Over the years, leadership theories have continued to emerge due to the in-depth focus of leaders’ personal traits like personalities and physical appearance, leadership tasks, and leadership styles with regard to organizational changes and leadership situations (Simplilearn, 2021). The focus has been aimed at assessing the most appropriate managerial tactics, roles, and communication skills that project managers should have for effective firm operation. This paper entails a "lesson learned document" based on a recently completed marketing campaign project that aimed to increase the water supply in the poor urban areas to enhance children's health safety.
Part 1: Managing Others
Management of people reporting indirectly
Managing people in a project both directly or indirectly is an integral part of the organizational progression. For individuals who did not report directly to me as the project supervisor, it was essentail to ensure that the communication lines were open throughout the project ( Bernanthos, 2018) . The open-door policy allowed project participants to interact appropriately show practical gratitude to each member's contribution.
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Challenges encountered in the face of management of those reporting indirectly and how the challenges.
In a case involving indirect management, dealing with performance issues is a significant challenge considering that there is no clear way to sort out consequences to non-performing participants ( Chebbi et al., 2020) . Therefore, it was key to anticipate the needs of the participants to avail the relevant resources prior to commencement of the project to maximize productivity at an individual level. Due to the nature of the project, a participative style of management was deemed as more appropriate to enhance creativity, information sharing, and job satisfaction.
Specific steps leading to internal stakeholders’ successful outcome
Among the preliminary stages undertaken to ensure successful outcomes included developing interpersonal relations and establishing specific and clear objectives (Bridges, 2019). With these aspects in place, the main task as a supervisor was to influence the team effort towards success.
What worked well leading to the successful outcome
Collaboration was the most fundamental aspect attributed to the successful outcome. Among the most conspicuous forms entailed interprofessional, inter-departmental, and strategic partnerships. With the enactment of adequate and reliable conflict resolution strategies, it was possible to complete the project in time.
Future recommendations for a more successful outcome
For a more successful project in the future, it would be crucial to understand and align stakeholders' expectations with respect to the level of priority. However, regardless of the magnitude of contribution, each individual must be perceived as a vital pillar of the process to enhance work satisfaction.
Part 2: Communication
Communication of status changes to various stakeholders
Strategic communication was fundamental for the smooth running of the project. In the presence of status changes, it was important to explain the reason for the change, purpose, and the intended strategic objective to ensure that each stakeholder adjusts accordingly to attain the required quality of success ( Zulch, 2014) . Timely communication through reliable sources was among the main facets intended to maintain solidarity.
Areas of communication that seemed to work better for certain stakeholders
Throughout the project, a high level of interpersonal communication was notable and attributed to the project's timely completion. Owing to the effective interpersonal relationships across the vertical and horizontal ranks, problem identification was easier.
Areas of communication seemed inefficient or ineffective for certain stakeholders
The project involved a collaboration of efforts of members from different organizations such as the technical, the health, and the legal systems. Considering that each group of members affiliate to a different form of leadership, management, or communication style that suits their organization, commanding effective intercultural communication was tedious. As a result, the contingency theory propositions were deemed applicable while still maintain an open door policy communication to avoid work methodology conflicts (Simplilearn, 2021).
Changes that would make communication more effective
To communicate more effectively, it would be important to minimize the level of questioning even when participants deviate from the expected methodology so long as they are confident with their alternative propositions. Increasing the level of emotional awareness, sensitivity to non-verbal cues, and active listening could reduce possible confusion in every stage ( Zulch, 2014) .
How to determine who needed to receive what information and accuracy of the determination
It was noted that the nature of the communication channel adopted had a significant bearing on the outcome. Therefore, to ensure that information reaches the intended recipient, direct forms of communication such as phones were used.
How to determine when various stakeholders needed to receive certain information
The initial process of the project was planning, which essentially proposed the need for open lines of communication. Through the formulated project schedule, it was possible to identify the activities to be undertaken, resources required, and the participants, which helped to convey communication upon status change accurately ( Williams, 2017) .
How to determine how the information would be delivered to various stakeholders
The channels of information had been determined prior to the commencement of the project. However, possible failure of these channels had not been considered prior to the commencement of the project. This posed a great risk to the project, and as a result, there need to be alternatives in case of communication breakdown.
Part 3: Processes
Resolving issues and risks
As a leader who embraces holistic participation, each stakeholder must be granted a space to voice their opinions, and upon issues or risk identification, the succeeding steps involved analysis, creation of a response plan, and finally monitoring the changes with regard to the formulated objectives.
Management styles
Integration of the agile leadership principles with the waterfall management approach was considered as most suitable. In this sense, major decision-making processes that affect a particular department within the project were decentralized (Villanova University, 2020). At the same time, the project was intended to be completed in distinct stages towards ultimate release to the public as the main consumers.
References
Bridges, J. (2019, December 5). 8 Steps for Better Issue Management . Project Manager: https://www.projectmanager.com/training/managing-project-issues
Bernanthos, B. (2018). The direct and indirect influence of leadership, motivation, and job satisfaction against employees' performance. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/162326209.pdf
Chebbi, H., Yahiaoui, D., Sellami, M., Papasolomou, I., & Melanthiou, Y. (2020). Focusing on internal stakeholders to enable the implementation of organizational change towards corporate entrepreneurship: A case study from France. Journal of Business Research , 119 , 209-217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.06.003
Le Bui Ngoc, A. (2019). Role of communication in leading a successful international project. https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/160576/Le_Anh.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Simplilearn. (2021, April 30). 7 Major Leadership Theories Every Manager Should Master in 2021 . Simplilearn: https://www.simplilearn.com/top-leadership-theories-every-manager-should-know-article
Williams, A. S. (2017). Effective Stakeholder Management Strategies for Information Technology Projects. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5684&context=dissertations
Zulch, B. G. (2014). Communication: The foundation of project management. Procedia Technology , 16 , 1000-1009. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82506569.pdf
Villanova University. (2020, January 17). Waterfall vs. Agile in a Project Management . Villanova University: https://www.villanovau.com/resources/project-management/waterfall-vs-agile-project-management/
