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ment intervention, a project leader must resist the temptation to jump into every fray. Getting involved too often and too deeply in the internal workings of any one specific department, especially in a department where the project leader already has a great deal of experience, means that the leader will almost definitely not have sufficient time to manage the entire project effectively. A successful project leader must learn through experience when it is appropriate to become personally involved in a particular issue and what issues are worth becoming involved in to ensure prompt resolution of the more important issues and problems. |
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The discipline of project management in many companies has evolved over the years from one primarily of project coordination to one of project leadership. With this change has also come a change in the educational background and experience required in the job. More than ever, organizations are looking for individuals who have advanced scientific degrees and who have spent considerable time in senior research positions. Provided with a strong scientific underpinning, a project leader is now expected to be able to dialogue intelligently with scientists peer to peer and to understand a broad range of scientific findings and issues. A cautionary warning, however, must be raised. Although proficiency in a scientific discipline is clearly an important asset, accepting the position of project leadership means that an individual must have the discipline to focus on running the project and managing the scientists on the project, not doing the science. A project leader must maintain a broad and impartial perspective on issues, regardless of whether they emanate from scientific, technical, or commercial disciplines, and must allow and, more importantly, encourage the team members to solve their own problems and take responsibility for their own tasks. It is more important for the leader to ask the right question at the right time than trying to come up with the right answer personally. Being proficient as a generalist will serve the project leader well and will certainly provide more benefit to the team process than focusing effort on being the resident expert. |
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The successful project leader imparts vision to the team and instills enthusiasm and commitment in all team members to achieve a common goal. Providing vision in an effective manner certainly consists of clearly enumerating the direction, goals, and values the project leader expects all team members to embrace. To obtain commitment, however, each team member must be appropriately supported in successfully carrying out his agreed upon responsibilities. |
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A project leader's performance is constantly being judged by others within the organization and the ability to walk the talk is a critical com- |
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