Li E - The Role of Leadership

Essay – The Role of Leadership in Delivering A Successful Project IDBE 12

By Li Hong Yu Univ. of Cambridge

Essay - The Role of Leadership in Delivering A Successful Project

By

Li HongYu

IDBE 12

University of Cambridge

August 2006



Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction2.0 Leadership

2.1 Definition of Leadership

2.2 Leadership versus Management

2.3 Qualities and Traits of a Leader

3.0 Leadership in Delivering A Project

3.1 Leadership in Team Building

3.2 Leadership in Project Process

3.3 Impetus for Changes

3.4 Cultivating Leadership

3.5 A Perception in Today’s Organisations - Architectural or

Engineering Consulting Firms

4.0 Conclusion and Discussion

Bibliography



1.0 Introduction

It is common practice today that a project manager is assigned with theauthority and responsibility to manage a project in a constraining andferociously competitive environment. The project manager shall thereforeundertake the functions of organisation, planning, staffing, directing andcontrolling the project to enable the management of the budget and work planand all project management procedures including scope management, issuesmanagement, risk management, and so on, to achieve the objectives of theproject within the requisite time frame and budget.

A project manager is often by default regarded as a project leader, playing asignificant role in not merely managing but also leading the project team toachieve the objectives of the project. Nevertheless, can a project managernaturally be a leader? Are there distinctions between leadership andmanagement? Research studies on leadership and management indicate thatthey are essentially different entities although there are many overlaps betweenthem. What should a manager do and what should a leader do in a projectenvironment? How can a good harmony be attained to balance leadership andmanagement in order to deliver the success of a project which is, in the end,people’s accomplishment? To answer these questions it is necessary to turn tofundamental principles underpinning the definition of leadership, character traitsand innate capabilities of a leader, relationship of project leadership andmanagement implemented in the life cycle of a project.

This essay focuses on seeking out answers for the above questions and findingan insight and essence of project leadership as well as the relationship of aleader and his team, the followers, in the cycle of a project work, theindispensable elements leading to the success of a project.

2.0 Leadership

The old image of a dictating boss with a non-negotiable goal of a projectwhipping and rounding up his team and charging off to the destination is hardlyconsistent with modern management thinking. The concept of themanagement of an organization or enterprise has steadily evolved over the lastfew decades. The different decades, according to Dilenschneider [1], may becharacterized as shown in Table 1.



1950 - 60 1970 - 80 1990 -

Administrators Managers Leaders

- By tradition

- Chain of command

- Stable

- Introspective

- Apprenticeship

- By exception

- Ad-hoc

- Turbulent

- Market driven

- Mentoring

- By vision

- Instant

- Sustaining

- Customer driven

- Teamwork

Table 1: The Evolution of Enterprise Leadership

It can be seen from the above table that there had been a progression from‘administrative command’ to ‘team leadership’, a change driven by anenlightened work force and a need to be ferociously competitive.

Leaders create and need followers. Therefore they need to understand people,his or her followers. Douglas McGregor [2] has examined theories onbehaviour of individuals at work based on social science research, and he hasformulated two models which he calls Theory X and Theory Y. Theory X is theassumption that:

Average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it ifhe can.

Most people must be coerced, controlled and threatened if theorganization is to achieve its objectives.

The average human avoids responsibility, prefers to be directed, lacksambition and values security most of all.

Theory Y is the assumption that

The expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is as natural asrest or play.

People will exercise self-direction and self-control in the service ofobjectives to which they are committed.

Given the right conditions, the average worker can learn to accept and toseek responsibility.

The capacity for creativity in solving organizational problems isdistributed widely in the population.

The intellectual potential of the average person is only partially utilised.



Commitment to objectives is a function of rewards associated with theirachievement.

It can be seen that these two theories are two separate attitudes. The centralprinciple of Theory X is direction and control through a centralised system oforganisation and the exercise of autocrat or authority, whilst Theory Y is aboutthe integration of individual and organisational goals. In the modern businessworld leadership works better in Y theory.

