Use three of the nine characteristics listed in the table as a foundation for describing how a project-related issue could be handled within the context of a workplace of your choosing.

It should include:

• A brief summary of each of the three characteristics of project managers who lead.
• A brief description of your chosen workplace.
• A brief description of a specific project within that workplace.
• A clear articulation of one particular issue within the project.
• A discussion of a connection between how the issue was (or could have been) handled and each of the three leadership attributes you chose.
• Two examples demonstrating how the three leadership attributes you chose would contribute to a successful project outcome.

Chapter 4 . Leadership and the Project Manager TABLE 4.2 Characteristics of Project Managers Who Lead Rank Characteristics of an Effective Project Manager BO Leads by example pro Visionary Lea W N Technically competent An Decisive ties con A good communicator mo A good motivator lea Stands up to top management when necessary cha Supports team member's 00 Encourages new ideas Although running productive meetings is a critical skill for project leaders, they also need to recognize that face-to-face opportunities to communicate are not always possible. In situations where team members are geographically dispersed or heavily committed to other activities, find. ing regular times for progress meetings can be difficult. As we will discuss in Chapter 6 on virtual teams, modern international business often requires that meetings be conducted ucted virtually, through platforms such as Skype or Adobe Connect. These electronic media and new technologies have shifted the way many business communications are handled. Project leaders must possess the abil- ity to handle modern electronic forms of communication, including e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook social networking sites, as well as emerging methods for online communication. For example, it is becoming common for project leaders to set up social networking or group collaboration sites for their projects, including project team Facebook accounts, Twitter feeds, Google docs, and Yammer collaboration spaces. These sites can create an atmosphere of teamwork and help promote network- ing, while also maximizing the ways in which project leaders can communicate with members of their team. In short, although project team meetings remain one of the most useful methods for lead- ers to effectively communicate with their subordinates and other stakeholders, it is not a requirement that their meetings have to be face-to-face to be effective. Table 4.2 paints a portrait of the roles project leaders play in project success by ranking the nine most important characteristics of effective project managers in order of importance. The data are based on a study of successful American project managers as perceived by project team mem bers. 10 Note that the most important is the willingness of the project manager to lead by example, to highlight the project's goals, and to first commit to the challenge before calling upon other team members to make a similar commitment. Equally interesting are findings related to the reasons why a project manager might be viewed as ineffective. These reasons include both personal quality flaws and organizational factors. Table 45 lists the most important personal flaws and the organizational factors that render a project manager fied them. ineffective. These factors are rank-ordered according to the percentage of respondents who ident TABLE 4.3 Characteristics of Project Managers Who Are Not Leaders Personal Flaws Percentage Sets bad example Organizational Factors Percentage Not self-assured 26.3% 31.5% 23.7 Lack of top management support