The Effect of Leadership Styles on Project Implementation

The goal of all leadership styles in project implementation is to transform and lead the project to success. Transformative leadership styles utilize emotional intelligence to motivate team members in a project and create a psychologically safe environment which encourages better performances during project implementation. Leadership is important for inspiration, guidance, and defining the objectives of every project. The aim of this research is to evaluate the effects of leadership style on project implementation. Through content analysis qualitative research design utilizing secondary sources, there emerges a trait that defines good leadership and how it can be leveraged for proper outcomes in project implementation and management. The study concludes that project implementation includes the engagement of teams under one or multiple leaderships. Leaders have the responsibility of engaging with human resources more than any other resource in the organization. All the phases of project implementation are vital and must be managed with dexterity and exemplary leadership performance. The Effect


Background
Leadership is the process of guiding others to complete a certain task. Leadership is a source of inspiration and guidance to members of a team. Democratic, autocratic, laissez-faire, bureaucratic, servant, and transactional leadership styles are all lauded as viable methods of guidance in which project implementation can utilize to varying degrees of success. The general consensus is that there is

Defining Leadership
Leadership, in general, is the act of providing guidance. It is generally defined as the process of social influence and the utilization of the efforts of other people to achieve a defined goal. This definition takes into account the social and corporate strategies, as well as the management aspects. However, various scholars have different perceptions of what constitutes leadership.
Kevin Kruse (2013), the CEO of Lead and an author of various books on leadership, states that leadership does not mean having titles, seniority, or the positioning in a social or corporate hierarchy. Being the highest earner or belonging with the executives, therefore, does not make one an automatic leader. Similarly, personal attributes, like being domineering, tall, boisterous, influential, or charismatic, do not translate to good leadership. Likewise, management and leading are different, and being a manager does not mean that one becomes a good leader. Having defined the common misconceptions about leadership, it is prudent to define what leadership means and why it is important for project management.
Leader is someone who has followers. This definition seems simple and likes a tautology, but in essence, it is the basis of leadership. Having followers is what makes the leader able to translate a vision into reality (Kruse, 2013). Bill Gates commented that leaders are those with the ability to empower others, while John Maxwell defined a leader as one with influence. In all definitions of leadership, there are elements that must be present. These include social influence and a goal that others must be empowered to achieve. In the context of project implementation, this definition is complete and thus will be applied to the different phases of project implementation. Page et al. (2019) defines leadership as an art of finding elements that motivate a team and using these elements to define a path that the team may use for measurable progress, they state that the position of a leader should not, at any time, manifest autocratic characteristics but should leverage the advantages of democracy in leading the teams towards a common goal. They confirm that leadership is not about "re-inventing the wheel" of leading but should rely on borrowed elements that have recorded variable levels of success. In his definition, proaches. Whichever course a leader selects, they are responsible for defining the path that the project should follow. The third phase is the project execution phase. At this stage, minimal direct engagement of leadership is mandated. However, the teams must be well defined, the resources assigned, all procurements made, and a schedule set. The leader must thence trust the team to implement the project with the instructions that have been provided.

Objectives of the Study
This research seeks to analyze the role that leadership plays in each stage of project implementation and the value it adds. The research will dwell on the themes of organizational leadership, motivation, and the transformational power of different styles of leadership. The paper will conclude that ethical and transformative leadership is vital in project implantation and serves as an epoxy that drives the teams towards achieving the objectives of any project. The goal of all leadership styles in project implementation is to transform and lead the project to success. Transformative leadership styles utilize emotional intelligence to motivate team members in a project and create a psychologically safe environment that encourages better performances during all the phases of project implementation. The key performance indicators like objectivity, quality of the deliverables, and general performance against time, must be considered. The last phase is the project closure. The leadership involvement at this phase must be well defined. The leaders must account for the progress of the team and mark them against a punch-list.

Research Tasks/Methodology
The paper will utilize secondary data analysis methodology. In this research, archival information from credible websites, business and leadership journals, reports, and peer-reviewed literature will be utilized. The sources of these data will be from academic databases of research organizations, public records, and government agencies. Relevant sources will be incorporated if and only if they are from credible authors and by credible organizations or institutions.

Hypothesis
The study hypothesizes that a transformative leadership style can utilize specific traits to have a greater impact during project implementation. There are various factors that are important elements of employee motivation during project implementation. Leaders have to motivate the employees so that their performance can remain high for the benefit of the project. The analysis of relevant literature is expected to confirm or dispute this hypothesis.

