leaders and managers
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Topic 4 Video 1
Hi everyone, in this series of videos were going to be looking at leadership and the project manager as well as project teams.
In this first video, well consider leaders and managers and some differences between those two roles at the extremes, before we move to our next video and look at how we can use leadership to contribute to effective project management.
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When we consider the concept of leadership, we often find this difficult to define. We could look at any number of definitions from textbooks or dictionaries, but when were really trying to get to the bottom of it, leadership is a concept that tends to be quite difficult to put our finger on.
This is because we all have our own examples of people we have seen acting as leaders or people we consider to be leaders, and we all have our own beliefs about what makes a good or bad leader. Because leadership is often recognised by its accomplishments, and can be very situational, there is no one way of being a good leader.
While some leaders are more task-focused, others might be more people-focused. And its not that one approach is more right than the other, but whether or not the leadership style is effective is highly dependent on the situation.
In general, though, we can agree that [can this text be big on the screen = Leadership is the ability to inspire confidence and support among a group of people or influence a group of people to achieve defined goals.] Within the project management context, those are the goals of the organisation and then the goals or objectives of the project.
Now well dig a little bit deeper into leadership, but since this isnt a full course on leadership, well keep our focus at a high-level and with consideration of the good aspects of leaders and leadership.
Weve already seen that leadership includes the ability to influence others, to inspire confidence and to gain support in order to achieve goals. But we can also consider many other characteristics of effective leaders.
Recently Dr Ralph Bathurst, who is a leadership scholar here at Massey was quoted saying:
Heres the thing about leadership. Its about seeing what is actually there; knowing the world in all its uncomfortable complexities, rather than relying on second or third-hand stripped back versions. Leaders must grapple with everything they see and avoid the trap of ignoring issues in plain sight.
So what does Dr Bathurst mean? Well, leadership is about recognizing potential opportunities and being able to articulate where you need to go in order to achieve a goal. It is about working in a complex world and being self-aware enough and having enough emotional intelligence to be able to Read people and then to deal with whatever situations come your way. It is about being future focused, with an entrepreneurial attitude, and being able to cope with and deal with the stress and change that comes with working in a complex world.
It is about communicating effectively, motivating people, influencing others, embracing change, and then helping change the behaviours of others in order to pursue a common goal.
As I mentioned, the emotional intelligence a leader requires enables them to be in command of their emotions and to be able to respond constructively to others when things get a bit out of control.
So emotional intelligence describes the ability or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of yourself and others. And there are five emotional competences that Daniel Goleman, who really started capturing the publics attention of emotional intelligence, proposed. Goleman suggested self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy, and social skills as a means to build a hierarchy of emotional intelligence. Goleman also suggested this hierarchy starts with self- awareness, on which the other four competences can build.
So here, self awareness implies having a deep understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses, your ego needs, and what drives and motivates you. To be self aware means to have a clear perspective of yourself it does not mean being excessively self-centred or self involved it means understanding how your own attitudes and behaviours affect your outward behaviour when interacting with others
Building on self-awareness, then, we next have Self-regulation, which is the ability to reflect on events, respond to them after careful consideration, and avoid the mistake of indulging in impulsive behaviours. Self-regulation is the willingness and ability to keep yourself under control. Self regulation is often reflected in trustworthiness and openness to change.
Then follows self-motivation. Motivation here means being able to gather up your feelings and pursue goals with energy, passion, and persistence. High levels of self motivation include a strong desire to achieve and a high level or internal optimism.
Empathy is the ability to recognise the feelings of others by tuning into their verbal and non-verbal cues. Having empathy means you have the willingness to consider other team members feelings in the process of making an informed decision, and this is demonstrated by leaders when they have the ability to sustain relationships and demonstrate cross-cultural sensitivity.
Finally, emotional intelligence includes Social skills. Social skills here refer to a persons ability to manage relationships with others. So this is more than simple friendliness it is friendliness with a purpose, or the ability to move people in a direction we think is desirable. It includes persuasiveness, rapport, and building networks in order to lead change, resolve conflicts, and build effective teams.
