What makes a great project leader in 2025?

Leadership in project management is a hot topic, so who better to give advice on the subject than Dr Paul Chapman, Senior Fellow at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, and Gordon MacKay, Project Management Capability Lead at Sellafield, who also provided subject specialist knowledge for a new APM Learning module on leadership of self

The new module explores steps you can take to become more self-aware and outlines how this will help you develop the ability to lead others. Now more than ever, there’s a realisation that leading projects and programmes successfully requires people who are collaborative, inclusive and empowering. It sounds great on paper, but it can be a tall order to achieve in real life, so here are some tips on getting modern leadership right.

1. Helping people get stuff done

Chapman refers to Martin Barnes, the former President of APM, who thought of project management as being about people getting stuff done.

“It’s such a nice, clear definition,” he says. “It really cuts to the heart of the work and helpfully contrasts with the slightly technocratic view… Martin wonderfully made us connect back to people.

“One of the places that leadership has evolved in recent times is recognising the leadership role of people in relatively junior positions and in early career… We can get leadership from peers as well as the more conventional view from seniors.”

2. The qualities of a leader

MacKay refers to the Japanese concept of shibumi, which is partly about somebody having authority without domination.

“The person that comes into the room, they don't assert themself. They quietly come in, but somehow people listen,” he explains. He points to the difference between leadership and management. Leadership is something that is “offered rather than demanded” and is reflected within project management in the shift from stakeholder management to stakeholder engagement in project delivery.

This is important especially where, as a project leader, you are asking people to deliver a project who may not even be from within your own organisation, and so you have no organisational authority over them. Leadership has moved from command and control to negotiation and navigating complexity through collaborative, agile teams.

3. Leaders inspire

Chapman says: “Leaders inspire – it’s beyond management. The inspire bit is creating a sense of psychological purposefulness. Why are we doing the things that we are doing? Because it’s collectively important. How is it important to you? A job of a leader is to say: here’s an important thing, and this is how it connects to you – so it makes a big issue quite a personal issue.”

To lead, he argues, is also to show the way, which is about providing direction, and having the authority to do so, which comes from having experience. Great leaders also enable others to succeed because they realise they can’t do everything themselves, but this requires great psychological purposefulness and safety.

4. Be learning all the time

MacKay urges leaders to be learning all the time, from the good and the bad, particularly in a complex delivery environment.

“A factor in successfully navigating complexity is to become consistently open to new learning that also builds in a level of modesty – to say, ‘No, I don't know everything,’” he says. “I’m prepared to learn and listen to others. I’m encouraging people to contribute and tell me if they're aware of a different perspective about something happening that I might not be aware of.”

This enabler function is key and fosters a sense of trust, so that people feel they can speak up. It’s also about understanding yourself as a leader, and the impact you have on others.

5. Incomplete leader, complete team

Chapman explains an idea, put forward by Deborah Ancona, Thomas Malone, Wanda Orlikowski and Peter Senge in a 2007 Harvard Business Review article, whereby a leader acknowledges that they will struggle in some areas, so will build teams around them with diverse personalities, skill sets and experiences to fill those gaps.

Then, as MacKay adds, it’s about building relationships of trust and mutual respect.
“Emotional intelligence is at the core of effective project leadership,” he says. “A key necessity for that is not being too egotistical, and having empathy and being able to progress along that journey, and as you do, develop your emotional intelligence, build relationships, build trust, establish rapport, and then comes collaboration.”

Dive deeper into the subject of great project leadership by listening to APM Podcast’s episode ‘What Makes a Great Project Leader?’ on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts