional development identified.
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Module Contents
 There will be an opportunity to reflect on
personal preferences and traits through the
evaluation and application of psychometric
tests such as the Belbin Self-Assessment
Inventory, the Hogan Development Survey and
the Myers Briggs Type Indicator test.
 The use of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and it's
tools would also be explored in a wider
organizational context including cross-cultural
management.
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Module Contents
 Individuals gaps analysis applying current PM
bodies competency frameworks would also be
practiced within this module. It will also
provide well defined guides on how to
implement leadership thinking in everyday
project challenges.
 This module will take a fresh approach to
professional development needs for the
project manager, project professionals or any
aspirants seeking entry into project
management practice.
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 Textbook

 Burke R. and Barron S. (2014) Project Management

Leadership: Building Creative Teams, John Wiley & Sons,
2nd Edition
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Schedule
Sunday, 8.30
Introduction to Project Management to 12.30 –
Session 1 Chapters 1 & 2 November 05,
Leadership & Governance with Ethics
2023

Project Leadership and Leadership November 19,

Session 2 Chapters 3 & 5 2023
Behaviours and Skills
December 3,
Session 3 Leadership Theories and Styles Chapter 6 2023
December 10,
Session 4 Emotional Intelligence & Personality Traits Chapters 9 2023
December 17,
Session 5 Power to influence and Resistance to Change Chapter 7 & 8 2023

Chapters 12 & January 7 ,

Session 6 Project teams & teams Vs. Groups 2024
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Chapters 14 & January 14,
Session 7 Team Development Phases & Team Building 2024
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Chapters 22 & January 21,
Session 8 Conflict Resolution and Problem Solving 2024
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Session 9 Discussions on Assessments
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 Additional Reading
 Textbook - Solid foundation, but not everything

 Recommended Reading
◦ Englund, R. and Bucero, A. (2012) The Complete Project Manager: Integrating
People, Organizational and Technical Skills, Management Concepts
◦ Bull R.C. (2010) Moving from Project Management to Project Leadership: A
Practical Guide to Leading Groups, CRC Press, 1st Edition
◦ Flannes S. and Levin G. (2005) Essential People Skills for Project Managers,
Management Concepts

◦ Peer Reviewed Journals/Articles:

◦ Students will also be required to access a range of peer reviewed publications

such as journal articles, conference and symposium papers, published
company reports and case studies
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 Evaluation

Assessment Code and Duration/Length of Weighting of Approximate Date

Method Assessment Method Assessment of Submission

PRES1 – Group 12 slides in 30 minutes 30% Week 6

Presentation

WRIT1 - Reflective 3,000 words equivalent 70% Week 12

Report

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 Assessment 1 – Group Presentation
Explain the effects of shifting from Servant Leadership style to Transformational Leadership
style by a Project Manager to accomplish a project successfully while focusing on the
development of most related Soft skills.
Both Servant and Transformational leadership theories have to be explained initially and then
the team needs to explain Transformational Leadership with an example of a real
contemporary Transformational Business Leader from the following list.
• Steve Jobs
• Elon Musk
• Jeff Bezos
• Bill Gates
• Richard Branson
Need to explain the most important soft skills needed for an effective Project Manager using
literature. The presentation should be planned according to the following order.
1.The difference in Servant and Transformational Leadership styles
2. How the identified transformational Business Leader did transform the organization?
3. Relevance of Transformational Leadership in Project Management?
4.The most important soft skills for an effective Project Manager
5. How do you link those soft skills with the leadership style of the above identified leader?
6. How would you use these leadership style and soft skills for effective Project Management?
Note – All above points need to be supported with a minimum of 20 citations in total from
respected sources.Additional guidelines will be discussed during lectures. 13
Assessment 2 – Individual report
Task :
Identify your own personality type using Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
and explain the effects of strengths and weaknesses of your present
leadership style in comparison with the Transformational Leadership
traits needed for an effective Project Manager. Explain the identified
weaknesses and what action you would take to improve them. The
report should be planned according to the following order.
• Explain and interpret your results of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
• Identify the primary Transformational leadership traits of an effective
Project Manager with justification through literature
• Compare your results and explain strengths and weaknesses of your
own traits with the above traits of an effective Project Manager
• Explain how you are planning to improve on your weaknesses to
become an effective Project Manager
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Weekly Discussions – Week 1

What is your personal definition of

leadership?
Just explain in 1-2 sentences.
There are no right or wrong answers,
only what you believe is true for you.