So, using the hierarchical approach, essentially to be able to demonstrate the social skills required to be an effective leader, all of the other four competences need to be in place first.
And many experts believe that emotional intelligence can be learned, or continually improved upon, so that most people can significantly improve their emotional intelligence if they work hard enough at it.
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Now, even though weve just looked at what makes a good leader, and some characteristics of leadership, there can still remain confusion about the differences between managers and leaders.
Lets take a step back here for a minute, and think more about managers in a general sense, rather than the project manger. Leadership can be distinguishable from other management roles in a number of ways. Although leadership can be part of a mangers role, management roles can often
be more administrative in nature. And managers tend to aim for more efficiency and are primarily concerned with organising and staffing personnel in appropriate roles and delegating each person to specific responsibilities.
Remember in an earlier video, when we compared projects with processes or regular procedures, we can think of standard managerial tasks as making sure those day to day processes continue, that those routine procedures carry on. And that requires the short term planning, problem solving, and stability that managers are geared toward. So managers are ensuring people and tasks are organised, directed, and behaviours are controlled within their area of oversight. They are supporting the status quo and aiming for efficiency.
On the other hand, leaders, and again, just speaking generally, are focused less on administration and more on interpersonal relationships. While leadership involves inspiring, motivating, influencing, and changing behaviours of others in pursuit of a common goal, leaders work on embracing change. Leaders develop strategies in line with a vision, while managers are in charge of planning and budgeting resources to implement the strategies.
In terms of personnel, leaders are not as concerned with delegating routine tasks and making sure staff complete those tasks on time, rather, they work to align people with their vision, ensuring that everyone understands the direction and is motivated toward its accomplishment. So leaders view things in a more long-term manner, being more future-focused, and create challenges, and take risks.
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Here we have another way of comparing a manager (again, we are not yet talking about a project manger) and a leader, and again, in a general sense.
We have managers here on the left and leaders on the right, and we can look at they way they approach the purpose of their work, how they develop their team and network of stakeholders, how they actually go about working and the outcomes they produce. We can also look at what managers and leaders focus on, and we can extend that consideration to the timeframe of their focus as well.
Here we can see that leadership can be quite different to other management roles. A manger generally gets their title of being a manager from within the organisation they are working for. That means they can plan, organise, direct, and control the behaviours of the people reporting to them. Although leadership might be part of what a manager does, the predictability and maintenance of the status quo that is required of a manager can often be in conflict with the risk taking and innovativeness of a leader.
Again, we have mangers focusing on achieving the plans in the short term or maintaining the steps and systems to get the work done, to achieve efficiency of what they are asked to do or the standard operations of the organisation.
On the other hand, leaders are challenging that status quo, they are focusing on originality and innovation, and taking risks to develop new products or processes. They are more future focused, and would rather do the right thing than do things right. And leaders will be able to articulate this vision, and motivate people to come along with them in order to achieve that vision.
So thats where well leave this video having highlighted the differences, in a braod and general sense, between managers and leaders. In our next video well start looking at how leadership can be
used for project management. Because remember, project managers have a much different role that other management roles.
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Topic 4 Video 2
Topic Being an effective project manager
Welcome to our second video for this series. Now that we have considered some leadership characteristics, and some of the general, and stereotypically extreme differences between leaders and managers, well look at how, when it comes to project management, those leadership traits can support the project manager.
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In a perfect world, the project manager would simply implement the project plan and the project would be completed. That is, the project manager would work with all stakeholders and especially the project team, to create a work breakdown of all tasks required, they would create a schedule for those tasks, and assign responsibilities. The project manager would keep track of progress, and everyone would simply do their tasks, at the right time, and everything would tick along until the project is completed perfectly within the constraints, meeting the customer requirements, and there would be no time or cost overruns, scope creep, problems, or personal or PR issues.
But we dont live in a perfect world, and the project needs managing in terms of the scope, the constraints, the team, the stakeholders, and the risks. In fact, during the course of a project, the project manager might have to deal with interpersonal issues within the team, contracted people or organisations being unable to complete their tasks according to plan, expectations or requirements being misunderstood, technical problems, or general misjudgement of how long a task might actually take.
