Temporal leadership, team processes, and project team task performance

• Temporal leadership considers the use and management of time as an explicit function of project leadership. • The two underlying facets of temporal leadership include temporal planning and temporal reminders, each critical at different project stages to accomplish the end of the project team task performance. • At project initiation, leader temporal planning works through the team transition processes to accomplish team task performance. • During project execution, leader temporal reminders facilitate team action processes. We disaggregate the overall conceptualization of temporal leadership into its two foundation facets: temporal planning and temporal reminders. We integrate these with a two-phase model of team processes during a time-limited project. Specifically, we suggest that leader temporal planning facilitates team transition processes early in a project, leader temporal reminders facilitate team action processes in the middle of the project, and both team processes mediate the effects of leader behavior on team task performance at the end of the project. Data were collected from the members of 51 teams at three points during an application development project and from team leaders at the conclusion of the project. As hypothesized, team transition processes mediated the relationship between leader temporal planning at project initiation and final team task performance. Leader temporal reminders predicted team action processes during project execution. However, team action processes failed to mediate the relationship between leader temporal reminders at the project midpoint and final task performance. We conclude with practical implications for project managers and suggestions for future research.