Our division is a small offshore development-only unit (not more than 25 members) but we develop many projects. Our main focus is development. Developers are grouped under Project Leaders, and they in turn report to a Project Manager.I'm stuck with the most lamest Project Leader.  Our team has 4 developers under this one guy, and we handle 4 projects. Some of his characteristics are:Doesn't contribute anything during design/codingDoesn't do any managerial tasks (such as getting us read-only access to servers, or getting us software to be installed, filling out forms, etc)Doesn't do any co-ordination work (such as giving instructions to QA team regarding requirements, co-ordinating with middleware team for deployment, etc)Doesn't respond to client emails, just forwards it back to us. In case he responds, he messes up things because he is not involved in the projects for too longDoesn't attend conference calls. Even in the rare case he does, he has nothing to contributeDoesn't troubleshoot any issue (doesn't even care to see the logs) in developer's absenceDOES stock trading/researching from morning to eveningDOES involve himself in success parties/calls for our projectsDOES demand rating 1 for himselfOverall, his title is Project Leader but he is not at all involved with the project. We developers do everything including the full grunt of design, development, co-ordination and support activities.He is quite vocal about it too. He says it is not his responsibility, and his full existence is to get work done from others. I can agree this, but as a Developer my work is to develop and deliver (heck we have so much development work), but I can't do support and co-ordination at the same time, sitting in phone calls and internal chat rooms and sending/receiving emails. I have explicitly said him that I will do coding, you do support but he just said he won't. In fact, during our last meeting when deciding about a new project - he explicitly said Make sure it has no dependency on me. What can I say?He has been in the company for too long, nearly everyone who joined with him are in much higher ranks. He has been given this promotion recently just because of this one fact. The Project Manager too knows very well, but he is a new person and is afraid to act against a veteran.I've tried a lot of things, like trying to talk with him about this (I do coding, you do support), talking with the PM, touting him in emails, etc. But he doesn't nudge. I'm not low enough to report this to higher management in US - but anyway they won't understand what's going on here. Due to his communication skills, they have a big impression of him. What do I do? Any traps that I can lay?Edit: More info: My growth is locked to his. Only if he becomes a manager and makes some way, I can fill up his place and become the Leader. But the whole problem is that he is content to just sit around without any aspirations, while we ambitiously do all his work without getting anything in return.
How to deal with Project Leader who doesn't involve himself in project in any way?
project management;management;team leader