Although the above-stated theories are dated now, the assumptions of them,however, lie behind most organizational principles today. Application of teamleadership in today’s organisations will need leaders who understand theorganizational principles and develop and exert the effective leadership toinfluence and change those principles and effectively motivate people toachieve the organizational objectives and coherently accomplish individuals’goals.

2.1 Definition of Leadership

Interestingly there are many studies and publications about leadership in recentyears, but there is no common definition of leadership yet. Many authors haveattempted to describe leadership within the limits of their understanding andemphasis. The following definitions of leadership are found from literaturewhich may be more representative for leadership:

Leadership is ‘Development of a clear and complete system of expectations inorder to identify, evoke and use the strengths of all resources in theorganization – the most important of which is people’ (Batten, 1991) [3].

‘Leadership is the lifting of people’s vision to a higher sight, the raising of theirperformance to a higher standard, the building of their personality beyond itsnormal limitations’ (Drucker, 1985) [4].

‘The ability to lead, including inspiring others in a shared vision, Leaders haveclear visions and they communicate these visions to their employees. Theyfoster an environment within their companies that encourages risk taking,recognition and rewards, and empowerment allowing other leaders to emerge’(strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/instco-levc.nsf/en/h_qw 00037e.html) [5].

Leaders are people ‘who inpsire with clear vision of how things can be donebetter ‘ (Slater, 2001) [6].

The above definitions plausibly come to agree that ‘vision’ and ‘people’ areprimary ingredients in leadership context. An undersatanding of the importanceof ‘people’ to the success of a project has developed through experienceattained and hard lessons learned as this: ‘People First, Strategy Second –



Getting the right people in the right jobs is a lot more important than developinga strategy. This truth applied to all kinds of businesses…We learned hard waythat we could have the greatest strategies in the world. Without the rightleaders developing and owning them, we’d get good-looking presentations andso-so results’ (Welch, 2001) [7].

The key ingredients of effective project leadership leading to success havebeen portrayed graphically as shown in Figure 1 (Adapted from Hellregial, D.Slocum, J.W., Jr. & Woodman, R. W.) [8].

Figure 1

With these attributes in mind, a simple yet comprehensive, distillation ofleadership thought in the context of a project has been suggested as follows(www.maxwideman.com/papers/leader/ definition.htm) [9]:

Project leadership is an ability to get things done well through others. Itrequires:

A vision of the destination A compelling reason to get there A realistic timetable, and A capacity to attract a willing team

2.2 Leadership versus Management

What is management then? What does a project manager do? Some answersare found from a literature search as detailed below:

"Management" (from Old French ménagement "the art of conducting,directing", from Latin manu agere "to lead by the hand") characterises theprocess of leading and directing all or part of an organization, often abusiness, through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human,financial, material, intellectual or intangible) (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/management) [10].

‘Management is the organizational process that includes strategic planning,setting; objectives, managing resources, deploying the human and financial

Effective ProjectLeadership

Influencing

Visioning

Communicating

Listening andQuestioning

Strategizing

Success

Empowering

Team Building



assets needed to achieve objectives, and measuring results’(home.earthlink.net/~ddstuhlman/) [11].

‘A project manager is responsible for the planning, coordination andcontrolling of a project from inception to completion, meeting the project'srequirements and ensuring completion on time, within cost and to requiredquality standards’ (www.lincoln.ne.gov/city/pworks/engine/dconst/copecnst/resource/) [12].

It can be seen that Project Management is the process of attaining projectgoals in an effective and efficient manner through planning, organizing,controlling, and directing organizational resources. It has significantadministrative components such as managing, planning, organising, controlling,and monitoring to deliver the project. Both leadership and managementprocesses involve the attainment of organizational goals, but each involvesdifferent kinds of functions with different focuses: Managers do things right,while leaders do the right thing (Pascale, 1990) [13]. The respective positionsof leaders and managers on a number of issues are outlined in Table 2 [14].

