Introducing Project Leadership

Name: Introducing Project Leadership
Author: Charlie Williams

Learn the basics of being a project leader.

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 6 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

(gentle music) Let's go over the basics of project leadership. In these lessons, we will introduce the fundamentals of taking on a project leadership role. You'll discover the basics of project leadership and how it relates to project management. You'll also learn how you can lead teams, the various challenges you'll face as a project leader, and how to overcome them. As a project leader, your job is to lead and guide project team personnel, manage project tasks, cultivate collaboration, oversee the timely achievement of project objectives, keep all stakeholders informed of current and future project activities, address any potential issues, and create a positive, productive work environment. You'll act as the project guardian, which involves providing encouragement, guidance, support, and assistance to the project team and other stakeholders throughout the project life cycle. As a project leader, your tasks will involve aligning project objectives with strategic visions, honing your creative and innovative thinking, and solving problems to prevent the project from being knocked off course. There are certain skills that you can capitalize on that will help you lead a project successfully. The best project leader is a people person who can effectively communicate with all stakeholders like project sponsors, senior leadership, and project teams. Some other good traits for a project leader include being proactive, consistent, flexible, trustworthy, a team builder, a strong listener, and a relationship builder. In some ways, being a project leader is like being a project manager, but while both spend much of their time communicating with people to make sure that a project gets done, project leadership and project management have noticeably different roles. It's your job as project leader to guide all team members towards success by providing them with guidance throughout the project life cycle, and to set the project vision. Project management coordinates that vision, thinks strategically about the project, deals with its daily execution, and focuses on the details. But your focus is on the people aspect of the project, team management, conflict resolution, communication, promoting changes and developing solutions. Project management is deadline driven and involves managing project resources like funds, materials, and personnel. Managers work at the tactical level, executing a project's daily operations. Like project leaders, they are responsible for keeping all stakeholders aware of current project happenings. Project leaders are responsible for innovation and improving the methods for completing tasks. They also challenge the status quo to find new ways to increase team productivity. On the flip side, project managers are responsible for following processes and maintaining the daily project activities. Project leaders look forward to achieving strategic goals while project managers are concerned about producing the short term deliverables to meet those goals. Project managers keep the project on track while project leaders deal with incorporating innovation and creativity into a project. Bottom line, both are needed for a successful project, but they have somewhat different approaches toward the project's work.

Beginner Provider : Charlie Williams 6 Lessons · 26m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Chinese

Course Description

As a project leader, you play a vital role throughout the project life cycle and have an essential role in managing project teams. Project leaders also must address the various challenges encountered throughout the project. Basically, you’ll be expected to act as the project’s guardian, and to provide both positive support to your team, as well as reassurances to stakeholders.

These lessons will provide guidance on how to lead a project effectively. You’ll learn the basics of project leadership and how it stands apart from project management. You’ll see how the project life cycle works, moving through all five major phases. You’ll learn how you’ll be involved with teams, as well as how teams are formed through the forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning stages. At the end of these lessons, you’ll learn about the challenges you will likely face (such as lacking centralized project stakeholders), and how to overcome them.

What You'll Learn

Discover the basics of project leadership and how it differs from project management
Examine the role of project leadership across all five phases of the project life cycle
Explore how project leaders work with and develop teams through the forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning stages
Address common challenges of project leadership, such as lacking centralized project stakeholders, and how to overcome them
Understand the different organizational project structures

Key Takeaways

A project leader plays a vital role throughout the project life cycle and is essential to managing project teams.
Project leadership is distinct from project management, and these lessons differentiate between the two.
The project life cycle moves through five major phases, and the project leader is involved throughout.
Project teams are formed through the forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning stages.
Project leaders act as the project's guardian, providing positive support to their team and reassurance to stakeholders while overcoming challenges such as lacking centralized project stakeholders.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this course cover?

It covers the basics of project leadership, how it differs from project management, the role of project leadership throughout the five phases of the project life cycle, how project leaders work with project teams, the challenges of project leadership and how to overcome them, and the different organizational project structures.

Who is this course for?

It is intended for project leaders, who play a vital role throughout the project life cycle and have an essential role in managing project teams while addressing the various challenges encountered throughout a project.

How is project leadership different from project management?

The course differentiates between project leadership and project management, showing how project leadership stands apart, and discusses the role of project leadership throughout the project life cycle and with the project team.

What stages of team formation does the course explain?

The course explains how teams are formed through the forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning stages.

How is the course structured?

The course includes lessons on Project Leadership Basics; Leadership, Management and Project Life Cycle; Project Leaders and Project Teams; Challenges of Project Leadership Part 1; Challenges of Project Leadership Part 2; and a Test Your Knowledge section.

Professional Certifications and Continuing Education Units (CEUs)

Project Management Institute (PMI®)

Professional Development Units (PDUs): 0.5

Certification Program Categories:

Ways of WorkingPower SkillsBusiness Acumen

KnowledgeCity has been reviewed and approved by the PMI® Authorized Training Partner Program. Users can maintain your PMI credentials by earning PDUs from KnowledgeCity qualified courses in Project Management, Business Management, Leadership and many others.