Balanced Leadership: Making the Best Use of Personal and Team Leadership in Projects

Ralf Muller · Nathalie Drouin · Shankar Sankaran

May 2022 · Gildan Media · Narrated by Lyle Blaker

About this audiobook

A new theory of balanced leadership in projects Leadership is not static. Instead, authority in projects shifts dynamically between project managers, individual team members, and sub-teams, depending on the situation. Leadership may be exercised through a vertical, horizontal, shared, or distributed leadership approach. However, balanced leadership ensures the best suitable approach is used in any given situation. Based on an award-winning global program of research studies, Balanced Leadership is a thorough investigation of balanced leadership in projects. Ralf Müller, Nathalie Drouin, and Shankar Sankaran present a project-specific leadership approach as well as a theory of balanced leadership, and the situations in which different strategies are required. They also outline the five building blocks that enable balanced leadership: nomination of team members, identification of potential leaders, selection and empowerment of leaders, empowered leadership and its governance, and leadership transition. The book explains the coordination of these building blocks through the socio-cognitive space shared by project manager and team. Using real-life case studies and clear examples, this book offers a new way of considering and utilizing dynamic leadership in project settings.

About the author

Ralf Müller is professor of project management at BI Norwegian Business School and adjunct professor at University of Technology Sydney and Dalian University of Technology in China. He is also editor-in-chief of the Project Management Journal.

Nathalie Drouin is the executive director of KHEOPS, an International Research Consortium on the Governance of Large Infrastructure Projects, and the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Managing Projects in Business.

Shankar Sankaran is professor of organizational project management in the School of the Built Environment at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, where he is also a core researcher of the Centre of for Informatics Research and Innovation (CiRi).

As a full-time voice talent and Audie-nominated audiobook narrator, Lyle Blaker has narrated nearly 100 audiobook titles, as well as countless hours of e-learning narration for major companies. He is known for his warm, friendly, and approachable narration style.