Leadership in Project Management: Leading People and Projects to Success

Project management is a combination of art and science, leadership and management. Various textbooks cover well the science part – the methodologies, tools, templates and techniques for planning and running projects. This represents the ‘hard skills’ side of project management. The textbook in front of you focuses, uniquely, on the art and leadership aspects – working with people, teams and organizations to achieve project success. This represents the ‘soft skills’ side of project management. Increasingly, leadership is considered to account for the difference between project success and failure in many instances. It includes being a good team leader, of course, but also a role model, an influencer with stakeholders, an entrepreneur, a cheerleader and project change agent. It requires superior soft skills in communications, inspiration, conflict management, influence and organizational change management, among others. It is built on a foundation of ethics and integrity. It depends on insight into the organizational strategy, structure and culture. All of this and more is covered in this textbook. This textbook is designed to make you a stronger, more effective project leader. It includes activities, organization snapshots, tools, review questions and other resources to help you understand, practice and apply the concepts and approaches presented. The second edition introduces various additions and improvements in the content, an expanded set of resources, additional research perspectives and colour illustrations. It has also been updated to be consistent with the Project Management Institute’s Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 5th Edition.