Different Leadership Styles And Project Management Techniques Essay.

Address questions for case study

• Explain why you might choose one of the leadership styles discussed in this module’s learning resources over another style when managing the highlighted project team.
• Describe which tools and techniques discussed in the resources you might use as a PM to influence this project team.
• As a project manager, what tools and techniques discussed in the resources are appropriate for managing communication outside of the project group?
• Explain which of the 5 types of power (as described in Shenoy web article) you would employ to motivate the team members to work collaboratively, and impact the project’s success
• Explain the methods for developing self-managed teams for Agile projects 
• Explain your reasons for selecting these approaches, referencing any insight you have gained from the module resources and research or your interaction with colleagues in the Module Discussions.
• Describe the steps you might take, as project manager, to alleviate challenges faced by your project team before those challenges grow so large that they damage the work environment or the final product. Explain why.

Overview of Leadership Styles

Leadership styles is a way in which leaders in an organization improvise approaches to direct, plan implementation and the way to motivate different people working in that particular organization. It can also be behavioral schemes that leaders embrace to impact the behaviors of those working under them. Different leaders have different leadership styles. These leadership styles are affected by different elements such as the personalities of leaders, the objectives of the organization and the competitive nature of the company (Hitt, et al 2015). The main aim of this paper is to highlight the different leadership styles implemented by a different organization.

Democratic leadership style gives the employees an opportunity to participate in decision making (Sharpe 2011). The lower level employees are empowered by the management; they are able to measure their own performance in the company. There is a continued flow of information from top managers to lower level staff (Choi 2007, p. 245). This form of leadership is the best since the employees are focused as they are part of the decision making of the company and thus work towards attaining the goals of the company. This form of leadership can majorly be used when the company has a lot of issues that require different opinions from different staff members to come to an agreement. Also if a company relies on teamwork democratic form of leadership is the best way to achieve the goals of different groups in a particular company project. Laisseiz faire leadership (Sharpe 2011) on the other hand can fail the company from achieving the set goals as the manager gives the mandate to employees to make their own decision and choose the path they think is good for them. This may not help the company in any way towards achieving the set goals, this only works when the employees are well vast in the knowledge and are experts in making different decisions. But if those under the manager are not well trained, it is not easy for this form of leadership to work.

There are a number of tools and techniques that project managers put in place in order to ensure the smooth running of events in a particular organization. Monitoring and conversation are one of the greatest tools that managers of different projects implement. This tool allows the manager to be closer to the team members and solve different issues that might arise Avolio, Walumbwa & Weber (2009, p. 430). The manager uses a tool called performance appraisal to evaluate the performance of different members in a given project. This tool is used to comprehend the potential of different members in a team for the future growth and development of the project. Management skills that managers are equipped with allow them to work closely with the team members and other stakeholders and this helps them curb conflict among the members of different teams.  For the project to run effectively, this is enhanced by the interpersonal skills of the project manager. This skill contributes to the success of the project. Project managers possess three important skills which include influential skills, effectual decision making and leadership. During the initiation of the project, the manager organizes the team members to assist in carrying out the initiation activities of the project.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Democratic, Autocratic, and Laissez-Faire Leadership Styles

Project management commutation does not mean that speaking and hearing what the team has to say but it involves comprehending the message completely (Collins 2014). Communication by the project managers can either be active or passive (Neuliep 2012, p. 10). By active, the manager can engage the audience face to face, through video conferencing, and even in person presentations. The passive method of communication may include email, blogs or webcast among many other methods the manager may wish to communicate with the staff. Managers can choose to use attachments for status report details, the audience understand differently, there are those who can comprehend the information in exceptions while others can only understand information that is detailed (Collins 2014). The manager can email both the detailed and the exceptions to the audience. The manager should also use a technique which allows him to report less when reporting to higher managers (Pujari 2015). Mostly the team members need detailed information based on their work while higher managers need information that is summarized. It’s advisable for the manager to use proper channels of communication, mostly paper is not advisable. The communication can be done through the email if it is intense and voicemail for information that is not long or complicated. The manager is allowed to use colors to show the health of the project. Whereby the green color shows that the project is safe and on the right track while red shows that the project is at a very high risk, yellow on the other hand is the average (Collins 2014). The manager should schedule communication so that everyone in the organization is aware of when communication is expected.

