Over the last year or so we’ve talked a lot on this blog about how empowering project teams with some autonomy and control over the work they do will help improve the project management process. With that being said, we should also talk about the need for individual project team members to step up and take responsibility for the additional autonomy.
As Uncle Owen said to Peter Parker in the Spiderman comics, "With great power comes great responsibility."
During the last several months, I’ve talked to a number of project managers who have questioned the wisdom of giving individual project team members so much influence over the project management process. Although they have some valid concerns, I’m convinced that the real issue is less about whether or not team members should be empowered, and more about how we staff project teams and who we staff them with.
Through the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with and manage some great people. Most were highly motivated and anxious to contribute. However, I have worked with others who, no matter what we did, were never able to catch the vision of their role in the process. Unfortunately, as it became apparent that they were not able to contribute with an increased level of autonomy, their role on the team was eliminated.
The question then becomes, how do you choose the right team? Although there is no way to guarantee that you’ve picked the right project team, here are five traits that will help you build engaged, motivated, and responsible project teams:
- Do they have the skills I need to make the project successful? Because I will be relying on them to do their jobs (so I can do mine), I always look for individuals who have demonstrated that they know what they are doing.
- Do they have the ability to learn and stretch? Look for people who aren’t afraid to try new things, take on additional responsibility, or think "outside the box." I learned a long time ago that collaboration with people of different skills can be very productive.
- Will they play and work well together? A superstar who is a jerk doesn’t help the team. He or she might be highly skilled, or even the best at what they do, but if they don’t get along with anyone I won’t add them to my team.
- Are they willing to take (and offer) constructive feedback? Don’t call it criticism. Criticism doesn’t help anyone, but feedback and honest critique can help a willing learner improve and increase their skills. That includes team leads and project managers. A willingness to incorporate constructive feedback allows everyone on the team individually, and the entire project team collectively, to improve.
- Can I count on them at crunch time? Every project seems to run into times when people need to put forth a little extra effort to make things happen. It seems like no matter how well you plan, there are always things that crop up to cause trouble. It’s important that we can count on each other to pitch in with a little extra effort when this happens.
Building a project team where everyone shares these traits is easier said than done. However, I’ve found that it’s critical to consistent project success and absolutely necessary for project teams that want to empower individuals to increase performance. How do you pick your project teams? How can you tell if you’ve got the right combination of skills?
Nice work if you can get it… most of us don’t have the luxury of picking the team members on our projects – they are often assigned because they are available, or they work in a particular area, or they’ve done the work before. Identifying the members who have some or all of the above traits early in the process is critical, as you are likely going to end up depending heavily on these individuals to pull the rest of the team along, and to shoulder more than their share of the load to successfully complete the deliverables.