When you think of leadership, who comes to your mind? A family member? A friend? A movie character? Whatever your answer, it means that person has marked you positively.
And that is the role of leadership in project management, to positively mark all those who participate in the team, achieve results and know how to deal with all people in order to extract their maximum potential!
But this is the part that you already knew, right? So read on to find out how a good leader can make all of this possible through some effective strategies.
1 – Think about the future
The difference of a good leader is to always be one step ahead of the others, and this is extremely important when managing a project.
After all, a project manager must always manage risk , anticipating any problems that may occur, establishing ways to prevent them from happening.
In addition, the leader is responsible for conducting benchmarks in order to outline the project’s goals, which can be based on the gap between current results and the results obtained by competitors.
2 – Organization
What’s the point of having well-established goals, a good team, a good database, if there isn’t a good organization, isn’t it?
Disorganization affects the productivity of the team, as it causes the waste of time to search for information, data, tools that could easily be found if there was a clean and organized work environment.
In addition, team members can naturally lose focus when they are unable to find the materials needed to carry out the project.
And where does the leader come into this story? The leader must maintain the organization throughout the project, with the aim of making everyone’s time as productive as possible!
This can be done through the use of the 5S Program , which through the 5 senses: use, organization, cleanliness, standardization and integrity, is able to optimize time, increase productivity and eliminate waste during the project.
3 – Establish good communication
According to a study by the PMI (Project Management Institute Brazil) with 300 large companies, 76% believe that communication failure is the main reason for projects to fail.
Incredible numbers, isn’t it? This shows that even with all the technical factors that comprise a project, it is extremely important to invest in communication between team members.
To avoid conflicts and confusing information, it is very important that the project leader knows how to give constructive feedbacks! After all, feedback is a powerful tool for improving communication between team members, preventing any failures that may occur.
Another way to maintain good communication is to schedule weekly meetings where all the information covering the execution of the project will be passed on, ensuring that the team works cohesively, seeking the same objective.
4 – Improve continuously
The continuous improvement is a concept that has been spreading increasingly within large companies. The idea of finishing a project and staying on it is outdated, after all, there are always new improvements to be made within an organization.
Thinking exactly about this concept of always improving, two methodologies were born that are present in all the big companies in the market: Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma Methodology . With Lean focused on reducing 8 wastes and Six Sigma on reducing process variability, these methodologies can also work together, in the famous Lean Six Sigma.
But what does this have to do with the figure of the leader during a project? All! The professional who masters these methodologies understands the concept of lean production , if they are industrial projects. It is also able to apply these methodologies in the services and logistics sector, through Lean Office and Lean Logística.
In addition, knowledge of these methodologies allows the leader to use the DMAIC method to define the problem, measure the current level of the company, analyze the data obtained, establish action plans ( PDCA cycle ) and control so that the results obtained are not lost .
5 – Meet the deadline
It seems like the most obvious thing in the world, but so many projects fail at that point. In the same survey mentioned above, 71% of companies cited non-compliance with deadlines as a factor for project failure.
Due to this high number, this is a point that must be given a lot of attention during project management. All activities must be developed following a well-established schedule, to avoid inconvenience or unexpected delays.
But how to do that? There is a software called MS Project that can help you. It is part of the office package and you may never have noticed its presence, but it is a key differentiator in this stage of the project.
There you can set up your project schedule, allocate teams, manage resources, evaluate budgets, measure performance, analyze opportunities and assess risks.
In other words, it is necessary that the project leader uses tools like this software to be able to meet the established deadlines, avoiding dissatisfaction on the part of those who hired the project!
Leading is an art!
You have probably heard that some people are born with the gift of leadership and others are not, but that is not a limitation. Of course, some people are born with characteristics that make them leaders by nature, while others need to be worked on to develop these skills.
If you don’t feel like a leader, or think you weren’t born with that gift, the answer is simple: study to get there. After all, as you can see, leadership in project management is essential!
So, if you want to reach that level, start with the tips above and go all the way to the top of your professional career.
This post was written by Voitto , a company that has been fulfilling the mission of training people for a competitive market, through digital and face-to-face training in the areas of continuous improvement (Lean and Six Sigma), Management Software and Leadership Development, in addition to consultancies that have experience and management techniques to generate results for clients.
