Project Management and Leadership

[sas2006]

hello all....

i am a new member to this forum, and this is my first post. i hope to hear from you all. i am a master's student doing construction management, and this is the research topic im working on.

there is a saying "not every manager is a leader, nor is every leader a manager" this statement can be true if you refer to a regular manager. but when in it comes to a project manager i believe that he was appointed as a project manager cause of his management skills and leadership skills as well. so my question is; can you have a good project manager who is not a leader? and how important is leadership to a project manager?

[pmkb]

Hi Sas2006, welcome to the PMKB!

Every project needs to have someone take a leadership position IMO. I think if the project manager fills that role, it is an optimal situation, but I also believe that it is possible for project managers to be very effective at guiding a project to its best conclusion while relying upon supporting staff in the project team to take the leadership role for the group. Bottom line, IMO, it depends greatly on the business culture and capabilities of the project team.

[sas2006]

another important issue is the type of project. you have projects that are routine and those that is complex. for routine/ simple projects it's good enough to have a good manager.. but when it comes to complex projects project leadership is a high priority....

my next questionis .... is it harder to find a Project leader compared to finding a project manager who is not a leader but a good manager?