It is the project manager who has the responsibility of getting the project back on track when it gets derailed. And because of all the complex parts of a project, project managers need to be able to have broad influence in order to be effective. Where we might have thought of leadership and management as separate in the previous video, when it comes to project management, it is quite leader intensive, and we need a project manager who can demonstrate leadership across the project lifecycle.
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Remember, even though projects are unique, one-time endeavours, they still require traditional management functions , such as planning, organising, motivating, directing, and control. And with a focus on goals, objectives, or outcomes, we are reminded that the project manager needs to manage the constraints of the project as well as the customer requirements.
We also have uncertainties throughout the project – opportunities and risks that need to be managed. So project managers need to be able to adapt to the ever changing environment in which they are working. They might need to expedite certain activities to keep to the overall schedule,
they might need to serve as a peacemaker between team members or when managing stakeholder relationships, and they might need to make appropriate trade offs between the project constraints of time, budget, and performance or quality.
For example, a customers needs might change during a project resulting in significant design changes part way through the projects lifecycle. Competitors might release new products, meaning the performance quality might need to change or the timeframe for releasing the product might change. Team members might leave or working relationships between project participants, including the team or stakeholders might break down, and a new team might need to be formed. Ultimately, what was originally planned, or the original scope baseline, is no longer continuing on the same track, and what needs to be done in terms of meeting the customer requirements and the performance objectives of the project is very different to when the project manager first took on the project.
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So what we need are successful project managers and successful project managers can be thought of as project leaders.
Where a manager, in a general sense, might work to expedite activities, figure out ways to solve technical problems, or serve as the peacemaker when employee tensions arise, project managers need to be able to do that while ensuring the project stays on track. They need to be adaptable to the changing conditions external to the project, as well as the constraints of the project and how that impacts all stakeholders.
At the same time that a project manager is responsible for integrating resources to complete the project on schedule and budget, they also need to be able to respond to unforeseen risks and opportunities. The project manager needs to keep the project going while making all of the necessary adjustments along the way. While management might be about coping with complexity, leadership is about coping with change. And the project manager needs to be able to do both.
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Remember, that good management involves bringing about order and stability by formulating plans and objectives, and designing structures and procedures, and then monitoring results and taking action to correct mistakes where needed.
Leadership involves recognising and articulating the need to change direction in order to create change and motivating and aligning the right people to the new direction and getting them to work together to overcome challenges.
So project management requires a high-level of coordination, communication, motivation, and goal sharing. Project managers are the central entity within the project team and are the contact point for internal and external stakeholders. Given their vital role in the project, their ability to lead and motivate others is directly tied to the success of the project. Without a good leader, team members can become confused, conflicting goals may arise, and ultimately, projects can end up off course or behind schedule.
What makes a good project manager so valuable to an organisation is their ability to both manage and lead a project. By doing both of these well, they can manage the constraints and technical aspects of the project as well as build a network of people who will support the overall goals. Because remember, each project is unique, so the project manager needs to keep all team members focused on the shared mission, and working with an outcome-focused approach.
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Once we recognise how the project manager can start combining the good management practices and the good leadership characteristics to focus on being an effective project manager, we can start looking at how the effective project manager interacts with their team. Remember, the successful project manager is a successful project leader, but there is no way the project manager or leader can complete an entire project without a successful team supporting them. All leaders are ultimately reliable on their team members to execute their vision.
Here we see that an effective project manager is one that creates a partnership attitude with their team. To create this partnership, the project manager can focus on four elements: exchange of purpose, a right to say no, joint accountability, and absolute honesty.
Exchange of purpose within project management means that for a strong partnership, every worker is partly responsible for defining the projects vision and goals. A steady dialogue between the project manager and team members can create a consistent and widely shared vision.
The right to say no is critical in fostering the partnership attitude, so that all members of the project team feel they have the ability to disagree and to offer contrary positions. Supporting peoples right to voice their disagreements is simply a fundamental part of a partnership.
We can also consider joint accountability. In the partnership, this recognises that each member is responsible for the projects outcomes and the current situation whether it is positive or if there is evidence of problems. This is a shared responsibility. The project is shared among multiple participants and the results of the project are also shared whether good or bad.