It is clear that project managership is important because this is about gettingthings done. It is also clear that leadership is equally important to the successof a project because leadership is essentially about motivating people.

Managers focus on Leadership focuses on

Goals & objectives Telling how and when Shorter range Organization and structure Autocracy Restraining Maintaining Conforming Imitating Administrating Directing & controlling Procedures Consistency Risk-avoidance Bottom line

Vision Selling what and why Long range People Democracy Enabling Developing Challenging Originating Innovating Motivating & Inspiring trust Policy Flexibility Risk-opportunity Top line

Good managers do the thingsright

Good leadership does the rightthing

Table 2: Differences in Style



2.3 Qualities and Traits of a Leader

Further examination of leadership gives a perception in the innatecharacteristics and qualities needed by a leader. Research has found thefollowing important characteristics and traits are common in a good leader(www.amputee-coalition.org/communicator/) [15]:

Passion – A leader has a passion for a cause that is larger than they are, adream for how the world can be better and the part they can play – and rallyothers to join-in making their dream a reality.

Vision – Vision gives direction to, and is needed to breathe life into, apassionate dream.

Influence - Leadership is influence. Success of leadership today is by influence,not by authority.

Holders of Values – Leaders have values that legitimise an organization andcharacterize the organization’s culture – values like respect for others, caringabout people, and in the case of support groups, empathy for those who needsupport and encouragement.

Creativity and Courage – Leaders think outside the box. They have thestrength, courage and confidence to do the thing they think they cannot do.They are not afraid to try solutions that are new or different.

Intellectual Drive and Knowledge – Leaders are perpetual students of theircraft. They read, they learn, and they get ideas from others.

Confidence and Humility – Leaders have confidence that their vision iscorrect, yet they are humble enough to accept better ideas from other people.

Communicator – Leaders speak and write in ways that encourage others tofollow.

Interpersonal Skills – Leaders have the ability to listen well, resolveinterpersonal conflicts, and keep everyone moving along in the same direction.

It comes to a point at one time that good is not wholly enough. Can a goodcompany become a great company? If so, how? Jim Collins and his researchteam embarked on a five-year profound research effort seeking out theanswers to the above-said questions and discovered that one of the key factorsfor companies that made the leap from good to great and sustained it for asuccessful long term (at least fifteen years) was a Level 5 leader who was atthe helm of every good-to-great company during the transition era anddisplayed the fierce resolve to do whatever needed to do to make the companygreat. The term, Level 5, refers to the highest level in a hierarchy of executivecapabilities as shown in the following diagram [16]:



Of the five layers of the pyramid, a Level 5 leader ranks at the top andembodies all five layers and demonstrates the distinguishing traits of the good-to-great leaders. The key inherent qualities and traits Level 5 leaderspossessed are concluded as below [16]:

Level 5 leaders display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing andunderstated.

Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need toproduce sustained results. They are resolved to do whatever it takes tomake the company great, no matter how big or hard the decisions.

Level 5 leaders display a workmanlike diligence – more plow horse thanshow horse.

Level 5 leaders look out the window to attribute success to factors otherthan themselves. When things go poorly, however, they look in themirror and blame themselves, taking full responsibility.

The above well describes what qualities and traits a person should inherentlypossess as a leader.



3.0 Leadership in Delivering A Project

Application of leadership and management in project environment is very muchto do with the characteristics of a project today and the life cycle of a project.

Many projects nowadays tend to be of large-scale, complex and international inscope and with high-end standards to achieve in a constricted time frame andthe need to adhere to a strict budget. Such projects tend to involve a relativelysizeable project team of multi-disciplined professionals and multi-phasedimplementation. Today’s typical project environment could be described asagile and ferociously competitive. To deliver the success of a project and moreimportantly to sustain business in the highly competitive environment will needan effective leadership to be built up in the project team and executed throughthe process of a project.

