How to be a great project leader

In this episode, our topic is how to be a great project leader. We pin down exactly what it means to lead a project and how this role is evolving to reflect the changing nature of projects and obviously in 2020, the pressures of the Covid pandemic. In this podcast, host Emma De Vita, editor of Project journal, asks how a project leader needs to behave to be highly effective, and what mindset you need to thrive in this role.

APM’s 7^th edition of its Body of Knowledge defines project leadership as: providing vision, direction, feedback and support so people can do their best work. And to do this in an environment of change and uncertainty. Project leadership is usually performed with limits on a project leader’s power requiring them to adopt a style that builds team and wider stakeholder commitment.

Our panel discusses in-depth what this definition means in practice, giving lots of advice on how you can become a better project leader, particularly during these challenging times.

On the panel are:

• Gordon MacKay, project management capability lead at Sellafield and author of a forthcoming book on project leadership for APM.
• Mike Bourne, professor of business performance, action, execution and implementation at Cranfield School of Management.
• Claire Fryer, director of behavioural management and executive coach at Costain.