Characteristics of an Effective Project Leader

Many project managers have dual roles: manager and principal content expert. Most are primarily managers and coordinate a number of experts. They act in the role of “marginalists” who must make sure that decisions are made at the proper time, within the proper framework or expertise, and by the proper people. “Project managers,” Sayles (13) observed, “function as bandleaders who pull together their players, each a specialist with individual score and internal rhythm. Under the leader’s direction, they all respond to the same beat” (13, p. 194).

Project managers, such as brand managers in consumer-goods firms, perform the function of an “integrating manager” when they are assigned the formal authority to coordinate mutual adjustments required in matrix organizations. They must be skillful at sharing power and have the ability “to stand between conflicting groups and gain the acceptance of both without being absorbed by either” (10, p. 84).