Qualities Of Leadership And Project Management example essay topic

Leadership and Management In today's work field successful leaders and managers are a hot commodity. Mangers and leaders that are able to bring success to their organization are often given an enormous amount of respect from their workers and their peers. In this Paper I will discuss the principles of management and leaders and how they compare and contrast one another in a working environment. Effective leaders are not necessarily born but rather sculptured from the images that are experienced through various leaders that the individual may have worked with. They are sculptured through the trials and tribulations of managing or working with people in a variety of settings. Most good leaders have had bad experiences with individuals with power in their past and are looking to make a change to better improve their organization.

Effective leaders are excellent communicators and are able to speak clearly to the individuals within the groups or organizations they lead. Effective leaders are often working with their fellow workers carefully listening and helping their workers in order to have success in their future for their business. Leaders offer their workers the opportunities to override their mistakes by triumphantly overcoming them. Leaders have solid vision and unshakeable persistence in achieving a goal. Leaders have to juggle their busy schedules by not only doing their work but ensuring that their workers are successfully completing their tasks as well. A leader empowers their workers to seek change and develop many alterative routes to decisions.

A strong leader is brave and is able to make decisions without hesitation and maintains integrity at all times. A strong leader overall has these important characteristics which Marines like to call JJ DID TIE BUCKLE, Judgment, Justice, De Project managers are leaders of small and large groups destined to complete a strategic project plan. Leadership characteristics described above can make or break a team. In all successful project fulfillment's, it is the leadership of the project manager that determines the type of success for the project's members.

The most successful accomplishments are met with a sense of fun and reward when goals and objectives are met, all facilitated by the project manager's leadership. "Persistent leadership is required to make partnering work. Project managers must "walk the talk" and consistently display a collaborative response to problems. Similarly, top management must consistently and visibly champion the principles of openness, trust, and teamwork".

(Gray and Larson, 2001, p. 373) There is also an emerging element in project management. It was first introduced by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book Flow - The Psychology of Optimal Experience. (Harper and Row, 1990). He states that, "Instead of accepting the unity of purpose provided by genetic instructions or by the rules of society, the challenge for us is to create harmony based on reason and choice".

This reason and choice are the foundations of project management. People are more productive when they have optimal experience, a sense of flow to their personal and professional lives. Mr. Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as 'being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.

Your whole being is involved, and you " re using your skills to the utmost. ' This is the foundation for the highest productivity in any organization. Project managers of today are successful due to their interpersonal relationships with everyone associated with the project. Providing an environment noted by Gray and Larson means that to incorporate the concepts and a delivery mechanism of optimal performance, Flow has to be incorporated within the foundation of the strategic plan.

The attention given to this process empowers the leadership skills of each member of the team. Empowered leaders facilitate action and results, often better than anticipated. Leadership styles that are successful in one industry may not garner the same results in another. The integrity of James Burke, CEO of Johnson & Johnson, led the company out of a potential disaster when Tylenol's tampering took place.

Instead of following the recommendations of both the FBI and the Food and Drug Association, they recalled the entire supply on the market, even replacing customers' capsule bottles with tablets. On the other hand, had he been faced with the knowledge that fossil fuel use is polluting air, ground, and waters of the world, would he have recalled the oil? Realistically, CEOs management styles are often tailored to their particular industry. Defense contractors have traditionally been lead by job threat rather than job rewards.

Managing by threat of loss creates a company atmosphere of mistrust, which is diametrically opposed to current management philosophy. Many companies in this industry have initiated a variety of sensitivity programs to bolster productivity. This kind of leadership would certainly not work in an environmentally impacted or socially-driven organization. The resistance to a change of management philosophy of a cultural creative in defense industry would be equally ineffective, initially The Project Manager Code of Ethics described in the text begins with: "Project Management Professionals, in the pursuit of their profession, affect the quality of life for all people in our society. Therefore, it is vital that Project Management Professionals conduct their work in an ethical manner to earn and maintain the confidence of team members, colleagues, employees, clients, and the public". (Gray and Larson, 2001, p. 550) The Articles within the Code of Ethics describe the optimal practices of human accountability, creativity, and responsibility.

With minor nomenclature changes, it could very well read like the articles for developing any kind of organizational foundation. Leaders, true leaders, exemplify these Articles in their daily living. It is the following of the precepts set forth in these Articles that make them the recognized leaders within the organizations they serve, be it a corporation or community. In Waking Up - Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential (1986), Dr. Charles Tart postulates our will is largely a mechanical reaction based on conditioning, intelligence is severely limited compared to what it could be, and there is no true self controlling life from a state of genuine self-consciousness.

This discovery, not only by Dr. Tart, is changing the way personal and professional lives are working. The attitude of project management reflects this change. The qualities of leadership and project management demonstrate the symbiosis of creating results in life or in industry, there is little difference between the two in our evolving society It can be said that a good man is worth his weight in gold. This writer proposes that a true leader is priceless.

Demonstrating the qualities of leadership not only wins friends and influences people; it sets the standard of behavior within an organization. The writer's perspective of a true leader is one who leads people through using charisma, tact and skill, with concern for the rights and privileges of others, and cares for the positive impact on people and planet within the scope of their leadership and beyond.

Bibliography

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1990).
Flow - The Psychology of Optimal Experience, New York, NY: Harper and Row Publishing. Gray, Clifford F. ; Larson, Erik W., Project Management - The Managerial Process, Copyright (c) 2001 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Tart, Dr. Charles (1986), Waking Up - Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential, Copyright (c) 1986 by The Institute of Noetic Sciences.