Journal of Business Management & Social Sciences Research (JBM&SSR) ISSN No: 2319-5614 Volume 1, No.3, December 2012 _________________________________________________________________________________ www.borjournals.com Blue Ocean Research Journals 1 Characteristics And Skills Of Leadership For Project Performance Prof. R. Murugesan, Research Scholar, CMJ University, Shillong, India. Abstract Phenomenal changes are happening in the globalized economies around the world. In this hypercompetitive business environment, new dimensions of leadership are more in demand than ever before for organizational survival. Often, a project manager relinquishes positional authority and becomes part of the work group to provide direction, group process facilitation, coordination and support to achieve better results for the organization. Paradoxically, the project manager does not have the luxury to select the team of his choice as the members of the project team are assigned from functional disciplines based on the disposition of the discipline head. Such team members are new to the project environment and face difficulty in coping with the pressures posed by the project stake holders through the project manager. In the past few decades, the domain of leadership has seen phenomenal changes. With pure transaction orientation, project managers are not able to succeed in their profession. Addressing human concerns has assumed greater significance in project organizations which confront variety and complexity. In this study, the characteristics, skills and styles of leadership have been analyzed to help project managers to steer their projects to greater success. Key words Project management, project performance, project stake holders, skills of leadership, styles of leadership, theories of leadership, triple constraint INTRODUCTION Across the nations, enormous resources are invested in various sectors of economy to improve the infrastructure for growth and sustainability. In view of the huge investments made, the value of project management lies in the efficient achievement of organizational goals, stakeholder satisfaction, and a competitive edge (Kerzner, 2006). As a profession in its own right and not just as an ancillary set of skills possessed by other professionals, project management has gained currency in recent decades. An increased awareness of project status enables leaders to establish measures of success, enable customer focus and alignment, quantify value commensurate with cost, optimize the use of organizational resources, incorporate quality principles, put strategic plans into practice, and ensure fast time-to-market (Project Management Institute, 2004). Inadequate or inappropriate project leadership is a potential reason for the negative outcome of projects. There is an urgent need to address this dominant issue of leadership of a right kind to contribute to project success. When projects face challenges like cost overruns, inordinate delays, scope changes or quality issues, organizations and project stakeholders would suffer losses (Kanter & Walsh, 2004). In spite of the best analytical tools and techniques employed, most engineering or infrastructure projects have not succeeded. In yester years, task orientation in a transactional leadership approach contributed some major successes. Project failures are more common than successes, as evidenced in other fields throughout history and in contemporary society (Wysocki, 2007). When major projects get challenged or face imminent failure due to one reason or the other, organizations may not only lose the corporate image but may face the risk of exodus of valuable skill sets and talent which are built over time and difficult to recoup. Continually changing expectations of project stake holders added to the otherwise complex nature of such projects. More than ever, there is an urgent need at the current times to address the dominant issue of leadership of a right kind to contribute to project performance. The scarcest resource in today’s world is leadership talent capable of continually transforming organizations to win in tomorrow’s world (Tichy & Eli Cohen, 1997). Available literature to correlate project leadership with organizational or project performance is scant. With an integration of the leadership style theories describing the typical characteristics, philosophy, skills, and consequences associated with each major style, this study is expected to signify the importance to the profession of project management. Leadership Styles Theories Generally accepted major theories of leadership are the traits, leadership styles, and contingency theories. Currently amongst the research fraternity, the styles of leadership and contingency theories have gained dominance. Apparently, the traits theory has slowly waned out significance because of the theoretical, methodological, and practical problems involved in the process to identify and