The Project Leader Engages All Parties in the Project

One of the most important tasks of an effective project leader is to engage the various parties involved in the project to the benefit of the project and to build a reliable, on-time, cohesive team around all project participants throughout the project. Achieving this requires the project leader to skillfully apply project management knowledge, practical skills, and proven methodologies to achieve the desired project goals effectively.

The project manager is required to have skills in project management, leadership, and customer focus. The larger and more complex the project is, the more critical it becomes to excel in all three of these essential areas.

Project management focuses on managing the project team and the roles of those close to the project. Good management practices begin even before the project officially starts with the selection of the project team and continue after the project has finished, ensuring that the project team members are given new challenges in subsequent projects and that their skills have been built up. The third aspect is customer focus. Ultimately, the client or owner of the project wants to see benefits as a result of the project. Understanding these benefits and objectives and how to achieve them is customer orientation. Recognizing that the client's needs and expectations may evolve during the project's execution, a skilled project manager remains adaptable and can creatively navigate project decisions in the right direction. By doing so, the project leader ensures that the project owners, stakeholders, and customers can achieve the benefits intended through the project and not just the internal objectives of the project.

Managing a project successfully requires growth from project manager to project leader. The project manager's focus and target group is the project team in particular. The project manager needs to understand the project methodology and how the project can achieve the end result in different ways. Project planning, defining and scheduling work packages, and monitoring progress are essential skills and experience. The project manager must grow from managing the project team to managing the whole project stakeholder group. They must be able to communicate with the steering group and clients in their own way and language, and understand the wider objectives and how each project relates to the company's or program's objectives and priorities. This will also enable them to contribute to the success of their own project and to the growth of the project team's skills.

Project Planning Requires Functional Tools and Methods

In Finland, many development initiatives are taken forward through projects. The ultimate success of these projects hinges on effectively reconciling the diverse interests of all participating parties, clearly defining the project scope, efficiently managing critical resources and project schedules, developing strong procurement skills, maintaining transparent and effective communication, and consistently maintaining a goal-oriented approach even in the face of uncertainty and a constantly evolving operational environment. In project management, it is important to explain why you are doing what you are doing.

Enhanced visibility into the entire project organization and its subcontractors will improve performance towards project objectives. This improved visibility is best achieved through appropriate project management tools and project management methodologies. Successfully building the leadership phenomenon is reflected in good team spirit and a well-functioning project organization culture. When this is combined with appropriate technology and project methods, the project has the potential to succeed as planned.

Successful Project Leadership Is a Key Source of Competitive Advantage

As the volume of project activity within organizations continues to grow, it becomes increasingly critical to strategically consider how all project-related activities are effectively organized and managed. When implemented effectively, robust project management practices at the organizational level can serve as a significant competitive advantage compared to other players in the industry. This involves establishing mechanisms that go beyond the tactical execution of individual projects, enabling the organization to elevate the overall maturity of its project activities and consistently achieve desired business outcomes. A key strategic consideration is carefully examining how individual projects are strategically linked to the organization's core services and overall product management.

Agile Project Management

Agile methodologies, such as Agile and Scrum, are valuable and popular approaches, but are not intended to be a direct substitute for traditional project management principles. These flexible approaches have their specific applications and are best suited for certain types of projects and organizational cultures. The competence and experience of the project manager become particularly relevant when determining the appropriate project management approach for different project types.

Project Management is About Leading People

As the prevalence of project work continues to rise, traditional, static job descriptions are evolving, with project work becoming a permanent and integral part of many professional roles. Consequently, the focus of project management is shifting from mere project responsibility to people responsibility.

An effective project manager must possess an understanding of their own leadership style and its impact on team dynamics. They must actively foster a climate of mutual trust and respect within the project team, the steering group, and among other relevant stakeholders. Furthermore, a successful project leader takes the time to understand the diverse motivational factors that drive individual team members to perform at their highest potential.

Effective leadership within projects cultivates the multi-faceted ability to manage complex, interconnected elements and simultaneously guides individuals working across diverse stakeholder groups. It all starts with self-awareness, diversity, situational awareness, and interpersonal skills.

Key Definitions in Project Management and Leadership:

• Project: A unique set of complex and interconnected tasks, limited in time, cost, and scope, aimed at a predefined goal. A project has a beginning and an end. Projects are characterized by a specific focus on achieving a defined end result and, above all, by the fact that the activities to achieve that end result are carried out in as planned, orderly, and efficient a manner as possible. Within organizational structures that encompass projects, programs, and project portfolios, individual projects are typically considered the foundational, or lowest, organizational level.
• Project Management: The strategic application of project-related information, skills, tools, and techniques to all activities directly aimed at achieving the specific goals and objectives set for a given project. The aim of project management is to ensure that the project is planned in such a way that its objectives are fulfilled as well as possible and that the project’s implementation is monitored and managed to achieve the result as efficiently as possible.
• Project Portfolio: An overall set of diverse activities consisting of projects, programs, and other portfolio-related initiatives aimed at achieving strategic goals. The primary purpose of a project portfolio is to maintain and develop the alignment between project activities and strategic goals so that the contents of the portfolio promote the achievement of the strategic goals set for the portfolio. Within organizational systems comprising projects, programs, and project portfolios, the project portfolio is generally regarded as the highest, or most strategic, organizational level.
• Project Portfolio Management and Leadership: Refers to the management and leadership of project portfolios to attain the strategic goals set for the portfolio. Portfolio management helps select content that supports the implementation of the strategy while ensuring that the contents of the portfolio are in the best order of priority for the achievement of strategic goals and securing the resources needed to implement the contents of the project portfolio. Placing projects in a portfolio helps manage the entity; monitor finances and the sufficiency of resources and guide the implementation of agreed common policies in portfolio projects.