The fundamental responsibility of the project manager is to direct the project from its initiating point and take it through to its concluding phase. The project manager has to ensure the fact that the project is completed within the specified deadline. The individual has to schedule all the activities associated with the project and make sure that adequate resources are allocated for those activities in order for the project team members to finish them on time (R. Medina and A. Medina, 2014). The project assignments have to be completely aligned with each other and the project manager has to make sure that there is a strong coordination and collaboration between the team members. Besides allotting the tasks unvaryingly among the project team members the project manager has to monitor the progress of the project on a regular basis. The remaining activities have to be scheduled depending on the current progress of the project. Such a thorough supervision will enable the project manager to ensure that the project is finished well before deadline albeit leaving the team with enough time to test the project outcome rigorously (Kerzner, 2013).
It is the duty of the project manager to create a robust interconnectivity between the project team members so that information can be channelized effectively between project team members. Effective communication of information will allow the project manager to learn about the issues that arise in between the different assignment levels within the project subsequent to which they can be addressed appropriately. The project manager will also have to have foresightedness about the probable risk exposures of the project. In that way the individual will be able to make sure that proper contingency plans are at place in order to shield the project from such risks (Kelly, et al., 2013).
The fundamental trait of a transformational leader is that the individual goes beyond managing just the everyday operations and makes every effort to formulate strategies that are aimed towards taking the organization, functional department and the team members to the furthest level of performance and success. Leaders following this leadership style emphasize a lot on team building, collaboration, motivation and coordination between employees at several levels of the workflow within the organization (Wang, et al., 2011). This enables transformational leaders to bring the best out of their subordinates thereby enabling them to enhance their productivity and efficiency. By doing so they are able to accomplish change within the organization for a better cause. Transformational leaders are good at setting effective goals and incentives in order to encourage subordinates to achieve greater performance levels thereby providing them with ample opportunities to attain all round profession and personal growth (Avolio and Yammarino, 2013).
Unlike transformational leaders, transactional leaders emphasize on maintaining the day to day workflow process. They are sometimes described as leaders who are good at keeping the sea afloat. These kinds of leaders are known to use disciplinary powers as well as a broad range of incentives in order to encourage subordinates to give their best performance. The word ‘transactional’ indicates those types of leaders who believe in rewarding employees in exchange for their performance (Groves and LaRocca, 2011). This aspect of transactional leaders is somewhat similar to the authoritarian or compliance leaders explained in the Blake Mouton managerial grid. A transactional leader is not concerned about guiding his/her organization strategically in a pathway towards becoming the market leader. Rather these types of leaders have less foresightedness and their only concern is about maintaining the smooth flow of work on a daily basis (Antonakis and House, 2014).
This leadership style, studied extensively by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey is about leaders who are keen to modify their leadership style depending upon the skill set of subordinates working under the leader. Leaders, following such a leadership style, must vary their leadership style in order to satisfy the needs of peers and subordinates based on changing business circumstances. There are four phases of this leadership style that depends on the maturity level of the employees: telling and directing (to manage employees with the least maturity), selling and coaching (to manage employees with medium maturity and medium skill), participating and supporting (to manage people with high skill but medium maturity), delegating (to manage people with high skill and maturity) (Anthony, 2015).
Team leadership style has been studied extensively by Blake and Mouton. The trait of leaders following this leadership style is partially similar to transformational leaders. Team leaders give equivalent focus on the well being of their employees as well as overall productivity of the company. These kinds of leaders emphasize a lot on building a leader-team member relationship based on respect and trust (Zeidan, 2009). In that way they are able to create a work environment where one member is able to respect and understand the strengths and weakness of another member. Team leaders believe in creating a robust line of communication enabling subordinates any issue freely. In that way they are able to identify any areas of improvement and inefficiency within the organization. Team leaders provide their subordinates with ample scope for attaining self development and also expect them to deliver the performance anticipated from them (Natale, Sora and Kavalipurapu, 2004).
As far as the appropriate leadership style to be followed by Info-support’s project manager is concerned, the best approach will be to follow a blend of transformational and team leadership style.