3.1 Leadership in Team Building

Leadership in the contemporary project environment will have more emphasison global and multicultural issues – Asia & the West, Classical & Modern.Teamwork, the main paradigm of how we work today, needs effectiveleadership in team building.

Leadership is about motivating people with the shared vision. An effectiveproject team leader should be a ‘’social architect’’ who understands theinteraction of organizational and behavioural variables, respects variouscultures and comprehends the differences, can foster a climate of activeparticipation and can minimize dysfunctional conflict. To be effective, the teamleader must identify key issues associated with three dimensions as follows:

Understand project tasks - identify goals and objectives and conductplanning and scope management;

Find who – get the right people for the project on board, build an efficientexecutive team, establish trust and respect, and clear out barriers toteam development;

Then what – with the right team in place, empower, motivate, enable andsupport people to undertake and implement the project tasks throughoutthe project life cycle.

The above conditions can be accomplished through effectiveintercommunication which is pivotal in the project management process. Themore the team can be motivated and empowered through effectivecommunication, the more productive and efficient they become and in turn theless direction and control is required. This will lead to a Self Directed WorkTeam (SDWT). According to Batter [17] there are five things that members of asuccessful team need from their leader:



Expectation – Tell me what you expect of me Opportunity – Give me an opportunity to perform Feedback – Let me know how I am doing Guidance – Give me guidance when and where I need it Reward – Reward me according to my contribution

For the team to become an SDWT, both of the members of a project team, thefollowers, and their leaders are expected to interact proactively throughout theprocess of a project. The leader focuses successively on telling, selling, gellingand producing project activities along with a four-phase careful teamdevelopment, which is characterized as ‘forming, storming, norming andperforming’ (maxwideman.com/papers/leader/)[18]. The leader’s accompanyinglevel of supportive versus directive leadership behaviour should be consistentwith the ‘followership’ development in each of the four phases:

In the first, members of the team tend to be quiet, polite, guarded withless communication but business-like. The leader should encourageand take ‘telling’ actions to get the team acquainted quickly and throughtelling for the team to be aware of their goals and objectives ofconducting the project;

In the second, there tends to be conflict over control, individuals mayconfront one another and, as a result, either become entrenched or optout. Whilst the leader uses the ‘selling’ skills to motivate and enable theteam to move forward to realize his planning and directing strategies;

In the third of ‘gelling’ versus ‘norming’ phase, a semblance oforganization emerges with the establishment and acceptance ofprocedures, team skills and focus on issues. Objectives are envisionedand strategies are formed. The team structure is established andsystems and procedures are formed to follow. It becomes a focus forthe leadership to empower and energize the team to achieve efficiencyand effectiveness in the implementation of the project via striking a goodbalance of playing directive and supportive roles.

In the final phase, the team settles down to open and productive effortwith trust, flexibility, and a mature closeness which enables self-direction.The leader tends to be more supportive than directive in this phase.

This is a team leadership and ‘followership’ evolution process through carefulcoherent team and leadership developments. The leader should consciouslymodify his or her level of directive versus supportive behaviour in response tothe progressive evolution of team ‘followership’.



3.2 Leadership in Project Process

Leadership is essentially about motivating people whilst management is aboutgetting things done.

Project management is a structured but flexible process for producing theproject end result. Its success depends on the application of a two-stepsequence: first plan, then produce. This is the genesis of every successfulproject life cycle.

In the planning phases of a project, the project leader leads the project teamand other major stakeholders through a high degree of study and analysis ofthe project Brief, information and constraints to come up with organizationaland operational strategies in order to achieve agreed goals and objectives ofthe project. It is a process requiring a number of iterations in order to flush outthe client’s needs. In this connection, visioning, intelligence gathering anddeveloping a compelling reason and appropriate strategies are the all-importantissues. These issues also form the essential basis for effective teamdevelopment. Planning is about optimising the effectiveness of the project andits results, i.e. ‘doing the right thing’.

