"With a Little Help from My Friends" : Project Managers' Perceptions of Self-Leadership

Abstract: This qualitative study is about project managers’ perceptions of self-leadership and its benefits and challenges for the project managers, the team, and the project result. The study has been implemented by conducting semi-structured interviews with ten project managers from diverse cultural backgrounds, ages, and work sectors with experience of self-leadership. The data obtained has been transcribed, coded, and analysed by using thematic analysis. The main themes that were found were the following: The management of emotions, the power of collective intelligence, alignment between work and life and the final theme of the resilient project manager. The first theme deals with the importance of being self-aware and authentic as a project manager and to focus on emotional intelligence rather than IQ and hard skills. The second theme’s focal point is on the importance of having feedback and support from the team, mentors, or co-workers in learning more about oneself as a project manager. The third theme deals with project managers’ having a balance between their work and their spare time by planning and being organized, with the purpose of not becoming overworked or lose out on valuable time with friends and family. The final theme handles the project manager’s focus on strengths and being persistent until the end of a project. The benefits of self-leadership, according to the respondents in this study, are easier to experience for the project manager him/herself in terms of self-development but benefits can also be seen for the whole team and indirectly for the project goal as with a well-functioning project manager and self-governing team, the project results will improve. One challenge of self-leadership can be to lead oneself with a long-term perspective as priorities and teams change in projects. Also, if a project manager does not have support, it can be difficult for him/her to keep the motivation to self-lead.The results in this study are in alignment with earlier studies such as for instance Neck, Manz & Houghton’s study from 2019.