The past four years have witnessed numerous policy reforms that have changed the way business was done in the country. Some of the growth drivers include rapid urbanisation, growth in the service sector (IT/ITeS and BFSI), and a distinct rise in the household income. These in turn are the primary factors for an increase in demand for office space, commercial, retail, residential development and setting-up of industries to match the consumer demand.

Far away from the economic scenario, there is a team with its entire focus on delivering a fitted-out space for occupancy or a newly constructed commercial hub or a warehouse facility, with its state-of-the-art equipment to support logistics operations for the e-Commerce industry. With the advent of RERA, aspects such as quality, safety, budgeted cost, and stringent timelines are now available on the public domain and closely monitored by all the stakeholders. FDIs and PEs who are now pumping in large investments into real estate would like to monitor the progress of each of these aspects and expect seamless project delivery - absolutely the same as conceptualised.

Having spent more than a decade in the armed forces and a similar timeline in the real estate sector, there is a visible distinct link between the ways in which tasks are expected to be accomplished in both the sectors. There are clear instructions and orders that are to be followed in the armed forces, but scenarios are never defined and situations change by the minute. Similarly, the days of delivering a real estate project with complete clarity of each aspect, leaving nothing for ambiguity, are etched permanently in history now. It's time to shift gears from managing to leading a project.

Leadership, after strategy, is amongst the most commonly used word in the management jargon. Though they both draw relevance from war and battlefield, they can be easily associated when it comes to converting plans into reality.

Leadership is more prevalent, especially when the business environment is characterised by uncertainty, volatility, and changes happening at a rapid pace. In the current scenario, when the projects are getting redefined in terms of size, magnitude heterogeneous teams and factors such as disruptive technological trends in the construction industry, leadership skills such as decision making in an ambiguous environment, aligning vision and clear communication are gaining prominence. The five factors that a project leader should ensure and will be beneficial to drive success are as below:

Trust: It is the core value for leadership. Mutual respect and dependency on members lay the foundation for a formidable team, which can work in any environment, under any circumstances without questioning each other's capabilities and commitment. This binds everyone with a firm hope of sure success.

Leadership is amongst the most commonly used word in the management jargon. Though they both draw relevance from war and battlefield, they can be easily associated when it comes to converting plans into reality

Integrity & Ethics: This is the moral code and the pivot on which trust and ability to succeed are built. The real estate sector, which comes with its strings attached to these two traits, generally marked at the lowerend of the scale, needs to transform its image and show success-based on these two pillars, which are imbibed in each and every decision taken on the project.

Self-Commitment: To show the way is to lead by example. Individual commitment leads to cumulative and combined efforts of the team, which then outperforms all expectations.

Servant Leadership: This is prevalent in scenarios where a project leader identifies a situation, wherein the authority and control over people is limited and has to rely upon to accomplish the project work. A servant leader must understand and meet the needs of the team member to enable them to reach their full potential.

Ownership: All the above-mentioned traits fold into ownership, which is the most essential of all. While the team members take ownership of their respective areas of responsibility, the leader takes the ownership of the complete environment. The environment includes culture, behaviour, and values that contribute to the unique social and psychological aspects of the project. The project environment impacts the way business is conducted, how team members are treated, the level of accountability in decision-making and ethical, and professional conduct of the team. The project environment impacts how committed team members are toward the allocated task and the project objectives.

While the manager will have a plan, which the team will have to execute, the leader will have a dream that binds and inspires the entire team towards the accomplishment of the desired goal. This dream is nothing but the environment, which can make or break a project team, and it is influenced, not by circumstance, but by leadership actions. Project leadership, thus has become the need of the hour.