On the other hand, task execution gets done in the producing phases. In thesephases, the paramount requirement is an ability to conduct the projectdeliverables to the satisfaction of the client(s) to the required standards, withinthe constraints of programme and budget by directing, controlling anddeploying the human, material and financial resources. Thus, producing, ormanagement of production, is about optimising the project process, i.e. ‘doingthe things right’. In this producing process, motivating, innovating, energizingand supporting the team to implement the right strategies and get the projectwork done to the set requirements are also essential.

It is clear that both managers and leaders have to get business result. This isabout business survival and is absolutely essential. For managers they willnormally see the completion of project as an end in itself, success means thecompletion of project tasks via the teamwork. However there is always something beyond such an ending. It is, again, about ‘Vision’ and ‘People’. Intoday’s world we go to work not merely for financial rewards for a basic living,but also for something with intangible values: self-satisfaction, career ambition,egoistic accomplishments, i.e. personal growth. This is a truism for both leaderand followers. A visionary leader will never stop at the point where the teammerely achieve the basic business result or the mediocrity of their work, he willnot accept the ordinary or mediocrity but painstakingly and persistently pursuegreatness by envisioning a higher goal. He virtually views projects as themeans to that higher end. He will make his people believe in him, share hisvision and wilfully run extra miles to ultimately achieve individuals’ goals whichinherently integrate with the shared project goals. It is felt that this extra runfor a higher goal distinguishes a leader from a manager and addresses theessence how a manager can become a leader.



It can therefore be seen that it is not enough to be only an effective manager inorder to deliver a successful project. One phrase to express it is thatmanagement and leadership are symbiotic. Management brings order andstructure to leadership and leadership actualises yet elevates management byeffectively rallying and empowering the entire team to run extra miles to reachthe project objectives and personal development goals. Without both beingcoherently present, this symbiosis cannot occur.

3.3 Impetus for Changes

Implementation of a project is a dynamic process, very often involvingunexpected and unpredictable changes. A good team leader should not onlyprovide continuity and momentum but also be flexible in allowing changes ofdirection. Change is the root of all leadership challenges in any sense.

A leader should be able to anticipate and manage changes all the time.Changes emanate from both external and internal sources. For externalchanges, the leader should possess the abilities to sensibly observe situations,fathom the facts and adversities which emerge in the course of a project, andforesee the coming changes and their potential impacts, and then adjust thestrategies and directions where his/her team should steer to in order to bestcope with the changes.

In response to agile and competitive external environments and situations theleader should be able to create and initiate internal changes in strategy anddirection from time to time. These changes will give rise to changes inresources planning and actions in order to better adapt to the changingenvironment and maintain high competitiveness and efficiency. During thecourse of implementing a change, team members, the followers, very oftenmay not well adapt to the change or be resistant to change at the beginning.The leader should use the ‘telling’ and ‘selling’ skills to persistently drive themove for change, and invigorate and motivate the team throughout the courseof change. The leadership versus ‘followership’ development process as statedin the preceding section should apply.

Changes certainly bring in challenges but also opportunities. Apart fromleadership to drive the right strategies for the change, it also indispensablyneeds management to manipulate resources, control actions and move theteam forward incrementally toward the destination they envisioned.

3.4 Cultivating Leadership

‘Leadership does not simply happen. It can be taught, learned anddeveloped…There are many ways to lead…Ultimately, you’ll know whattechniques and approaches work best – those you hope to lead will tell you.Much of your ability to get people to do what they have to do is going to depend



on what they perceive when they look at you and listen to you. They need tosee someone who is stronger than they are, but human, too’ (Giuliani, 2002)[19].

