Leadership in project management: an application in the construction industry

Abstract

A highly structured survey was developed, broken down into three sections, with the objective of validating the concepts of leadership in project management, how they are applied in the construction field, and how the background of each participant influenced their perceptions of leadership. All the participants are professionals in the constructing industry, whether they are project managers, project engineers or superintendents. The majority of the participants were males and project engineers with 5 to 10 years’ worth of experience in the construction industry. According to the participants, the three most important skills that a leader should have are controlling team performance, communication and understand the characteristics and requirements of a project. The three most important attributes that a leader should have are problem-solver, motivator and negotiator. The majority of the participants agreed that leadership is essential for project success, that a project manager should exhibit leadership traits to be promoted, that he should exhibit emotional intelligence including but not limited to self-awareness and self-control in order to motivate the team members, communicate clearly with them, be a role-model and an inspiration to them, be a mentor, support the team members and be mature enough to be able to delegate power and responsibilities over to the team members when the need arises.