And finally, to promote the partnership, we need to have Absolute honesty. Partnerships demand authenticity. In order to respect each team members role on the project we make an implicit pact that all information, both good and bad, becomes comm unity information. Keeping information hidden is not going to support the project in its completion, so to foster the partnership, all information must be shared freely and often.
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Finally, we can try to sum up a long list of what makes a project manger effective. As we are focusing on how leadership is supporting the project manager in being successful, many of these characteristics come from leadership foundation. Now the list could go on and on, but based on research of successful project managers, who are project leaders, we can see here several traits and characteristics of effective project managers.
One of the most important characteristic is the willingness of the project manager to lead by example. A highly visible, interactive management style is not only essential to building and sustaining relationships, but it also allows project manager to use their most powerful leadership tool, which is their behaviour. People will often, especially when faced with uncertainty, look to others for cues of how to respond. So a project managers behaviour in response to any number of
factors that might impact the project, or any number of challenges that might arise, is critical in keep the team motivated and focused on the goal or Objective of the project.
Other important characteristics people often look for in a leader, are the dimensions of trust, strength of character, and the intelligence and competence to succeed. The expectation of success is also important, because the majority of followers will not tag along after project managers who fail for very long.
Remember that, depending on the organisation structure and the way the project is set up in an organisation, project managers do not usually have the authority to exercise power within the parent organisation. Because of this, some characteristics of effective project managers also include good oral communication and good influencing skills.
Research has also shown that intellectual capabilities, credibility, creativity, the ability to handle stress, tolerance for ambiguity, integrative thinking, organising with cooperation and under conflict, and diverse management skills such as planning, delegation, and decision making are key for effective project management.
So again, the list could go on. But as we keep coming back to it, project management goes far beyond just getting the work breakdown structure and scope statement written down. When it comes to actually implementing and completing projects in an uncertain world, the textbook logic can quickly disappear and the project manager can be confronted with any number of challenges.
Effective project managers need to be able to deal with the contradictions of the work they undertake they need to be both a manager and a leader. They need to keep people on task and schedule while at the same time taking risks to move into new, innovative ways of working, and they need to be adaptable for the situation at hand. Because there is no one way of being an effective project manager.
In our next video, well consider what the project manager can do to overcome some of these challenges. Ill see you there.
[END]
Topic 4 Video 3
Topic how a project manager leads & project champions
Welcome to our third video for this week. Now that weve considered leadership and how leadership characteristics can help make a project manager effective in our first two videos, well now take a bit more time to look at how the project manager leads. Well also spend some time looking at project champions their roles and how they might help project managers.
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As weve seen, project managers need to take on characteristics of both a general manager and a leader. In a sense, the project manager is a mini CEO. They are expected to manage holistically,
focussing on completing the tasks for the project as well as dealing with the people and relationship side of managing a new team toward a unique goal.
We can see the project manager needing to balance several aspects of the project, project team, stakeholders, and overall organisation. At the same time the project manager is trying to understand and articulate how their project fits in the big picture of the organisation and how they can be creative to achieve the unique goal or objective, they need to be able to get deeply involved with the details of the tasks of their project, to understand the technical matters and keep things on schedule.
They need to know when to intervene, to resolve conflict or negotiate, and when to delegate and leave things to others who have the capacity, skills, and knowledge to do the work. They need to keep their team unified and working toward the same project mission, while ensuring their performance for the organisation meets the standards and expectations top management sets for them.
So how does the project manager do this?
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We have four duties or roles that well explore in a bit more detail, of what a project manager can do in order to successfully lead their project. Well look at how the project manager obtains the resources necessary to complete their project and this includes people resources as well as technical and material resources. Then well expand on the notion of motivating and building teams.
Well return to the notion that the project manager needs to be able to both have the big vision and fight the fires that come up. And finally, effective project management, as weve stated so many times, requires good communication.
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One of the things a project manager can do to lead is acquiring resources. Again, when we are talking about resources for a project, these can be technical, material, or even the people resources that are required.
