Ever wondered what separates the best from the rest of those that manage projects? I believe it is the soft skills - knowing how to work with people when you have no authority. What do you think?
I agree, an effective project leader needs to balance task accomplishment with collaborative and constructive relationships and partnerships. It's amazing how many project teams launch their work, neglecting team building during the initial phases of the work. Their usual response is "we don't have time for that "soft stuff"; then a month into the project, you hear complaints like "if only we had spent some time getting to know each other, identifying our individual strengths etc,. we would be performing so much better".
I couldn't have said it better, Wayne. I believe that relationships not only make or break a project manager, but anyone working in a team-based environment. Joining up with team members is always my first step when joining an organization.
I absolutely agree with Pam, especially when the leader does not have "authority". I call it management by influence which is basically using all your soft skills to convince people and/or teams to meet certain deadlines. Even when the PM has authority, I feel that people respond better and moral is better using soft skills to ensure deadlines are met. Team building is a critical part of the process also, just as Wayne indicates. I have a team who has worked together for over 6 years and yet they don't know each other. I am working to correct that and the team is working together so much better than prior to my taking over the QA team I am now responsible for. We also added 3 new team members to the "old" group and their spending some time getting to know how others on the team work has been invaluable in the way I am pairing staff to complete assignment on a new Testing Process Improvement project that we have added on top of the teams regular duties. I will also say that is it also imparative that the manager know the team members so they don't pair members in create conflict.
My question to the group is how do you facilitate extremely severe conflict between two team members?
3 comments:
I agree, an effective project leader needs to balance task accomplishment with collaborative and constructive relationships and partnerships. It's amazing how many project teams launch their work, neglecting team building during the initial phases of the work. Their usual response is "we don't have time for that "soft stuff"; then a month into the project, you hear complaints like "if only we had spent some time getting to know each other, identifying our individual strengths etc,. we would be performing so much better".
I couldn't have said it better, Wayne. I believe that relationships not only make or break a project manager, but anyone working in a team-based environment. Joining up with team members is always my first step when joining an organization.
I absolutely agree with Pam, especially when the leader does not have "authority". I call it management by influence which is basically using all your soft skills to convince people and/or teams to meet certain deadlines. Even when the PM has authority, I feel that people respond better and moral is better using soft skills to ensure deadlines are met. Team building is a critical part of the process also, just as Wayne indicates. I have a team who has worked together for over 6 years and yet they don't know each other. I am working to correct that and the team is working together so much better than prior to my taking over the QA team I am now responsible for. We also added 3 new team members to the "old" group and their spending some time getting to know how others on the team work has been invaluable in the way I am pairing staff to complete assignment on a new Testing Process Improvement project that we have added on top of the teams regular duties. I will also say that is it also imparative that the manager know the team members so they don't pair members in create conflict.
My question to the group is how do you facilitate extremely severe conflict between two team members?
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