Learning Outcome 5

Question 1

5.1 Explain how leadership impacts on team performance and motivation

Answer 1

• Project manager must focus on different aspects of leadership throughout the life cycle of the project (willingness to follow depends on leadership)
• Early phases may focus on influencing stakeholders (transactional style)
• Later phases may focus on maintaining momentum and responding to change (transformational style)
• A transformational leadership style creates a vision and inspires subordinates to strive beyond required expectations, whereas transactional leadership focuses more on extrinsic motivation for the performance of job tasks
• In order to lead, leaders must be aware of team members’ motivational requirements (see theories below)
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: (physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem, self actualisation). Understand where they are and encourage them to look to the next level for motivation.
• Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory: (people are influenced by wo factors: motivators (achievement and psychological growth) and hygiene factors (salary, working conditions, company policy)). Understand that, just because someone comes to work every day, it may just be because of hygience factors. Want them to have motivators too.
• Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y: (two opposite views of how team members could be percieved by leaders. Theory X - people are unmotivated and dislike working. Theory Y - people are willing to work, self-motivated and happy to accept responsibility). Theory X results in structural, autocratic leadership with little delegation and high levels of control. Theory Y results in a more participative style of leadership based on trust and decentralisation).

Question 2

5.2 Explain why it might be necessary to change leadership styles to effectively support the management of a project?

Answer 2

• Leadership is needed at all levels of a project.
• Leaders need to understand how to get the best out of their team and provide support, constructive feedback and be receptive to feedback
• Leaders should adapt their style according to people and tasks. This is called Situational Leadership.
• Sometimes a more directive style is needed whereas, at others, a mentoring style is needed.
• When a team is established and working well, a leader only needs to intervene ocassionally.
• There is a spectrum from Control to Empower (directing, coaching, enggaging, delegating). Where the situation is more critical and the team is less skilled, the style should be more based on control. Where the situation is less critical or the team is more skilled, it should be based on delegation.

Question 3

5.3 Describe the characteristics and benefits of effective teams and teamwork

Answer 3

• Effective teamework involves collaboration and cooperation towards a common goal
• Team working is most effective when people with complementery skills and behaviours are committed to a common objective and method of working
• The benefits are as follows:
• Improved quality of output (everyone underatanding the part they play in delivering this)
• More effective communication (as a team develops, open communication can lead to timely solutions and avoid conflict. People are thus motivated to try new ways of doing things.
• increased productivity (the team as a whole achieves more than they would as individuals because people can work to their skills and strengths, resource can be moved to a difficult area)
• Improved motivation (belonging, recognition, achieving something as a team that you wouldn’t have been able to achieve along can make you more motivated)
• Greater degree of innovation and problem solving (people presenting and workshopping ideas with one another, risk shared)

Question 4

5.4 Explain the factors that impact on the leadership of virtual teams

Answer 4

• Virtual teams are really useful (access to the most talented people regardless of location)
• But there are challenges:
• More difficult to build relationships and trust
• Harder to detect first signs of conflict
• Harder to gel without informal interactions
• To be effective in leading a virtual team, you will need to do this (core skills - > outer skills):
• Develop a virtual leadership mindset , approach and leadership style
• Establish how best to work with remote colleagues (skills, preferences, norms for comms)
• Decide on the best technology fit (networks, audio, video)
• Master the complexities, such as language, culture, time zones, generations

Question 5

5.5 Explain which factors influence the creation, development and leadership of teams

Answer 5

• You don’t necessarily get to choose who joins the team but you have to lead it
• It is key to be able to develop temporary project teams from scratch
• Tuckman Model: teams go through different stages of maturity before reaching optimum performance. Progress through it is facilitated by effective leadership. Stages below.
• Forming (first point of contact, guarded, leader to make things inclusive and objectives clear)
• Storming (personalities develop, conflicts arise, conflicts need to be managed and resolved)
• Norming (cooperation increases, focus on tasks, leader to provide process, clear roles and responsibilities, feedback)
• Performing (delivering targeted performance, problem solving and motivation high, leader should ensure performance is maintained with openess and development of relationships, stopping team reverting)
• Adjourning (added later, acknowledges effort of team leader in preparing team for end of project and transition back into org)
• Another factor that’s been considered is the influence of different personalities working together. Use the Belbin model.
• Belbin described nine social roles that people adopt (with strengths and weaknesses). Indivduals will perform better if they are given a role that suits their strengths.
• Action cluster (shaper (drive), completer finisher (subject output to quality control), implementer (plan and carry out efficient strategy))
• Social (team worker (diplomat, versatile), resource investigator (finds ideas), coordinator (focus on objectives and delegate))
• Thinking (plant (support for problem solving and obstacles), monitor evaluator (logical, impartial judgements), specialist (distinct strengths in a narrow area))

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