Theoretical Background
An extensive search of the literature was performed from various databases using various key terms, including "leadership", "psychological safety", "positive psychology", "job insecurity", "job satisfaction", and "project implementation".
The articles ranged from the years 2004 to 2020. The sources selected were all relevant to the study.

Literature Review
According to (Sarver & Miller, 2014), leadership is about responsibility and proper management of the human and material resources to bring change and enable progress. Transformational leadership is essential for all leaders who have the vision to inspire change. Leaders in all faculties, including business, law enforcement agencies, political scopes, and managerial positions, are responsible for pushing change by inspiring cooperation among team members. Change is witnessed through improved job performance, cohesion among team members, and morale for motivation for the execution of duties. Leadership styles vary, and the amount of involvement with the team activities also differ. However, irrespective of the leadership style that a leader explicates, they must be guided by the personality traits of neurotics, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. There are no best transformational leadership skills as each skill has its merits and levels of success in different situations. Sarver and Miller (2014) also assert that managers must utilize communication, consultations, and consideration of personal opinions of team members before decision making. Nurturing transparency and creating an aura of trust in a project is the first step in having a cohesive team where psychological safety thrives, and everyone is free to share their opinions. The collective consultations and consideration of personal opinions are important in project implementation because different team members have varied perspectives gathered from varied experiences, which in collection form an important source of information from which other officers and also the managers can learn. All phases of project implementation are dynamic, and a set of standards of leadership cannot effectively address the various scenarios (Singh et al., 2013). It is, therefore, important that managers encourage their team members to share experiences, adapt to self-discipline, set a clear boundary between personal biases and execution of duties, and make decisions based on logic and respect for the law.
According to Edmondson et al. (2016), project implementation thrives where there is a harmonious integration between the leadership style and the objectives of the project. In this environment, psychological safety thrives, and the freedom that this brings enables the team members to employ their talents without fear of retribution, which drives different phases of the project to different rates of success. Psychological safety is the extent to which people perceive their environment as a conducive place to exercise risky interpersonal behaviors such as seeking help, speaking for or against something, and find new methods of learning.
The limited evaluation of the positive impacts of psychological safety by Cao and Zhang (2020), in the general context, shows that its benefits traverse enhanced people engage in their works. Psychological safety is anchored on the relational development systems metatheory, which states that the interaction between individuals and their inner-selves, and between the individuals and their environment, is the basis for human development. Psychological safety has the potential of transforming the individuals at the personal level and at the contextual level.
Hence, there is a person-context situation that serves to fuel one's self in relation to the environment and with each other as shown in Figure 1.  1990 in their journal article The Evolution of Leadership Theory. In this article, Seters and Field argue that leadership theory has evolved from a one-dimensional aspect that focuses on "internal" and "individualistic" processes to a multidimensional aspect that gives considerations to the opinions of the majority. They trace the eras of leadership, from the Personality Era. In this era, they show the beginning of an understanding of theories of leadership theories, including the Great Man Period and the Trait Period.
In this era, men and women who copied the traits of great leaders were assured of similar results. They then follow the Influence Era. In this era, the relationship between leaders and followers was established. Leadership became a way of influencing others and not nature versus nurture element. The Behavior Era followed, and in this era, leadership was stated to be comprised of a subset of human behavior. As such, leaders and managers started seeking an education that modified their behaviors to conform to scholarly advice on effective leadership and management. The Situation Era followed, and this era asserted that leaders emerged from environmental influences and social statuses. From then, other eras followed, including the Contingency Era, the Transactional Era, the Anti-Leadership Era, the Culture Era, and finally, the Transformational Era. All these eras were accompanied by theoretical perspectives, each defining the best elements of leadership (Seters & Field, 1990) revised in 2014, University of Alberta, Canada.  (Edmondson et al., 2016). For instance, a company specializing in production will have different workgroups (peer-to-peer relations), such as friendships within the production department and also in the assembly department. Similarly, in the healthcare setting, the workgroups will differ, depending on the area of specialty. Nevertheless, the characteristics of all workgroups are determined by the nature of the project, and there is a universal agreement on adherence to professional norms and organizational mandates.
The nature of the project and the style of leadership may, therefore, encourage psychological safety, based on the composition of its workgroups, or it may otherwise frustrate such relationships.
According to Clawson, (2010) effective leadership is pegged on the understanding of the emotional aspects of human beings. He acknowledges that human beings are different, yet there are factors fundamental to our being that should be understood by others around us if they seek to understand our behaviors. Clawson argues for nature and nurture, claiming that nature has been proven to provide the blueprint for "not only physical characteristics like eye and hair color, metabolism and body shape but also biochemical balances and emotional tendencies as well as more fundamental species-specific instincts or drives like breathing, eating and drinking, reproducing and socializing" (p. 5). In this quote, Clawson summarizes the basic elements of human existence and their relationship with others. Arguing in favor of nature, Clawson states that our genetic endowment, like the physical characteristics, is unchangeable, permanent, and definitive of who we are. He also asserts that the bio-chemical inheritances like how we metabolize, mature, react, and perceive things are embedded in our DNA. Furthermore, biological functions such as socializing, he asserts, are predefined in our genetic codes. This argument for nature is an inference that the aspects of our existence that are imprinted in our systems cannot be modified.
However, Clawson provides a relief, asserting that we are not bound to be slaves of these characteristics, as aspects that define our socialization can be trained. Pinckney (2015) also highlights the importance of emotional intelligence in defining leadership. Clawson argues that leaders are made, or rather; they make themselves through learning and continual development. Effective leaders understand the VABEs of others and work to influence them towards positivity.
The epitome of leadership is therefore not measured on how the individual leader achieves, but on the extent that they impact others towards self-development (Page et al., 2019). Leaders are, therefore, change-makers, leading through example and influence.

