Project Leadership

A comprehensive, project management-oriented approach to project management.

While there are currently a number of books on leadership in the popular and academic literatures, few attempt to develop a comprehensive understanding of the wide variety of leadership behaviors. Many focus exclusively on only one or two critical components of leaders. Project Leadership: From Theory to Practice presents a more complete model of the role of the project leader in modern corporations, addressing such diverse but equally important roles as those of visionary, strategic manager, and ethical leader. The authors present some of the most well-known and useful theories on leadership and offer practical advice on applying these models to your personal leadership style.

1. What Is Leadership?
• I Want to Be a Cowboy: The Leadership Myth
• The Nature of Leadership
• Transformational versus Transactional Leadership
• The Unifying Nature of Leadership
2. Classical Theories of Leadership
• Contingent Leadership Theories
• Contingent Behavior Theories
• Leadership Styles for an Optimal Fit
• Contingent Trait Approach to Leadership
• Universal Leadership Behavior
• Universal Trait Leadership Theories
• Conclusion
3. Accountability for Results
• Functional Accountability
• Accountability Gap
• Communicating Expectations
• Measuring Performance
• Control over Results
• Feedback and Reactions to Results
• Conclusion
4. Creating a Project Vision: The Image That Guides the Team's Work
• The Motivational Impact of a Vision
• Explaining How Vision Works
• Implications for Project Leaders
• Conclusion
5. Developing a Project Vision: A Step-by-Step Approach
• Visionary Leaders: Born or Made?
• Vision Training
• Implementing the Vision
• Conclusion
6. Leadership and Team Building: Gaining Cooperation from Team Members
• Characteristics of Effective Teams
• Stages in Group Development
• Determination of Cross-Functional Cooperation
• Implications for Managers
• Conclusion
7. Leadership Ethics: Doing Right While Doing the Right Thing
• Ethics in Business
• Project Management Characteristics That May Lead to Ethical Dysfunction
• What Ethics Is Not
• The Basis of Ethical Reasoning
• Values in Society
• Ethical Dilemmas
• Means versus the Ends
• Three Key Questions
• Relating the Three Questions
• What Does Our Motivation Have to Do with This?
• Creating and Implementing an Ethical Vision
• Conclusion
8. Leadership and Project Strategy: Driving the Project to Success
• Leading Plus Managing: Strategies Drive Projects
• Keeping the Project on Course: Solve the Right Problem, Understand Key Assumptions, and Use New Frameworks
• Keeping the Project Moving: Identifying Roadblocks
• Changing the Course of a Project: Revolutionary Changes
• Implications for Project Managers
• Conclusion
9. Leadership and the Political Side of Project Management
• Authority: Status and Influence
• The Implications of Project Politics
• Conclusion
10. Leadership and the Future of Project Management
• Key Points to Remember
• Conclusion