Managing to Become a Leader

By Blair Witzel
Charity Village

A good manager can organize and manage schedules, develop budgets and generally complete the work needed for a project, but what does it take to make a good manager become great?

Leadership, according to Witzel, consists of three key characteristics that can transform simple management to distinguished leadership. It starts with vision—meaning the project manager should understand the purpose of the project, how it will be done and why it should be done. Knowing this, a successful project manager should be able to articulate and promote the project to team members and project stakeholders.

Delegating and involving a number of people in a collaborative manner is another key factor to motivating people. Consulting with team members can improve relationships and build on the set of skills available, but it can prove to be difficult balancing the accountability that comes with being in charge and ensuring that ideas from others are considered.

And lastly, encouraging team members to complete project activities within deadlines will ensure the scope of the project will be completed. Letting goals and deadlines go unmet may generate a culture where this becomes acceptable, which eventually causes the project to go unfinished.

Besides having basic organizational and management skills, a manager with leadership characteristics should be able to motivate and encourage people to achieve even when the circumstances are difficult.

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Last updated: July 2, 2008