Summary
The paper examines some critical skills that a project leader ought to possess to successfully lead team members. These skills include decision making, technical, communication, technical ERP, and team commitment skills. Decision skills are essential in this case as it would guide the leader to make tough choices where team members encounter problems with other members. Besides, the leader will show ability to solve disputes that may derail the implementation process. Regarding technical ERP skills, the project leader ought to possess adequate knowledge on how the ERP software work.
This is critical in providing technical assistance to the team members and even describing to other units how to use the software. Communication skill is important in the sense that the leader would be able to convince members to support the project by realizing the benefits of the ERP in the enterprise.
Team commitment provides motivation to members by gaining willingness to perform assigned tasks. Lastly, organizational skills are vital for the project leader to demonstrate ability in coordinating resources,planning, working within the schedule, managing time and attaining the set objective. The skills shows the ability of the leader to stick to the time schedule, use the provide resources until the completion of the ERp project and to stick to the budget t avoid unnecessary delays.
Necessary skills for ERP Project Leader
Companies have the responsibility of selecting a competent leader that can influence others to implement the enterprise resource planning. This selected man power has to possess exclusive qualities to guarantee the implementation process is completed successfully. A successful and efficient ERP system demands that a right person should lead a team. This is critical in the sense that ERP implementation requires certain skills and traits of capable leader. These skills include decision making, technical ERP skills, organizational skills, communication, and team commitment skills.
Decision Making
The project leader should be able to make intelligent decisions whenever called upon to make tough choices. This entails the fact that there are those areas where choices will need to be made regardless of how well the project is planned. Occasionally, there are cases where technical staff would ask questions on what needs to be done and what should be provided to implement the ERP project. Secondly, there are those occasions where the project encounters implementation problems due to the execution of new solutions.
The project leader should demonstrate ability to elaborate the objectives and benefits of installing the ERP system to the company. This will be vital in the sense that the technical staff will focus on implementing the project despite encountering a number of changes. Additionally, such a leader ought to show ability to make quick decisions in instances where the gray areas appear in the course of project implementation. The leader would need to determine if the selected choice should be activated immediately or if there would be a need for deeper deliberation that would take some time.
Besides, it is apparent that team members that would fall under the losing side. The project leader ought to demonstrate decision making skills by convincing the team that the ERP project is essential for the entire enterprise. On a similar note, the project leader is obliged to moderate egos of the winning team to avoid a possible case of chaos between the losing and winning team. In addition, a competent project leader should be able to efficiently conclude what is best for the entire team and the primary needs for the project (Sedera, Gronau, & Sumner, 2015, p. 55).
Technical ERP Skills
The project leader ought to demonstrate adequate IT skills to successfully lead a team in the implementation process. He or she ought to conduct adequate background check in IT including programming skills, data flow and network management an advanced level. Competent knowledge in ERP software will be vital for the manger to acquire in order to direct team members to gain basic knowledge on how the program should be implemented in various units of the company. This is critical in the sense that team member would occasionally look forward for the leader to guide them whenever hey encounter technical problem.
Lack of adequate knowledge in IT area would possibly create havoc and even stall smooth process of implementation. Besides, the leader would be able to establish technical details that should be added in the implementation of ERP system and even help the top management in the sourcing for efficient software to be used. In addition, this is essential in the sense that the leader will be in a good position to select a competent team to complete the project. Generally, adequate technical knowledge in ERP software is the among the highest regarded skills that an ERP manger ought to demonstrate to successfully install the project (Leon, 2008, p282)
Communication
Communication skill is vital for the ERP leader to demonstrate in the in the implementation process. This is critical in the sense that the leader would need to communicate the decision of the enterprise to the senior management as well as team members. Issues raised from various positions of ERP users ought to be communicated in such a way that the executive of the company would understand. It is apparent that the executive may not fully understand the machine language use in the process, therefore, the ERP leader should mind translating such a language to the concerned units for the sake of understanding the adoption of the ERP system.
It is critical for the project leader to translate to the project team various stages of project implementation. This will adequately help the concerned people to understand the technical demands of the ERP system. The leader needs to demonstrate ability to present issues to the concerned party to be seen, felt, and heard. This includes communicating the goals of the project in an efficient manner despite the complexities that are usually met during the implementation process. Besides, the leader ought to demonstrate ability to convince unsupportive member whenever a tough decision is made. This can only be achieved if such a leader acquires competent and efficient communication skills (Leon, A. (2008, p. 294).
Team commitment
This entails ability the project leader in engaging teams through constant communication. To demonstrate this, the ERP project leader ought to demonstrate commitment by selecting the most appropriate time build a group, especially in the planning stages.this can be made possible by the leader that focus on building interest in the ERP project from the early stages to avoid struggles that may be imminent among the team during the implementation process.
This is vital as it helps member to understand the process ad thus demonstrate willingness to take part in the implementation process. In other words, ability to demonstrate team commitment is a clear sign that a leader is focused on attaining the benefits of the ERP system. Thereby, members will be willing to assist in various delegated tasks as they feel their effort are warmly appreciated by the project leader (Ariwa & El-Qawasmeh, 2011, p.199).
Organization skills
Organizational skills are essential skills that team leader has to acquire. These include the ability to plan, manage time, meeting deadlines, coordinating resources, scheduling, and general organization of a proposed project. The project leader ought to demonstrate skills in planning how to execute the long anticipated ERP project. He or he has to be organized at a high level to ensure everything goes as planned in the CIO.
Besides, the leader has to work within the specified deadline and budget. This would then demand for the leader to plan the tasks of the team ahead of time accommodate time wasted during potential delay. The leader has to demonstrate organizational skills of scheduling by allocating time period for workload and then assign to certain team members that are competent in the defined areas. This should be accompanied by scheduling dates for completion of specific project tasks.
This is because there are uncertainties that come during the implementation process that may be unforeseen by the company executives.Besides, it is critical for the leader to spend within the approved budget. This explains why organization skill of of coordinating resources is vital for alder to possess. This will avoid an anticipated delay or even suspense of the ERP project in case the availed resources are depleted before the completion of the project. Besides, the project leader outs to be able to organize team member to multitask whenever the senior management provides last minute changes (Berkun & Berkun, 2008).
References
Ariwa, E., & El-Qawasmeh, E. (2011). Digital Enterprise and Information Systems: International Conference, DEIS 2011, London, UK, July 20 {u2013} 22, 2011. Proceedings. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Berkun, S., & Berkun, S. (2008). Making things happen: Mastering project management. (Ebook Library.) Beijing: O’Reilly
Leon, A. (2008). ERP demystified. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill.
Sedera, D., Gronau, N. & Sumner, M. (2015). Enterprise systems : Strategic, organizational, and technological dimensions : International Workshops, Pre-ICIS 2010, St. Louis, MO, USA, December 12, 2010, Pre-ICIS 2011, Shanghai, China, December 4, 2011, and Pre-ICIS 2012, Orlando, FL, USA, December 16, 2012, Revised selected papers. Cham: Springer.