A leader should understand that man needs more than financial rewards atwork, he also needs some deeper higher order motivation – the opportunity tofulfill himself. Leadership can be cultivated and developed in the process ofleading and managing followers in conducting a project. Leadership blossomsin the teamwork soils in the form of an unique style and culture belonging to theleader and his/her team under the specific project environment. The leader willlearn and master how to strike a good balance of implementation of continuityand change, motivation and administration, inspiration and control during thecourse of a project, whilst the team will go through a dynamic developmentprocess of knowing, conflicting, believing and willingly following their leaders todeliver the success of the project and also achieve their personal developmentgoals in their career life.

Leadership is therefore a live learning process which requires a leader tocontinuously perceive, think and anticipate.

3.5 A perception in Today’s Organisations - Architectural orEngineering Consulting Firms

If we perceive in today’s organisations such as Architectural or EngineeringConsulting firms, it won’t be difficult to find there are still the old ways ofmanagement – thick management and administration layers; over-complicatedadministrative procedures to strictly control and monitor people’s behavioursand activities in conducting the project services business, especially in largecompanies with long history,. The reasons for the use of such an old-fashionedmanagement system in today’s 21st century plausibly stem from:

1) Such a control system was established in the past in the company’shistory which has been rooted as the Company’s style and therefore willbe very difficult to change and reform;

2) Many of the features of a system have been driven by legislations,industry standards, risk adversity and so on such that the reasons for thesystem become buried;

3) Its top management, the leaders, still believe that management meansstrict control and monitoring via administrative procedures created forpeople to strictly follow, and with the control system and detailedprocedures in place it will bring in organizational order and disciplineautomatically in people’s day-to-day work. Such a managementmechanism in a company will explicitly apply great impact on a projectteam in conducting a project.

It can be seen that such an organization operates more to the principles ofMcGregor’s Theory X as described in Section 2.0. People in such an



organisation actually feel being controlled too much, lack of flexibility to dothings with their own initiatives which fit to the specific project environment andare bespoke to a customer’s (client’s) requirements. The project leaderassigned internally cannot behave out of the restrictions of the system as well.People in such an organisation who undertake a project work will undergo suchtypical syndromes as outlined below:

Passive - Rather than proactive, the project team will perform passivelyinternally to the control system like doing things within the box, externally won’toffer what the client wants if what the client wants appears at conflict with theirinternal system, i.e. people tend not to take risk to go beyond the box and areafraid to speak out so as not to violate the system as a non-conformer.However the consequences to the project may down-perform themselves andat worst lose the business and the client.

Low spirit and morale – It can be imagined that under such a system peopleare not willing to take initiatives to work proactively. The project leader tends tofollow procedures to manage, control or dictate people and activities. Therewill be no atmosphere of high-spiritual team working. The morale in theworkplace will be undoubtedly low. This will have serious adverse effects onefficiency, quality and productivity.

Lack of responsibility - Under the normal situation project managers/leaderswill be very much hands-off on projects as they believe their system will enableauto-driving people to carry out the works. Once adverse situation takes placethey will land in to deal with the particular issues or crisis, in order to fire-fight.They tend to urge and push or even point fingers to the followers, with no take-up on their own. This is so-called ‘sloping shoulder’ type of managers.Consequently the followers will adhere to the irresponsibility from the top levelwith ways to protect themselves from blame and trouble. This kind ofirresponsible style in a project environment actually reflects the mal-management culture of an organisation.

Lack of Communication – Intercommunication is generally lacked within theorganization as the system inherently discourages people to communicate.There is phenomenon that individuals within the company do not talk to eachother; inter-team communication and activities rarely exert. There are invisiblewalls between people and between teams. The organization virtually behavesin a way more like each vertical individual functional column with few of lateralconnections across. It won’t be a surprise that people working in the sameoffice of the same company do not know each other well in personal level norunderstand what others are doing in their work. Effective intercommunicationsas well as knowledge and experience sharing in the same team and officebecome impossible and are blocked by the invisible walls, therefore willseriously impact on effective coordination and collaboration. Efficiency andproductivity of teamwork and inter-teamwork will be discounted significantlyunder such circumstances.



