Nigeria construction companies are habitually lagging behind the project delivery standards even after several years of infrastructure investment, an issue that is associated with the lack of leadership strategy and not technical capability only. This study has investigated how leadership strategies influence project performance index of the sampled construction firms in Abuja, Nigeria. The quantitative cross-sectional design was employed and 399 respondents in four construction companies were sampled using structured questionnaires to be administered through stratified random sampling. Data analysis was carried out through multiple regression analysis. The results indicate that strategic planning intensity (β=0.274, p=0.000), participative decision-making level (β=0.203, p=0.000), leadership accountability systems (β=0.331, p=0.000), and innovation adoption rate (β=0.158, p=0.002) have significant positive impacts on the project performance index. The model accounts 69.4% of the variance in the performance of the projects. The study concludes that the most impactful factors of construction firm performance in Abuja are leadership accountability systems and strategic planning intensity. Construction companies ought to formalise accountability systems and participatory decision-making systems to enhance project delivery performance.
Keywords: Leadership strategies, Project Performance, accountability systems, construction firms, strategic planning
