Leadership and Communication in Project Management

– By  Scott Gilbreth, President of 3AIG and Bellevue University Student

Scott Gilbreth currently serve as the President of 3AIG, a service company he co-founded. He formally worked as the Quality Assurance and Compliance Manager at PayDay.gg Esports. He is from the Nebraska area and is working towards a Master’s Degree in Management Information Systems (MIS) at Bellevue University to further his education and dream of working within the Technology Sector. If you would like more information, you can connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottgilbreth/

Leadership and Communication are two of the most important abilities, that a Project Manager must be able to implement and use in the life of a project. As important as it is for a project manager to address issues and update stakeholders on the progress of a project, it is that much more important for a project manager to be upfront, honest, and consistently communicating with their project team. Alongside, using leadership to help address any issues that arise, the project manager is able to give full instruction on how to fix the issues if one or more project team members are unaware of a solution.

While communication can have its ups and downs, or as the project managers like to call them, communication risk factors, it is important to stay calm and asses the issues and come up with reasonable solutions. While reasonable solutions are not always found, and communication problems continue, issues like these can get to a point where a project does become plagued. Because these issues are continuing, shows signs that either, Trust & Credibility, is not present between the Project Manager or Project Team and an individual of the Project Team or a Stakeholder.

Secondly, Emotions, it is important to have individuals who can still perform in emotional states, while this is not always the case, it can cause issues with the project team or project manager when making decisions. In cases when it is the project manager who is emotionally altered, it will in turn make it difficult for them to fully communicate or perform leadership a team in time of need.

Lastly, Filtering, it is important for a project manager to not manipulate information to make it more appealing to a receiver, but state the truth and consistent honesty. Alongside filtering, is that of being a transparent project manager is recommended to fully obtain respect. In fact, those leaders who feel they must be closed off and not use transparency end up losing their authoritative power, respect, leverage, and overall trust from the employees around them. Because they do not reciprocate to the employee, providing lack of communication, and only talking down, and not towards those employees they are trying to lead. Most leaders who try to lead, end up just managing, and never learn how to correctly lead. While being transparent is recommended, there are multiple times when you must jump into full on Manager, and in turn it become difficult to be transparent with your project team as a project manager. The situation is dependent on the urgency, and in most cases, is only used when:

• The Project Manager is delivering BAD news to the Client(s), Stakeholders, or Upper-Management. Such as “we are behind on schedule, and we will need more time or more financial recourses.” This kind of situation can case the project manager to encourage and force the project team to work harder and longer in a demanding tone. Which in place, can cause the project team to view the project manager as disrespectful and mistrusting. As he/she has allowed the project to run behind schedule and over budget.

• When the project does not fully communicate the outline of the guidelines for the project, causing team members to wonder if the project fully has an understanding of the project. If the project manager does not fully understand what is needing to be done, neither will those who they are leading.

To end this discussion on leadership and communication, I feel it is best if we address the Myers-Briggs Personality Test, this test as we all know analyzes key characteristics of an individual’s personality, and in turn can tell if they are suitable for specific traits. Specific traits hold enhancement for being a leader, being extroverted, introverted, and etc. All these traits, determine how successful an individual will be at managing, leading, and fully communication with a team, as well as subordinates.

Reference:

(2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® guide. Newtown Square, Pennsylvania: Project Management Institute, Inc.

Project Communication Management & Leadership, Gray, Laron, Schneider, Dowd & De Janasz. (2015) McGraw Hill, 2015.

Danturthi, R. Sarma (December 31^st, 2016). Transparency In Project Management. Retrieved from https://www.projectmanagement.com/articles/358236/Transparency-in-Project-Management

Graybill, M. (August 8^th, 2013). Leadership Fundamentals: Transparency & Trust. Retrieved from https://aboutleaders.com/leadership-fundamentals-transparency-and-trust/#gs.Xj6I5i8

Gray, Laron, Schneider, Dowd & De Janasz. (2015) McGraw Hill, 2015.

Sivasankari, R. (2010). Art of communication in project management. Retrieved from https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/effective-communication-better-project-management-6480

Published by emadrahim

Dr. Emad Rahim currently serves as the Kotouc Family Endowed Chair and Professor at Bellevue University. He is an award-winning author, educator, entrepreneur, Fulbright Recipient and TEDx Speaker. He has a rich background in project management, having led various projects for diverse organizations across the nation for over 15 years. He holds post-doctoral credentials from Harvard, Tulane, and the University of Maryland/UC, as well as a Ph.D. in Organizational Sustainability from Capitol Technology University, a D.M. and two master’s degrees in business from Colorado Tech, and a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Empire State College. He has been honored with an honorary Ph.D. from The Chicago School, a Community Impact Award from SUNY Empire State College and a Distinguished Alumni Award from the American Association of Community Colleges. He also possesses several professional certifications, such as PMP, A-CSM, CSP, APMC, OMCP, CM, CMgt. View all posts by emadrahim