Often projects end up being under funded. And when they are underfunded, it is even more critical that the project manager can get the necessary resources.
Why might projects be underfunded? Sometimes The projects goals are deliberately vague. In these cases, a project can be kicked off with its overall goals somewhat fluid or deliberately fuzzy in order to allow the project team maximum flexibility. While this might seem good if the project team wants this flexibility, it can also mean a lack of understanding in terms of what needs to be funded.
A project could also be underfunded because the resource needs are actually purposefully understated in the conceptualisation and planning stages. Perhaps the team or top management want to get the project going, but need to kind of sneak it in at a lower cost that it will actually be, just to get started. Here, the project manager will need to renegotiate resources after they get the work authorisation, and of course, that means renegotiating those contracts as well.
If too many projects are on the go at once, then there may be insufficient funds to go around for all projects. So an organisation might adopt a take it or leave approach you either go under funded or you dont go at all.
And then finally, there can be attitudes of distrust between top management and project managers, which can sometimes mean that top management are convinced that project managers are padding their estimates and so top management wont fund as much
So there are plenty of reasons a project could be underfunded, and therefore the project manager needs to be able to negotiate and renegotiate those resources, or the project will remain set up for failure.
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Another element of how the project manager leads is through motivating and building teams. When we are bringing a diverse group of people together, we need to proactively help them move through the stages of group development we have discussed, and bring them together as a cohesive team in order to be effective.
Often times a project manager can quickly learn how to deal with the technical elements of a project, such as keeping on budget or schedule, or matters relating to the tasks, but they can find it very difficult master the human challenges. This is because they have likely been involved in training and education or have had other experiences and built their expertise in technical matters, but have neglected their development of managing or dealing with the behavioural aspects that come along with the complexity of project management.
We have considered the leadership characteristics of influence and motivation to bring the team along toward a common goal are critical for successful project management. But how can a project manager actually motivate people?
Motivation is an individual decision we cannot simply make someone be motivated, but the project manager can work on different ways of influencing people to come along and complete tasks with enthusiasm. Perhaps the project manager might focus on building a cooperative network, they might focus on task-related relationships, where the influence is on helping others do their work, of on inspiration or personal related relationships, where the team member might be presented with an opportunity to do good, or where the motivation is underpinned by self-esteem.
But whatever approach the project manager takes, whether giving challenging work assignments to push people, providing opportunities for advancements, or simply making sure people work to stay out of trouble, the project manager must recognise and work toward developing talent, building a team of interactive and collaborative workers, and apply the appropriate motivational techniques for the people and tasks at hand.
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The project manager must also balance that fine line between having the vision of a leader and fighting the fires that a manager must tackle daily.
Where we have seen the need for the project manager to balance on the boundary between the technical and behavioural aspects of the project, we can also see the need for them balancing on the boundary between being a strategic visionary and a day to day task manager.
So the successful project manager leads by being able to think strategically about how their project fits into the bigger organisational strategy, but is also capable of switching back quickly to make the day to day decisions and solving current problems. Good project leaders are able to make this transition smoothly, and often, and are comfortable occupying the boundary between the two.
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And finally we have communication as a critical element of how a successful project manager leads.
Remember, stakeholders have a tremendous impact on the likelihood that a project will succeed or whether it will fail. So we must make sure, as project managers, to maintain those strong contacts with all stakeholders, perhaps again, including them in our scope reporting to keep them in the loop, and make conscious, continual steps to establish and maintain communications with them.
We can also consider, within the team and within the organisation, meetings, and productive meetings at that, as a critical means of communication through a projects lifecycle.
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Meetings serve a number of purposes for the project team. And they dont have to be face to face to be effective virtual meetings run well can also be very effective. While proximity helps, and we want to vary the ways we communication, technology can also be effective.
To lead effective project meetings, and again operating on the boundary of technical and behavioural, project managers should be focusing on both task-oriented and group maintenance behaviours in their meetings.
Task oriented behaviour seeks to get the job done. This includes covering aspects of the project such as scheduling activities, resources, and providing the necessary support and technical assistance.