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 Current academic definition
of Leadership
“Leadership is the process of influencing
others to understand and agree about
what needs to be done and how to do it,
and the process of facilitating individual and
collective efforts to accomplish shared
goals.”
(Yukl, 2013, p. 23)

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Project Management and Project
Leadership
 Project management and project
leadership are two sides of the same coin.
 They are inter-linked, and need to be if a
project is to be delivered on time, to
budget and of the desired quality.
 Many project managers pay too much
attention to managing and spend too little
time leading. As with everything in life,
finding the right balance is key.
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 The difference between managing
and leading
 Managing could be considered as the
process of ‘sense-making’: understanding
the situation and appreciating the necessity
of organizing resources to achieve objectives.
 Leading is more oriented toward ‘sense-
giving’: helping people to understand
objectives, inspiring them to achieve a higher
performance through commitment to a
vision and guiding them along the journey to
overcoming obstacles.
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Project Manager’s Portfolio of Skills
 Technical Management
 Project Entrepreneurship
 Project Management
 Project Leadership

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 Project Leadership Skills
 The project manager needs project
leadership skills
◦ to influence and lead the project participants,
◦ together with a vision,
◦ strategy and
◦ determination to drive the project.
 The focus is on facilitation, negotiation,
influencing, networking and
communication
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 Project Leadership Skills
 The project management leader’s project
leadership skills are the driving force behind the
project, where the project leader is
◦ enthusiastically communicating the vision,
◦ outlining the strategy and
◦ empowering and inspiring the project participants.

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 Project Leadership Skills
 As the single point of responsibility, the project
leader is responsible for
◦ coordinating the input from all stakeholders and
◦ addressing their needs and expectations

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Four Key Sections in PM
 Project Management has been divided
into four main sections to provide a
flexible toolkit from which to select the
most appropriate management approach:
 Context
 People
 Delivery
 Interfaces

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 Leadership comes under ‘People’
 This module focuses on parts in the ‘People’
section, which is ultimately about motivating and
coordinating people into achieving the project
objectives.
 To achieve the project objectives, the project
management leader needs various interpersonal
skills to be able to interact with other people

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 People knowledge areas
1. Leadership - To establish a vision and
direction for the project team to follow.
2. Leadership - To align the project team to a
common purpose
3. Leadership - To empower and inspire the
project team to give its best performance.
4. Leadership - To influence the stakeholders.

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 People knowledge areas
5. Communication - To establish the lines of communication
as the means by which project information and instructions
are exchanged.
6. Conflict - To identify and address the differences between
two parties.
7. Delegation - To give a person the responsibility to act on
behalf of the project manager.
8. Power to Influence - To influence the behavior and actions
of others in order to achieve the project objectives.
9. Negotiation - To reach a mutual agreement between two
parties
10. Teamwork - To guide the project team into working in
collaboration and cooperation towards a common goal
11. Ethics - To establish an ethical framework that sets
recognized standards of conduct and behavior.
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 Interpersonal Skills
Association for Project Management
Body of Knowledge (APM BoK) defines
interpersonal skills as the means by which
people relate to, and interact with, other
people.
Therefore, project management leaders and
team members need to understand how to
apply interpersonal skills.
They must know the limits of their own ability
and ensure that they are constantly reassessing
their strengths and weaknesses so that they
can strive to achieve their full potential.
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Building high-performance
Teams
 In the past, project management
development focused on tools and
techniques associated with planning and
controlling a project.
 Today, it is acknowledged that
◦ building high-performance teams,
◦ managing the client’s expectations and
◦ managing the project’s business plan play an
important part.

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 Project Governance and Ethics
 Project governance and ethics are part of the
corporate vision and values that outline the
purpose and aims of the company
 Project Governance – translates the corporate
values and governance into a practical framework
to govern the project.
 Project Ethics – translate the corporate values
and ethics into a project ethics framework for
moral conduct and behavior.

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 Governance of Project Management
(GoPM)
 The APM BoK defines GoPM as:
 Those areas of corporate governance that
are specifically related to project activities.
Effective governance of project
management ensures that an
organization’s project portfolio is aligned
to the organization’s objectives, is
delivered efficiently and is sustainable.

