Managing a project is a challenging task that requires substantial leadership skills. It is important to make sure that every single participant has a specific role and a set of responsibilities to meet. More importantly, it is crucial to design the plan that will help the team members reach the end goal and, thus, improve a specific aspect of a certain environment or process.
Therefore, the creation of an efficient and well-coordinated project team should be viewed as the key to succeeding as a project manager. The team in question can be considered rather successful, as it was created and directed with the help of a solid management strategy. Particularly, the fact that the roles and responsibilities were distributed appropriately among the participants of the project is a graphic example of the success of the “team leadership” strategy adopted (Levi, 2013, p. 153).
As the project in question shows, the concepts such as trust, relationship, collaboration, and effective communication were integrated into the project. When I worked with my team, I considered developing trust among the members of the project the most challenging task as it presupposed that the principles of information sharing should be promoted in the project environment.
The specified issue, however, was resolved successfully with the help of exercises involving the development of teamwork such as providing directions to a blindfold participant, etc. The case in point is a graphic example of a proper application of the principles of collaboration, guidance, and striving toward a specific goal. I have learned that by helping the team members focus on the project objectives the leader of the team created the environment favorable for the accomplishment of the basic objectives.
Working with the participants of the project, I realized that the efficacy of the team members can be considered fairly impressive, as the project under analysis ended with the accomplishment of the key goals set prior to its start. For instance, the final version of the schedule was created successfully. Moreover, few to no conflicts occurred in the course of the project; as far as the misunderstandings are concerned, they were resolved successfully, and valuable lessons were learned from them.
Moreover, it became clear to me as I was working with the project members that the roles and responsibilities of the project participants were distributed in an efficient and reasonable manner. The specified stage of the project development is crucial to its overall success, as the actions of the team member have to be well-coordinated and organized so that the end goal should be attained. Therefore, the fact that the leadership strategy adopted by the head of the project was designed successfully can be viewed is a major success.
Needless to say, the significance of the course materials in the design of the project, the assignment of the team members with the corresponding roles and responsibilities, and the further supervision of the key processes can hardly be overrated. The course materials, primarily, books, were included into the set of the primary resources for retrieving data from. Specifically, the materials mentioned above served as the theoretical foundation for the development of the corresponding strategies. For instance, the book by Levi served as the resource for deriving instructions regarding the required leadership model.
Particularly, the leadership strategy adopted by the team concerned an equal distribution of leader’s roles and responsibilities among the team members; the specified approach can be deemed as the most efficient in terms of managing a project: “Rather than centralizing the roles of leadership, a team’s leadership roles may be shared or divided on the basis of different tasks performed by the team” (Levi, 2013, p. 154).
The effectiveness of the team can be deemed as very high. Particularly, all project members have contributed amply to the development of the project. Each participant accepted the roles that were suggested to them and approached them in a responsible and adequate manner. Moreover, the team members have obviously made a huge effort to implement the project, which can be viewed as the most graphic example of their contribution.
The aspiration of the people involved in the design and implementation of the project in question was truly worth an acknowledgment. The process of an idea transformation, which all of them engaged actively in, occurred at a very fast pace, which led to a very fast development of the project and the implementation of the key objectives.
As far as the importance of my leadership as the key factor in the progress of the team is concerned, I have to confess that the process of navigating in the issues related to the management of the project, the location of the possible conflicts and the arrangement of the communication process was far from easy.
The introduction of the transformation process, which allowed the team members to progress from brainstorming to carrying out the key objectives, was performed by the leader of the project. Moreover, I distributed roles and responsibilities among the members of the team with the help of the same tool. As a result, flexibility was introduced to the project.
As far as my strengths as a leader are concerned, I must admit that I am able to solve conflicts in the workplace rather efficiently and in a very expeditious manner. As a leader, I tend to avoid the negative effects of competition among the team members by providing them with rewards, including both financial incentives and public recognition of their efforts. As a result, the members of the team feel empowered for improving their performance and deliver better results: “Performance evaluation systems help provide feedback, while reward programs motivate team members to act on this information” (Levi, 2013, p. 20).
As far as my team member skills are concerned, I should mention the ability to listen actively. Particularly, I am able to acquire the necessary information from the people, whom I communicate with, by applying the skills that create the environment favorable for the narrators. As a result, the people that I talk to feel comfortable telling me the information that I need. I felt very comfortable with the process of communication with the project participants for the most part.
It should be noted, though, that there still are a variety of aspects that I must work on in order to implement the project. Particularly, I must consider the improvement of my current leadership skills such as time management. Despite the application of several time management strategies, I still happen to default on some of my deadlines once in a while. Therefore, it is crucial that an appropriate strategy for managing time should be created; otherwise, it will be impossible to carry out projects successfully.
Reference List
Levi, D. (2013). Group dynamics for teams (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.