Group maintenance behaviour helps the project manager increase cohesiveness and trust to work on building that effective, high performing team. This might consist of supportive activities including showing confidence and trust, acting friendly, working with subordinates to understand their problems and recognizing their accomplishments.
So Taken together, the task and group maintenance goals allow the project manager to gain the maximum benefit from meetings.
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Finally, well have a quick look at project champions. Ive mentioned before, the project champion or sponsor here we can see that the sponsor is one type of champion, but we also have the creative originator, the entrepreneur, and the project manager themselves.
The Creative originator is usually an engineer or scientist or a similar person who is the source of and the driving force behind the idea that has required the project that original goal or objective. No one in the organisation has more expertise or sense of vision where the new product or service is concerned. Few others possess the technical or creative ability to develop the implementation effort through to fruition, so this person will be the key champion.
Another type of champion is the Entrepreneur. This is the person who adopts the idea, usually of some new technology, and actively works to sell the idea through the organisation eventually pushing it to success. So where we have the creative originator who is often very technically skilled, the engineer or scientist is generally limited by their need to continue performing their functional duties. That is, they need to keep on working on tasks, rather than shifting to a substantive champion role. This is when the entrepreneur steps forward. The entrepreneur recognises the value of the original idea and makes it a personal goal to gain its acceptance through the relevant organisational units. Usually this person is a middle to upper level manager
The Godfather or sponsor are usually senior level managers. The Godfather will do everything possible to promote the project, including obtaining the necessary resources, coaching the team, and calming the political water. The sponsor is someone who may have been elected or appointed to actively support acquisition and implementation of the new technology and who will do everything in their power to facilitate the process. One of the most important functions of the godfather or sponsor is to make it known throughout the organisation that this project is under their personal guidance or protection
And finally we have the Project manager, who can also act as a champion. The project manager identifies strongly with the project and to a degree, their careers are directly tied to the success of the project. However, the project manager might have limited effectiveness as a champion if they do not possess a higher organisational status. That is, if they cannot obtain resources or support from upper management easily, it can limit their ability to champion and push a project through.
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So what do project champions actually do to help the project? Well there are a few activities both traditional and non-traditional that are related to the project that the champion can be involved in. and in a similar way to how we can look at the project manager as needing to poses managerial and leadership traits and characteristics, we can also see that the project champion will have both traditional and non traditional roles in relation to the project.
Often, it is the project champion that is well equipped to handle the non-traditional duties, such as being the cheerleader, being the visionary, or being the ambassador of the project.
Champions are often personally committed to a project, and they can identify with the project in ways that traditional managers do not. And because they are personally tied to the project, they often work harder to overcome challenges and defend the project to the rest of the organization.
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How can we create project champions? Well we can return to our discussion on organisational culture first. Very often the problem is that organisations have failed to recognise the benefits that can be derived from project champions. Champions, and a climate within which they can exist, must be developed and nurtured by the organisation.
The organisation can then Identify and encourage their emergence, Encourage and reward risk takers, Remember the emotional connections, and not tie champions to traditional roles or duties.
Organisations need to develop a culture that not only tolerates, but actively promotes champions. That is, create a culture of supporting champions to feel like they can work without excessive criticism or oversight (so dont think of their badgering upper management as a negative)
Organisations must also remember that innovations are risky and they need to become more aware of the positive effects of encouraging individuals to take risks and assume champion roles in innovative projects. Think of how one success might be able to overcome and pay for any number of project failures.
But we also need to remember the emotional connections. Project champions are tied emotionally to their projects, and sometimes they will refuse to give up. And this can be a potential downside to having a champion, because even if their project is a genuine failure they might not let it go they might actually leave the parent organisation when the project they were championing finally closes for good.
Finally, we dont want to tie champions to traditional duties. In building the organisational culture, we need to remember they are there to help with the non traditional duties they are more comfortable supporting as a visionary or cheerleader. We should foster their single minded strength of purpose, because their expertise and true value to the project is their political connections and contributions.
Thats all for this video. In our final video this week well delve a bit deeper into project teams and how the project manager can develop and lead them.