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 Project Governance
 The management approach taken to support
project delivery.
 Ultimately, governance provides a
comprehensive, uniform method of controlling
the project and ensuring its success (PMBOK)

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Project Governance
Project Selection
 The corporate governance process ensures that
the selected projects align with the business case,
statement of requirements and the corporate
vision and values.
Stakeholders
 The selected business cases should align with the
stakeholders’ needs and expectations
Level of Risk
 The level of project risk should be in line with
the corporate acceptable level of risk this filters
out unwanted high-risk ventures.
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 Project Governance
Project Organization Structure
 The project organization structure’s roles,
responsibilities, authority and performance
criteria are clearly defined, so that everyone
working on the project knows who is responsible
for what and who is reporting to whom.
Authority
 The project sponsor and the project manager are
given the authority they need to use company
resources; this authority is assigned in the agreed
manner
 Continued……

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Project Governance
 This list of examples clearly shows that
the project governance process should be
deeply embedded within the project
lifecycle’s procedures to ensure that the
corporate values influence how the
company does business.

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Project Ethics
 Ethics
relating to proper conduct.
Ethics covers the conduct and
moral principles recognized as
appropriate within the project
management profession (APM
BoK)

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Ethics (moral philosophy)
Moral principles
 Identify specific conduct as being either
‘right’ or ‘wrong’
 In accordance with the accepted ethical
theory
 Identify specific conduct as being either
‘right’ or ‘wrong’
 In accordance with the accepted ethical
theory (Northouse, 2017)

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Ethics and Leadership
“We need leaders who lead with
purpose, values, and integrity; leaders
who build enduring organisations,
motivate their employees to provide
superior customer service, and create
long-term values for shareholders.”
(George, 2003, p. 9)

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 Project Ethics
 Project ethics embraces the morally accepted
conduct and behavior expected from the
project leader and team members.
 These are defined as a company’s or a team’s
code of moral principles that set standards to
help distinguish between what the company or
the project team believes is good or bad, and
right or wrong

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 Project Ethics
 Project ethics help to establish principles
of behavior that guide the project leader
and team members in making choices
when there are a number of alternative
courses of action.
 Most professions have a code of
professional conduct that their members
are required to sign up to and follow (i.e.
Hypocrite's Oath)

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 Project Ethics
 Trust - Trust and respect are the
foundations of leadership and an essential
component of teamwork that cannot be
assigned – trust has to be earned
 Integrity - A person’s integrity is related
to consistency of actions, values, methods
and principles. Integrity is seen as the
quality of having a sense of honesty and
truthfulness

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 Project Ethics
 Honesty - Honesty refers to a person’s
moral character and denotes positive
virtuous attributes such as integrity and
truthfulness as opposed to lying, cheating
or theft
 Mistakes - One of the areas where
leaders’ honesty is tested is when they
make a mistake – do they own up or
cover up?

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 Project Ethics
 Respect - Managing team members with
dignity and respect denotes a positive
recognition of their qualities, while being
rude to employees indicates a lack of
respect and is disrespectful.
 Collaboration - Collaboration refers to
the process of two or more team
members working together to achieve
common objectives

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 Project Ethics
 Coercion - Coercion is the practice of
forcing another team member to behave
in an involuntary manner by the use of
threats, intimidation, trickery or some
other form of pressure
 Bullying - Bullying is not only unethical,
illegal and psychologically harmful, it is
also nonproductive. Bullying is the act of
performing unacceptable behavior to
exert power over another team member

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 Project Ethics
 Harassment - Harassment covers a wide
range of threatening and offensive behaviors
that are intended to disturb or upset the
team members. Sexual harassment refers to
persistent and unwanted sexual advances
where refusing can potentially have negative
consequences.
 Corruption - Corruption is usually
associated with the bribing of officials and
people in a position of authority and trust;
the bribery is used to influence their
judgment.

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 Project Ethics
 Sweatshops and Child Labor -
Sweatshops refer to working conditions
that are considered to be unhealthy and
dangerous and therefore it is unethical to
support companies that operate these
conditions. Child labor is an international
concern about the employment of
children under a certain age, when they
should be attending school

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Project Ethics
 Animal Testing - Animal testing refers to
the use of non-human animals in
experiments.

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 Legality to ethical behavior
 There is a legal component to ethical
behavior that the project sponsors have
to uphold in their management and
contractual arrangements.
 They might unknowingly be issuing
contracts to sweatshops using child labor
in a country where this practice might be
legal and acceptable, but unacceptable in
the country where the company sells its
products.

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Read Chapters 3 & 5
Project Leadership body of knowledge
• Understand the project leadership body of knowledge.
• Understand how the project manager establishes a
vision for the project that inspires the project team.
• Understand how the project manager can empower the
project team.
Leadership Behaviors
• Understand why leadership behaviors are what make
leaders.
• Identify a range of important behaviors that are adopted
by successful leaders.
• Understand why these behaviors are important.

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Have a good week……

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