Transformational Leadership and Motivation of Project Members
Motivation is the psychological drive to work towards achieving a certain goal.
Motivation gives purpose and direction. Ozcelik (2004) Ozcelik (2004) states that, there is a strong relationship between the emotional fit and good leadership that inspires expression. The more congruence the emotional fit is with the emotional environment, the safer an individual fits within the team. Emotional intelligence is the ability of one to recognize their emotions and that of others and manage them effectively. It involves mastering three basic skills: being able to identify one's emotions, the ability to use those emotions to one's advantage, and the ability to regulate one's emotions as well as those of others.

Transformational Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and Project Implementation
Emotional intelligence largely involves adopting and building suitable interpersonal skills. It is instrumental in defining leadership. Zhou and Zhu et al. (2020) state that emotionally intelligent leaders are aware of their emotions can harness them and apply them in daily tasks like problem-solving and managing people in social and/or professional settings. Emotional intelligence is measured and expressed as emotional quotient (EQ). The EQ measurement is not scientifically validated as a psychometric measure; however, its values are used to define leadership qualities, performance in jobs, and other interpersonal relational aspects. There is a connection between emotional intelligence and decision making which is beneficial to leadership.
The composition of a team requires affirmativeness, assertiveness, and strong anchorage on ideals as defined by the project's objectives (Zhou, Zhu et al., 2020). The more emotionally intelligent the leader is, the more they are able to create a psychologically safe environment for their team members. Therefore, emotional intelligence can be manipulated by leaders to nudge others to serve the project's needs. The lack of scientific validation makes emotional intelligence an abstract science; nevertheless, sociological opinions point that being emotionally intelligent, or lack of it, are important in defining the relationships between individuals and in building social cohesion.
The major focus on emotional intelligence is that it enables one to read emotional cues from those they relate with and solve interpersonal and personal problems, thus contributing to the emotional and physical health of themselves and others too. Emotional intelligence enables corporate leaders to read and interpret positive and negative emotional signals from others' body language, vocal, and facial expressions (Zhou, Zhu et al., 2020). and improved performance. Emotional intelligence, therefore, leads to increased job performance and healthy professional relationships (Hans & Gupta, 2018).
Leaders show great tendencies to harness and manage their emotions; thus, they are more inclined to respond to various situations with logical reasoning rather than emotions. Logical reasoning enables one to disconnect their personal lives from professional relationships. The disconnection between the personal and professional lives enables individuals to affect their professional duties like effective communications and team management, which creates a calm environment suitable for job performance. The ability to manage stress, builds relationships, inspires, and motivates individuals as well as one's self has a positive impact on professional commitments. Similarly, Page et al. (2019) posit that by affecting the emotional, cognitive aspects of an employee, it leads to emotional strains that lower activity and, subsequently, performance. Emotionally intelligent employees can derive satisfaction from their professional duties, respond to stress positively, and involve logic in discussing discontentment rather than using emotional outbursts.