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Topic 4 Video 4
Topic Project Teams
Project managers often have to try and develop a cohesive team by recruiting personnel from various departments or bringing seemingly complete strangers together to quickly start working as team members toward a single goal to do this, they have to be skilled at managing people and meetings in a unique manner, so they do not become a burden, but a facilitator of progress. Project managers need to forge a team identity, quickly establish a set of operational procedures that unit the teams efforts, and command the attention and allegiance of all team members.
So how do they do this? Well lets go take a look.
If we think about what makes an effective team, we might actually start out by pondering what are some of the reasons teams fail.
Some examples here of why teams fail might include: Poorly developed or unclear goals, Poorly defined project team roles & interdependencies, Lack of project team motivation, Poor communication
Poor leadership, Turnover among project team members, Dysfunctional behavior
When the formation of a team is ad hoc or unplanned, or expectations and required skills are not thought through, a team can attempt to work but will continually feel unprepared and misaligned. If team members are too competitive with one another their independence can result in a negative synergy and lack of cohesiveness. And if there are personality clashes or little to no means of open communication or positive feedback, the effectiveness of a team will be impaired.
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We can also consider the opposite of the dysfunctional team to try and understand what makes Effective project teams:
Here we see a clear sense of mission. Remember, we want the projects mission to be linked to that of the parent organisation. Effective teams will have productive interdependency that is, the team will have been carefully planned and members preselected for skills and personalities. The team will
have shared goals and display a positive synergy as they are focused on working together on the project rather than competing with one another. Their interpersonal skills will show though as trust, consideration, and respect for one another, and they will be committed to the team process, leadership, and accountability to complete the task at hand.
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Then we can take effective project teams a step further and look at high performing project teams.
High performing teams can become champions, create breakthrough products, exceed customer expectations, and get projects done ahead of schedule and under budget. They are bonded together by mutual interdependency and a common goal or vision. They trust each other and exhibit a high level of collaboration.
So how do we create these kind of teams? By keeping team member numbers low, by asking people to volunteer rather than be assigned to projects, and ensuring team members work on a project for its full lifecycle. Ensuring the organisational culture supports and fosters the cooperation and trust of team members, and supports project managers to function in a way that brings the team together with a common language, that allows the project manager to reward the team members, and by ensuring the project manager uses a personal touch to lead the team.
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How should we go about assembling project team? The process of selecting and recruiting team members will vary across organisations. However, two important factors affecting recruitment are the importance of the project and the management structure being sued to complete the project. That is, how does the project align with the parent organisations strategy and big goals, and how is the organisation structured for the project manager to go about getting team members is it functional whereby they need to negotiate with functional managers, is it matrix, or is it project where they might even look externally.
If we think back to the work breakdown and organisational breakdown structures, we want to make sure that the people we get for our team are capable of doing the work required. So in this example, the process of building a project team is as structured as possible. Staffing should be ideally aligned with the project managers judgement of what will be best for the project to succeed
When we are thinking about building the project team if the project team is our principal resource for getting tasks done and getting the project completed, them it is vital that we also learn everything possible about how to mould people into a high-performing team and how to manage the inevitable conflicts that are likely to emerge along the way
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Once the project manager identifies who will be on the team, and negotiates if needed, to have those team members for the duration of the project, the group of people that have been brought together need to develop as a team. One model of group development is shown here where the team will develop through five stages, in a generally accepted predictable manner. Some teams might stay in certain stages longer than others, but in general project teams, like other groups, will progress through the stages of forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. However, despite the difference that might arise across projects, using these stages provides project managers and project team members a framework for understanding their own development.
In the formation stage, the team members get acquainted with one another. Here members are beginning to find out what behaviors are acceptable with respect to the project and each other. They also begin creating the forms of communication and types of behavior that will exist within the group.
Then the group will reach the storming stage, which, as the title suggests, is marked by a high degree of internal conflict. This conflict stems from boundary testing. Given the rules established in the forming stage, team members will begin to push the limits of the teams structure and newly established practices. This is the period during which conflicts will arise and should be addressed; otherwise, they may rise to the surface later and at more inopportune times. As these conflicts are resolved, the project mangers leadership becomes accepted and the group can move to the next stage, Norming.