In the article about the types of power, the manager can use to motivate the team to achieve the objectives of the project is very clear on what managers should do. Managers should use the reward power, which states that many people work to their best or are motivated by rewards as they do their duty. The project manager should promise different rewards to employees this can motivate them to work extremely harder to achieve the set goals of the project (Shenoy n.d). The manager has to look for a way to either increase the comfort of employees or reduce the discomfort they might be experiencing. The power of persuasion whereby the manager presents the arguments in a way that encourages the team to work, through this power, the manager can make employees only focus on the success of the project. In short the way, the project manager addresses the employee’s matters to the success of the project. The charismatic power which is also termed as personal power addresses the personality of the manager. A manager with an attractive personality is likely to amaze the staff and this definitely motivates the employees to copy from the manager (Shenoy n.d). Through the expert power, the manager leads by an example.  The manager is able to direct information, apprehension, and expertise to the other members of the team. By doing this, helps the team to feel at peace and work towards the goals of the project. Referent power is whereby the project manager mentions to the team the compliment from the head manager said concerning their hard work (Colquitt, et al 2017). This alone motivates the team and trust in you more since they believe you associate with big people in power and they would work even harder just to be like you the manager.

Project Management Techniques for Effective Management

There are different methods that are used to develop self-managed teams for agile products; teach principles of self-management, self-managed teams are not used to supervision or leaders giving them direction (Boyer 2010). But leadership and management are important in setting the goals and giving direction within the confines of the structure of the team. A self-managed team is incapable of functioning if there is no communication. It should work on the intramural communication. During the meetings, team members are advised to share their different views be it on profits, loses or any issue they might have as this helps in the growth of the project. Communication is a crucial block for the team's trust. The team should spend more time backdating on what the members might have faced that hindered their progress. During this time members share more on their experiences during the sprint period, the difficulties they faced and all that. Self-managed agile projects focus on individuality. The team states that each member is treated as an individual and not as a group.

The leadership style chosen by the leaders in a particular company has a great impact on the achievements of the project (Bell 2013, p. 69). Choosing a democratic leadership style is more advantageous to the decision making in the project since everyone is involved (Choi2007, p.250).  The teams are given opportunities to share their views and it is the work of the manager to analyze the different views and decide on the final agreement. Under the autocratic approach, it cannot work well since the leaders are kind of dictating to those working under them.  The staff is not given an opportunity to participate in the decision making of the project implementation.  Laissez-faire plays no leadership role as all the mandate is given to employees to make decisions. This leaves the democratic leadership style to stand out.

Project managers face quite a number of challenges carrying out different managerial duties of the project. One of the major challenges is those team members who are not aware and cannot comprehend their responsibilities (Johnson 2015). This is a problem that project managers can handle before assigning duties to the team members. The managers have to ensure that the team has clear information about who is responsible for what in the organization to avoid confusion among the team members. Another challenge is meeting deadlines; this is a crucial problem (Lonoff 2015). To handle this, the project manager should allocate team members with particular deadlines for different parts of the project. Through doing this, the manager is in a position to make corrections if they are there in good time. Or another way the manager should handle such an issue is by dividing the project into small portions with enough space that will enable him to make changes in good time before the delivery period is reached. Another challenge is when the manager is not aware of a problem in the institution (Choi, Goh& Adam 2016, p. 14). A good project manager should hold meetings with the team members either weekly or bi-weekly to check on the status of the members how they are faring on and if there is a problem that needs quick solution it should be solved. The biggest challenge that project managers face is managing and integrating with team members who are in different locations and different time zone (Lonoff 2015). To curb this particular problem, managers should implement a tool called EMC Syncplicity. This is a great tool that will allow employees to work from their different locations and the project functions without any hindrance.

References

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