Discussion Leadership Style versus Project Management

This post is set up to discuss about project management leadership styles. It covers a brief definition on project management, outlines the commonly practiced project management leadership styles and delves into 2 of them by comparing the Participative and Directive styles. Your comments and viewpoints on the discussion are most welcome.

 

In layman's terms, project management is about meeting a set of project goals within a given set of project parameters or constraints. A project manager optimises the use of the available project resources to achieve the project objectives, including but not limited to ensuring delivery on project scope, meeting project timeline, staying within project budget, etc.

 

There are many project management leadership styles such as Visionary, Affiliative, Participative, Coaching, Pacesetter, Directive, etc. More details on how and when to apply them can be found <a href=" removed link " target="_blank" rel="noopener">here.

 

A project manager adopting Participative (a.k.a. Democratic) style can often be seen working closely with and guiding the project team, encouraging the team to provide feedback and involving the team in decision-making. The project manager values teamwork and recognises every team member's significant role in successful project delivery.

 

Participative project management leadership style works best in projects with reasonable project timeline as opposed to need-it-yesterday or under-fire projects. This is because this leadership style takes time, especially for large project teams. When adopted for the right projects, this leadership style can boost creativity in the team and improve the team's morale.

 

On the other hand, a project manager adopting Directive (a.k.a. Autocratic) style takes nearly full control of the action and direction of the project team. The project manager often makes decisions alone and establishes the exact steps the team needs to take in achieving the project goals.

 

These days, Directive project management leadership style tends to be out of fashion, but some project managers still adopt this style when it comes to projects with tight project timeline, projects that are technically complex or project teams that are still developing.

 

I am a big fan of Participative project management leadership style. However, at times when a project situation needs quick response or decision, I may turn to Directive style but that's far and few. What have your experiences been with project management leadership styles?