How to Be a Better Leader in 2025

With the new year around the corner, it’s natural to reassess. There are resolutions one can make, but then people feel guilty when they don’t follow through. That’s okay. Instead of setting up a possible unrealistic goal, why not follow the advice of the great tennis player, Arthur Ashe.?

He said, “ Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” We can all do that.?

Since we’re all involved in project management, let’s start there. What is a common trait of all project managers? Leadership. Let’s use that and see how we can strengthen our leadership skills and become better leaders into the new year and beyond.

Challenges of Being a Leader

Leadership motivates, inspires, encourages, supports and guides the team. That’s easier said than done. There are hurdles to clear to achieve the goals of good leadership.

Leadership vs. Management: While both roles are important in project management, leaders create a sense of purpose and managers organize to ensure that purpose is achieved.?

Leaders Grow: Are leaders born or does one learn how to become a leader? Both. Some traits people have instinctively, but there's always room for improvement. Even a person with no intrinsic leadership skills can find themselves in a leadership role. Don’t worry, leadership can be learned.?

Leaders Need Support: Leaders provide support for their teams, but they also need support. Look for mentors, advisors and other peers who can help solve problems or offer a sympathetic ear.

Leaders Are Part of a Larger Environment: Leaders should shield their teams from upper management, but sometimes that’s not possible. While leaders might not be able to do much more than advocate for their teams, they can also provide context so team members have peace of mind.

Leaders Aren’t Gods: We might look at our leaders as superheroes who can do anything. To be honest, some leaders might believe this hype. But it’s not true. The problem can lie at your feet. And if it does, admit it. Leaders take responsibility or, as President Truman said, the buck stops here.

How to Become a Better Leader

One of the best ways to overcome those challenges is by actively working to improve one’s leadership skills. Education is important, but experience is, too. Here are some activities that can build leadership for leaders and their teams.?

• Take on Leadership Roles: Regardless of your background, get out there and take on leadership positions. This can be in a professional setting, community organization or social group. For example, if there’s a chance to lead a team on a project at work, raise your hand. Coach a little league team or take on a committee leadership role at your kid’s school.
• Develop Emotional Intelligence (EQ): Leadership is made up of both hard (technical) and soft (interpersonal) skills. Often the latter is neglected, but to inspire and guide a group requires emotional intelligence. Start regularly reflecting on your actions, emotions and decision-making to become more aware of why you do what you do.
• Enroll in a Course: Many organizations and online platforms offer training courses on leadership, including topics such as conflict resolution, decision making and team dynamics. This formal learning can provide tools and frameworks for better leadership. There are also certification programs, like project management professional (PMP) or leadership and management certifications that can help build technical leadership skills.

Use Project Management Software

Leaders can’t do it all on their own. Once you have the confidence to lead a team and deliver projects, you’ll need the right tools. ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software with multiple project views that allow managers to schedule work on Gantt charts that link task dependencies, filter for the critical path and set a baseline to track project variance in real time.

Assemble the Right Team for the Job

Another thing leaders do is make sure they have the right team members for the job. This can be done when onboarding by setting their availability. Managers can set vacation time, PTO and even global holidays as well as skill sets, which makes it easier to assign team members to the right task at the right time. Another thing to watch out for is overburdening the team.

To avoid that, toggle to the team page or the color-coded workload chart, which quickly shows who’s overallocated or underutilized. Then managers can balance the workload and keep everyone working at capacity without threatening burnout and eroding morale. The team will appreciate that.

Monitor Progress in Real Time

Teams can collaborate whether they’re in the same office or different time zones. Our online software allows team members to share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email and in-app notifications. Managers can monitor their progress and performance without having to micromanage and get in the team’s way.

Real-time project or portfolio dashboards provide a high-level overview of time, cost, workload and more with easy-to-read graphs and charts that are automatically updated. Customizable reports go deeper into the data with portfolio status and project status reports, as well as reports on variance, workload, timesheets and more. All of these can be filtered to get into the weeds or more generally track progress to share with stakeholders.

ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams whether they’re in the office, on the job site or anywhere out in the field. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email and in-app notifications. Join teams at Avis, Nestle and Siemens who use our software to deliver successful projects. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.