Consultative Leadership

Leadership doesn’t always come easily to project managers because they have little clout. The nature of their work, often as temporary engagements, means project managers have limited authority over their team. They often don’t perform formal reviews of the team so they have to figure out a way to lead and guide people to satisfy customer needs.

Consultative leadership can do that. You can help educate others, help guide and direct them, but you must let them have a say in how work will get done. If I told you what to do, would that motivate you or demotivate you? If you are a highly trained, competent person, it can be a de-motivator. Project teams are fed up with the … hierarchical view of management. These people like to be told the goal but not how to do it. While project managers don’t have the authority to make go or no-go decisions, they do reign supreme when dictating how a project is executed. With this distinction in mind, influencing others to act means inspiring ownership or empowerment in a project through strong direction, advice and even education. Allow everyone to have a stake in the project. Team members can thus be more emotionally committed to the project. They’re empowered to execute project tasks, but the project manager can set a strong direction with the vision that they pass along from the sponsor.

until later …… V