Analysis
The above analysis has shown that there are specific behavioral traits that distinguish between successful leaders and ineffective leaders. Project implementation requires team cooperation at all phases of its implementation. As such, a team must be cohesive, and the team leader must show competency in balancing between personal and professional attachment. Professionalism is admirable, but the leader must be able to connect with the team members at personal levels whilst also maintaining a professional distance. Infringing into personal spaces is also undesirable as the leader might find them deeply engorged in the personal lives of the team members. The key is, therefore, finding a perfect balance that uses emotional intelligence and motivation to harness the power of team members to accomplish the projects' goals.
Leadership is the epoxy that holds a team together and guides it towards the achievement of its set goals. Ethical leadership should utilize strategies that encourage free expression, especially in decision making. Girdwichai and Sriviboon (2020) state that the best project implementation strategies should be developed with consideration of the social needs of the workforce. Environment and training, as well as organizational strategies to meet these demands, matter to a great extent. As evident, sometimes the line between work and life is complex and demanding, and sometimes the boundaries between professional life and personal needs may clash, leading to a work-life balance crisis (Edmondson, 2019).
However, this deficiency can be off-set by having a good strategy that allows employees to have a safe environment for the expression of certain frustrations.
Thus, the goals that the leadership set during the project implementation must be attainable. an asset that can be used to reflect upon their needs and understand them better.
Active listening also creates trust, and the employees will be open and be confident to talk to the leader. The assurance that one is being understood and listened to is therapeutic in itself. Therefore, in any practice setting, in addition to speaking clearly, for effective communication, the ethical leader hoping to enhance team performance during project implementation must be a listener too.

Discussions
The basis of this study has been to analyze whether a transformative leadership style can utilize specific traits to have a greater impact during project implementation. Findings from various literatures have thus confirmed the hypothesis by establishing that traits such as emotional intelligence and motivational theories can be utilized to create a psychologically safe environment that encourages team performance. The general findings confirm that there is a correlation between psychological safety and motivation at job performance. The above analysis also shows an established relationship between psychological safety and emotional intelligence, motivation, ethical leadership, and the environmental circumstances at the workplace (Anonymous, 2019). It is also clear that leadership has the responsibility to perpetuate an understanding and healthy interpersonal relationship at the workplace through democratic leadership and not fear through autocracy. Fear has a paralyzing effect in a dictatorial relationship of unequal parties and peers who feel that their esteem is low, majorly due to demotivating circumstances at work, home, or school. The focus of developing healthy interpersonal relationships is to rid-off the fear (Ahmad & Umrani, 2019). This is the basis of the concept of psychological safety. However, this discussion has singled out transformational leadership as leadership that utilizes democratic principles while also engaging the other leadership styles in varying proportions for different successes at the project implementation level (Weber & Avey, 2019). In the analysis, it is a consensus among the scholars that psychological safety in the workplace is employees' ability to act with freedom without regard to the negative consequences that arise from their activities, appearance, status at work, or their career in general. Psychological safety develops in four stages: The Inclusion, Learning, Contribution, and Challenge Safety stages (Clark, 2020). It is nurtured by the relationship between employees at an organization. As such, psychological safety is the major ingredient that sets the stage for a successful implementation of goals directed at achieving project goals.

Conclusion
In summary, project implementation takes into account the engagement of teams under one or multiple leaderships. Leaders have the responsibility of engaging with human resources more than any other resource in the organization.
All the phases of project implementation are vital and must be managed with dexterity and exemplary leadership performance. The different styles of leadership have different advantages that they offer to the project. An autonomous team may benefit from a laissez-faire system with minimal involvement with the team's intricate details. A rigid and hard to control team may require autocratic assertions to get it in control, but this must be exercised with caution since it instills fear and discourages leadership-follower interactions, which is good for the team's success. The overall system narrows down to transformational leadership.
The leader must ensure that the team is continually self-developing and improving. Project implementation requires an upward trend that favors an inclination towards meeting the set goals.
On project implementation, creating an environment of safety is important in allowing the development of employees. It is important that leaders allow employees autonomy. Autonomy is important as it gives the employees a sense of self-determination, independence, and awards control. Secondly, leadership has a great influence on defining the success of a team. Democratic leadership, in particular, is fluid and allows the holistic development of an individual. In essence, Clawson compares control theory and choice theory and concludes that the choice theory, inherent in democratic leadership, provides a solid foundation for developing leadership roles, attitudes, and direction. The choice theory also allows the autonomy required to inspire self-development. The call to understand why people in groups behave as they do is the key to unlocking the potential of any team, and thus fulfilling the goal of leadership, and that is, achieving by inspiring change.

Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.