How to Be a Project Leader

You've worked at the same corporation for years, hoping for the recognition you need for a promotion. It's finally happened, and you're now the division's new project leader. You know what you didn't like about your own project leader, and you want to be as effective as possible. With the following tips, you can be a project leader your employees will respect.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Sharpen your organizational abilities. Keep track of what needs to get done, who's in charge of each task and when each phase is due for completion. If you can't accomplish this, you'll soon find that you're not leading anymore.
2. Communicate successfully and succinctly. A project leader who stays secluded in her office without establishing contact with her employees or superiors isn't doing her job. You have to write and speak clearly, making your objectives known without talking down to your employees or appearing combative to your superiors. Make yourself available to your office as often as possible.
3. Handle problems as they arise. Don't focus on small, insignificant problems. Concentrate instead on concluding the project successfully. Maintaining a larger vision will let you move through personality conflicts or missed deadlines more easily. This is where you'll have to make sure your team trusts one another.
4. Assemble your employees into a team. All of you have the same goal, even if your responsibilities are vastly different. There's no room on a project team for feelings of discord between employees that can sabotage the long-term goal. It's your responsibility to find ways to bring these people together so that they help one another.
5. Own the project. Although you have to answer to your superiors and keep them informed of the project status, for the duration of the project consider the title of project leader to be synonymous with chief executive officer. For this project, you're the boss and ultimately you're responsible for every step necessary to get it finished on time.
6. Banish your inner "yes" man. Your desire to succeed may be so great that you find yourself telling everyone "Yes." Don't let this happen. You're in charge of setting realistic deadlines and keeping them. If you tell your boss that something will be done next week when it will take three, you cause bigger problems and will lose the respect of your coworkers.
7. Develop a blueprint of how you want your project to be executed so your employees can follow it like a map. If you lead by example, you gain not only your employees' trust, but their respect as well. Don't leave them on their own in the project and be sure to provide a clear direction. You shouldn't act as a babysitter, but you also shouldn't abandon them without making your vision for the project known.