Project leadership

Quality leadership has been shown to be the most important characteristic of an effective project manager. However, effective leadership is not easy to define or pinpoint with a blanket description. The two key questions leaders need to ask themselves are: Whom do I ask? and Who makes the decision? Due to the importance of leadership qualities in a project manager, the Jerrell/Slevin Leadership Instrument can be used to characterize a project manager's leadership style. The four main leadership styles are: autocrat, consultative autocrat, consensus manager, and shareholder manager. These styles take participation, delegation, situational leadership, and leader personality into account to determine a person's style of management. Understanding their leadership style can help project managers match leadership style to the situation, as there is not any one style that fits best with every situation. A case study is presented.