The Project Leader Engages All Parties in the Project

One of the most important tasks of a project manager is to engage the various parties involved in the project to the benefit of the project and to build a reliable, on-time, cohesive team around all project participants throughout the project. This requires the ability to apply project management knowledge, skills, and methods in practice to achieve the desired goal.

The project manager is required to have skills in project management, leadership, and customer focus. The larger the project, the more important it is to have all three.

Project management focuses on managing the project team and the roles of those close to the project. Good management starts before the project starts with the selection of the project team and continues after the project has finished, ensuring that the project team members are given new challenges in subsequent projects and that their skills have been built up. The third aspect is customer focus. Ultimately, the client or owner of the project wants to see benefits as a result of the project. Understanding these benefits and objectives and how to achieve them is customer orientation. The client's needs and desires may change during the project, and by understanding this, the project manager is able to be creative with decisions during the project in the right direction. In doing so, he or she ensures that the project owners, stakeholders, and customers can achieve the benefits intended through the project and not just the internal objectives of the project.

Managing a project successfully requires growth from project manager to project leader. The project manager's focus and target group is the project team in particular. The project manager needs to understand the project methodology and how the project can achieve the end result in different ways. Project planning, defining and scheduling work packages, and monitoring progress are essential skills and experience. The project manager must grow from managing the project team to managing the whole project stakeholder group. They must be able to communicate with the steering group and clients in their own way and language and understand the wider objectives and how each project relates to the company or program's objectives and priorities. This will also enable them to contribute to the success of their own project and to the growth of the project team's skills.

Project Planning Requires Functional Tools and Methods

In Finland, many development initiatives are taken forward through projects. The success of projects depends on reconciling the interests of the various parties involved, defining the scope, managing resources and schedules, developing procurement skills, communicating, and maintaining a target-oriented approach in an uncertain and changing environment. In project management, it is important to explain why you are doing what you are doing.

A better view of the project organization and its subcontractors will improve performance towards project objectives. This can be achieved through appropriate project tools and methods. Successfully building the leadership phenomenon is reflected in good team spirit and a well-functioning project organization culture. When this is combined with technology and project methods, the project has the potential to succeed as planned.

Successful Project Leadership Is a Competitive Advantage

As project activity increases, organizations need to consider how they organize all their project activities. If managed well, project management at the organizational level can be a competitive advantage over other players in the business. This means mechanisms above and beyond individual project management that enable an organization to raise the maturity of its project activities and achieve the desired results. The key is to consider how projects are linked to the organization's services and product management.

Agile approaches such as Agile and Scrum are not a substitute for traditional project management. These approaches have their place and time depending on the nature of the project and the way the company operates. The competence of the project manager becomes relevant when choosing the appropriate project management approach for different types of projects.

Project Management is About Managing People

As project work increases, people's traditional job descriptions change, and project work becomes a permanent part of their job description. The focus of project management is shifting from mere project responsibility to people responsibility.

A good project manager needs to understand their own leadership profile, foster a climate of trust within the project team and steering group as well as with other stakeholders, and learn about the different motivational factors that drive people to give their best.

Leadership in projects develops multi-dimensional management of complex issues and simultaneous management of people working in different stakeholder groups. It all starts with self-awareness, diversity, situational awareness, and interpersonal skills.

Definitions Related to Project Management and Leadership

Project

A project is a unique set of complex and interrelated tasks, limited in time, cost, and scope, aimed at a predefined goal. A project has a beginning and an end. Projects are characterized by a specific focus on achieving a defined end result and, above all, by the fact that the activities to achieve that end result are carried out in as planned, orderly, and efficient a manner as possible. Projects are typically considered the lowest organizational level in systems of projects, programs, and project portfolios.

Project Management

Project management refers to the application of project-related information, skills, tools, and techniques to activities aimed at achieving the goals set for the project. The aim of project management is to ensure that the project is planned in such a way that its objectives are fulfilled as well as possible and that the project’s implementation is monitored and managed to achieve the result as efficiently as possible.

Project Portfolio

A project portfolio refers to an overall set of activities consisting of projects, programs, and other portfolio-related activities aimed at achieving strategic goals. The project portfolio is used to maintain and develop the alignment between project activities and strategic goals so that the contents of the portfolio promote the achievement of the strategic goals set for the portfolio. Project portfolios tend to be viewed as the highest organizational level in systems consisting of projects, programs, and project portfolios.

Project Portfolio Management and Leadership

Project portfolio management refers to the management and leadership of project portfolios to attain the strategic goals set for the portfolio. Portfolio management helps select content that supports the implementation of the strategy while ensuring that the contents of the portfolio are in the best order of priority for the achievement of strategic goals and securing the resources needed to implement the contents of the project portfolio. Placing projects in a portfolio helps manage the entity; monitor finances and the sufficiency of resources and guide the implementation of agreed common policies in portfolio projects.