Contrasts

The daily work of a project leader differs in many ways from the work of other project team members:

Project team membersProject leaders
  • Seek the best solutions

  • Work mostly with “things”

  • Need deep, specialized expertise

  • Are evaluated on personal work

  • Focus on individual goals

  • Seek practical solutions

  • Work mostly with people

  • Need broad, general knowledge

  • Are evaluated on the work of others

  • Focus on team and overall goals

The transition to a project leadership role can be very difficult and frustrating because the jobs are so different, and new leaders are often reluctant to give up technical and execution responsibility. Because project leaders need to allocate about 10 percent of their time for each core project team member, any project leader ...

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