For a successful project manager, there lies a dire need of project specific leadership. And it holds true in all sort of projects, be it small, mid-sized or large. In my recent experience, I tried different hats, being a worker, a leader, a management person, and focused mainly on working with the team, listening to the team, and thinking through them. It helped me getting a good rapport with my team; but in scenarios where the upper management doesn’t feel that this is the way the PM should work then it’s not worth the effort. Hence, in order to make a stand in front of ones those who have more power than the PM and are also seated in the higher chairs it would be worthwhile first to win the consensus across the board.
If the reference is made to the organizations leadership, then it would be a good idea to investigate what the manager lacks in managing his/her teams and find out different ways to improve their leadership skills. Also, it’ll be worthwhile to pinpoint some of the very common notions on how the managers treat and greet their teams. Not to mention the-worst-case-scenarios.
In a nutshell, there are lots of resources available today to figure out and research on how one can improve their organization leadership skills. But the starting course should be to begin from the latest project/experience. And then, move forward. A simple checklist of what-happened-when-scenarios would be ideal too. Asking some specifics to the self would do and not getting into details. The idea is to find out the feedback from the self. And then, compare with what others management gurus have to say on leadership.