Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
How to Manage Project Team
Citation preview
How to manage a Project Team
London, UK Australia
Dubai New Zealand
w w w .i lx g ro u p .c om © ILX Group 2014
PRINCE2® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited
ILX Group Plc - 4th Floor, 15 Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1BW, United Kingdom T: +44 (0) 207 371 4444 E: [email protected] www.ilxgroup.com ILX Group Pty Ltd - Level 1, Building 1, The Binary Centre, 3 Richardson Place, North Ryde, NSW 2113, Australia T: +61 (0)2 8035 4350 E: [email protected] www.ilxgroup.com/au ILX Consulting JLT - 901A 1 Lake Plaza, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai, PO Box 643829, United Arab Emirates T: +971 (0) 561 496 498 E: [email protected] www.ilxgroup.com/ae ILX Group Ltd - PO Box 796, Shortland St. Mail Centre, Auckland 1140, New Zealand E: [email protected] www.ilxgroup.com/nz
www.ilxgroup.com © ILX Group 2014 M_o_R® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited. PRINCE2® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited.
Look behind every successful sports team and you’ll find a great manager. Look behind a top project team and you’ll find a great project manager. So how do you become an effective and motivating project manager? Here are some tips to help. How to Manage a Project Team 1. Begin with the story. We’re not talking bedtime stories, of course, but business stories that can be just as inspiring and
memorable. They’re commonly used to woo customers but can be very useful for pulling in employees to connect the m to your organisation. The narrative can take many forms and include any amount and kind of information depending on circumstances. You may want to share the company’s vision, highlight what makes the project special, outline employees’ roles within the organisation, and so on.
2. Get specific. Once you’ve linked both project and team to the company story, you can explain the case for the project
outlining why it’s desirable, viable and achievable and therefore worthy of investment. It’s helpful to spel l out things like the project outcome and benefits.
3. Set targets. In recent years the idea of setting targets has got a bad name because of fears about living in a “target
culture”; yet defining goals can be useful. They’re a good way of motivating people, giving direction and getting good team performance. Be sure to think through the targets so that they are, for example, clear, measurable and time sensitive.
4. Balance the project, team and the individual. Just as it’s no good putting a square peg in a round hole, so it’s no good
expecting meticulous people to be creative or asking ideas people to perform detailed tasks. In the chapter on Organisation, PRINCE2® advises that as a project manager you should make sure that you know the characteristics and personality of the team to put them in the role in which they’ll deliver the goods.
5. Train for the project. Matching personalities to roles is not enough. You need to work out team members’ strengths and
weaknesses in terms of skills and knowledge. This will help you provide appropriate learning that may include anything from teaching processes and standards to explaining project background and project goals as outlined in PRINCE2 to even giving them out-of-comfort-zone skills in areas such as finance. Remember that you don’t have to organise training on your own; the best learning companies provide 360° support by offering consulting services to make training effective.
6. Give them growing room. We’re long past the days when employees had a job for life or stayed with a company for l ife;
people will leave at some time or other. Strange as it may seem, this makes it even more important to get them to develop their skills and offer opportunities to develop their careers. For in this way you’re more likely to get the best out of the whole team and to keep the best team members for longer.
7. Empower your team. People tend to respond to the attitudes of their leaders. If you have low expectations of your team
members, you can be sure they’ll dumb down to meet them. If you have high expectations they’ll willingly rise to the challenge. So create the right atmosphere by boosting involvement in the decision making process, welcoming contributions, respecting opinions, stimulating debate and supporting independence in self-starters.
How to manage a Project Team
London, UK Australia
Dubai New Zealand
w w w .i lx g ro u p .c om © ILX Group 2014
PRINCE2® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited
ILX Group Plc - 4th Floor, 15 Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1BW, United Kingdom T: +44 (0) 207 371 4444 E: [email protected] www.ilxgroup.com ILX Group Pty Ltd - Level 1, Building 1, The Binary Centre, 3 Richardson Place, North Ryde, NSW 2113, Australia T: +61 (0)2 8035 4350 E: [email protected] www.ilxgroup.com/au ILX Consulting JLT - 901A 1 Lake Plaza, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai, PO Box 643829, United Arab Emirates T: +971 (0) 561 496 498 E: [email protected] www.ilxgroup.com/ae ILX Group Ltd - PO Box 796, Shortland St. Mail Centre, Auckland 1140, New Zealand E: [email protected] www.ilxgroup.com/nz
www.ilxgroup.com © ILX Group 2014 M_o_R® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited. PRINCE2® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited.
8. Make them feel safe. Stuff happens. And since projects are about change and change involves risk – stuff can happen a
lot. So a good manager will understand that and be prepared for risk and be supportive of people’s mistakes. One of the best ways you can get ready for risk is to aim to reduce, detect and control it – in other words to manage it using methodologies like PRINCE2 or Management of Risk (M_o_R®). In order to be supportive you must understand the adverse effects of tiredness, stress and over-heavy workloads and do your best to minimise these problems.
9. Communicate. Whether through set departmental meetings, through chance encounters at the coffee cart or through
daily chat on social media, use appropriate opportunities to communicate information, demonstrate the project’s on-going feasibility, encourage perseverance, show appreciation and award rewards; we all like being valued.
10. Create team spirit. If you’re in a tug-of-war it’s no help if half your side are loafing about and the other are arguing
amongst themselves. To keep everyone on side: share goals and updates; clarify roles and responsibilities; establish structures that foster personal and team transparency and accountability; promote an atmosphere of trust and respect; show how every team member is a link in a chain that holds the team and the project together. Do this and they’ll all be prepared to take one for the team if the time comes.
Useful Links For a complete picture of PRINCE2 and what it can do, head to the official PRINCE2 website. ILX Group deliver PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner e-learning, classroom and blended learning to suit every
situation. Don’t forget our guaranteed pass offer for Foundation level courses. The PRINCE2 e-learning experience may be the perfect option for those with an eye for cost-effective, rich and
collaborative training that includes a blog, a forum and social media such as Twitter and Facebook. For further useful PRINCE2 ® resources, templates, white papers and study aids, please
visit the PRINCE2 Download Centre at www.PRINCE2.com