At this point, team members have tested the waters (and each other) and have come to a set of agreed-upon group standards. Here, group members develop close relationships and the group demonstrates cohesiveness as trust begins to form and members gain confidence in one another. Feelings of camaraderie and shared responsibility for the project are heightened. The norming phase is complete when the group structure solidifies and the group establishes a common set of expectations about how they will work together.
The Performing stage is where the work actually takes place, once the group is operating as a structure. The group has been formed and rules are established so the focus is on visible project progress. Trust and confidence exist at high levels and group performance is optimized.
Adjourning happens when the project is over. For traditional work groups, performing is the last stage of their development. However, for project teams, there is a completion phase. During this stage the team prepares for its own demobilization. Group members may be separated into their previous or new roles. In order to aid in the process, team members and the project manager need to be aware of adjourning stage and treat it as a serious transition period. Some members might be basking in the projects accomplishments, while others are unsure of where their next assignment might come from.
Teams need to complete all stages to become productive because the group development process removes many of the barriers to working as a team. With interpersonal issues out of the way, and trust and confidence developed, the team can focus on accomplishing the goals at hand rather than on the workings of the group. And again, the project manager needs to take an active role in shaping the group norms remember, the organizational culture that the group will have as that will contribute to an effective project team meeting the project goals.
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So how do project managers build that cross-functional cooperation. Remember, project team members might be coming from different functional departments or from outside the organisation, and they might be coming from units with vastly different cultures.
In the diagram, we see four key factors that can influence cross functional cooperation:
- Superordinate goals these are overall goals or purposes that are important to all functional groups and that require resources and efforts of multiple functional groups. Remember, the project needs to align with organisational strategy now we need all functional groups to buy into a superordinate goal. There might be a number of subprojects in order to complete the overall goal or objective of the project to accomplish the solution to the problem and each subproject might have its own goals, but the superordinate goal is in addition to the smaller goals not a replacement for them. It aims to draw everyone together
- The Rules and procedures contribute to the cross-functional cooperation, especially in cases where project teams cannot rely on established, organisational rules and procedures and they must make their own for example, if a project team is brought together from a functional organization, it might not have project team rules and procedures these would have to be created and adhered to in order to succeed in the project
- Recall our consideration of organisational culture, and the environmental and geographic influencers on the culture. Here, Physical proximity refers to the ability of employees to interact with members of their own or other departments. The further they are away from each other, the more difficult working as a team can be. So in some project organisations, or matrix organisation personnel are relocated when they are working together on the same project, for the duration of the project
- Accessibility here is the perception by others that a team member or the project manager is approachable for communicating and interacting with on problems or concerns related to the project this is separate from the issue of physical proximity it involves things like a persons schedule, their out of office commitments, or their varied duties and priorities.
- Noting the inputs to enhancing cross-functional cooperation, we also have the outcomes which are task outcomes and psychosocial outcomes
- Task outcomes here refer to the factors involved in the actual implementation of the project
- that is the time, schedule, and project functionality
- The Psychosocial outcomes represent the team members assessment that the project experience was worthwhile, satisfying, and productive. These psychosocial outcomes are important because they represent the attitudes team members will carry with them to future projects
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And finally, with increasing reliance on technology to help teams continue working regardless of the proximity, virtual teams can pose additional complexities, but, with effective management, can still support a project to success. When considering how to use technology to improve virtual teams, we need to remember that no one technology works for everyone or every project so we need to use the technology that fits the task at hand. By varying the way the team meets, too, it will keep people more engaged. Always using the same type of meeting can become boring to team members. By Intermixing meeting types and purposes the team is likely to remain more interested.
Communication technologies can be also be combined. For example, virtual whiteboards and chat sessions work well with videoconferencing. However, a key factor for project managers is that they need to understand the technology they are using. So training of technology is critical it isnt just going to happen, the project manager must know what they want to use, and why, and then sure they are trained or have sufficient support to use it.
Thats all for this week. I hope this has helped develop your understanding of how a project manager might draw on managerial and leadership characteristics in their project management duties, as well as providing you with a bit more understanding of the complexities of project teams. Ill see you soon.