Painstaking and boring – People who work in such a firm tend to behave verycarefully and cautiously to prevent trouble and blame on themselves.Frustration and boredom dominate the working atmosphere. Survival may bethe only expectation from their work and their career. Vision and personalgoals will appear very blurred and remote.

It is of no doubt that such an organisation cannot sustain as a top performer inthe marketplace in today’s increasingly competitive world in spite of its currentsurvival. It is clear from this Essay study that impetus for changes will be amust for such an organisation, a radical shake-up to reform the organisation inthe three dimensions way as stated in the previous section 3.1. EffectiveLeadership needs to be sought and implemented, the cumbersomemanagement procedures need to be abandoned to stop managing but startleading. An efficient and transparent system is to be set up to enable the topmanagement to be accessible to the bottom of the organisation easily anddirectly in order to observe problems timely and hear the voices of people andfind effective ways to resolve decisively through close and effectiveintercommunications and interactions between leaders and followers.

In essence such a problematic organisation should face reality withouthesitation. It should embrace change, get rid of bureaucracy, build upharmonic and trustworthy leadership and ‘followership’, in order to outperformin today’s marketplace and sustain the success in delivering projects and inessence, their business in the increasingly competitive world.

4.0 Conclusion and Discussion

It is learned from this Essay study that Leadership is the process of exercizingthe influence between a leader and his/her followers that is necessary to attainproject’s goals. It is more of influence to empower, envision, energize andinspire people in the process of the project to achieve its success. It is a truismthat leadership focuses on doing ‘the right things’ while managers focus ondoing ‘the things right’.

Today’s project manager should blend management and leadership roles inhimself in conducting a project and learn to master both leadership andmanagement skills to achieve projects’ success via the supports and actionsfrom his or her team. Project leadership and management should juxtaposesymbiotically in the teamwork in the process of a project.

Leadership is a process. It can be learned and developed through the on-jobtraining and in personal life experience. A good leader should be passionateof his duty and work, set out the vision and objectives and share the vision withhis or her team, the followers, he or she should also be consistent andpersistent in achieving the prescribed vision and objectives, embrace changesin strategy and direction during the course of project implementation; he or sheshould strike a good balance in using directive and supportive behaviours in the



process of team development. More importantly a leader should take fullresponsibility when things do not go right, but behave in a self-effacing andunderstated manner and be prepared to attribute success to factors other thantheir own leadership.

To look at the practical world today there are some big companies stillstubbornly operating in a very bureaucratic and inefficient management sytemand cumbersome procedures. Such an organisation obviously needs toimplement modern leadership in order to change the present and adapt theorganisation to high competitiveness and business sustainability. The contextof this Essay will give an insight into the feasible solutions.



Bibliography

1. Dilenschneider, Robert L., A Briefing for Leaders, Harper Business, 1991,

p5.

2. McGregor, Douglas, The Human Side of Enterprise, 1960.

3. Batten, Joe D., Tough-Minded Leadership, AmACOM, 1991, P35

4. Drucker, 1985, wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/

5. strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/instco-levc.nsf/en/h_qw 00037e.html

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13. Pascale, Richard, Managing on the Edge? Penguin Book, 1990, pp65

14. Adapted from Warren Bennis on Becoming a Leader, Addison Wesley,

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Method?, AMACOM, 1991; Stephen R. Covey Principle-Centered

Leadership, Summit Books, 1991.

15. http://www.amputee-coalition.org/communicator/

16. Collins, Jim, Good to Great, Random House, 2001, p20, p39

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18. www.maxwideman.com/papers/leader/

19. Giuliani , Rudolph W., Leadership, Miramax Books, 2002. Preface pxiii, xiv.

Li E - The Role of Leadership

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