The most important competence of any project manager is the management of the work team. It includes not only control and setting tasks for subordinates, but also many other tasks. For example, empowering and inspiring staff, demonstrating active leadership, conflict management.
From the features of team management depends on its performance, potential, speed and quality of the project being performed. At the same time, not everyone is able to control people. It's quite a challenge, mastery comes with experience. Therefore, before managing a project, any manager is advised to understand in advance the specifics and formation of effective management, its types, management styles and methods.
Project Team Management
Project Team Management: Definition
Project team management is the ability of the manager to coordinate the actions of a working group connected by a single project to perform certain strategic tasks.
It includes a set of key abilities, including corporate communication, positive impact on team performance, setting goals and objectives, evaluating human resources, identifying problems, resolving conflicts, monitoring and adjusting assignments, executing schedules and workload.
Nuances of team management
A team led by a competent boss is the engine of the project, without it it is impossible to perform all the tasks, the successful implementation of the project. With careful coordination, knowledge of strategies and proper management of the team of the working group, other, non-obvious advantages of management appear:
Productivity. It appears by balancing the workload of personnel, creating realistic deadlines, supporting and removing barriers that directly impede the fulfillment of tasks.
Performance. Arises on a strong corporate base and thanks to highly motivated employees.
Training. It is the result of joint work, experience and skills of the team and its head, rapid adaptation.
Cohesion. It originates from the active cooperation of the team.
Morale. It is born thanks to happy and efficient employees who are easier to keep in production, minimizing the outflow of personnel and saving the company money.
Thus, successful management of the project team carries a huge number of specific advantages. Therefore, the administration of any company should be interested in the effective development of this direction.
Composition of the project team
The working group, which is under management during the creation of the project, is a well-coordinated team in which participants of different levels work. Usually there are three groups of employees depending on their involvement in the process:
the main team - specialists directly involved in the implementation, support of the project and constantly in contact with each other;
extended team - employees who assist the main team, but are not directly involved in the project;
stakeholders - people who do not cooperate with team members, but are able to influence them in the process of performing project activities.
Among the project participants, it is customary to distinguish the customer, project initiator, curator, project manager (project manager), investors, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, authorities and end users. The project manager deserves the greatest attention - the person responsible for the implementation, speed and quality of the entire project.
In the team, it is recommended to avoid destructive characters that can spoil the creation and progress of any project. These include:
aggressors - employees hostile to the project and in every way positioning themselves against it;
blockers - participants who paralyze the ability of the team to brainstorm, discuss the ideas and concepts put forward;
detached - members of the working group who do not take part in any aspect, who prefer to sit in the shadows;
non-permanent - subordinates, jumping from one topic to another and not allowing to solve any issue;
dominant - employees who aggressively impose their opinions;
"glory hunters" are employees interested only in personal gain.
When forming a project team, you should strive to recruit people who are active initiators, motivate other participants, easily collect information and share it with others, cheer up the team, inspire colleagues, help to collect all the collected data.
Project Team Features
The working group for the creation of the project meets for a short time, is a non-permanent, temporary link of the company. It is needed only for the period of management, until a particular project is implemented and launched. However, it has its own specific functions, responsibilities, structure and form. The upper level of the project team consists of a manager, the lower - of specialist performers with certain knowledge of specific disciplines, skills and abilities.
The manager, or project manager, must independently determine the number of members of the working group, select participants with qualifications who would meet a number of requirements. He also needs to take into account that the composition of the future team should correctly correlate with the goals, objectives, requirements of the project. The selection of participants for the team should be carried out in accordance with the general psychological portrait, so that employees do not conflict and work as efficiently as possible. And the internal culture of the project should encourage the staff to activities and achieve the highest results.
The key features of the project team are:
internal structuring (governance, sanctions and control bodies);
common goals, objectives and super values;
isolation (the difference between one project team and another);
pressure of the team (mutual influence of participants on common behavior);
a tendency to stability.
If all the signs are met, then the existing working group can be called a team.
Planning and organization of teamwork
Work planning of the working group should be carried out even before the financial resources are poured into the project. To do this, it is recommended to timely choose the quantitative and qualitative composition of the team, the executive leader, their roles and actions of each department. Then the work of employees will be as efficient as possible, and resources will be distributed correctly - in accordance with the designated project and its plan.
When distributing responsibilities, assigning functions to each employee, it is worth considering the following points:
- professional qualities of team members;
- personal characteristics of working employees;
- each member of the group understands the goals and objectives assigned to him, the assigned role and responsibilities in the team;
- positive attitude of all selected subordinates, their faith in the success of the development.
- The manager should also be aware that each employee is an individual who may or may not understand the obligations assigned to him. Therefore, at the stage of introduction to project activities, for the qualitative organization of teamwork, an instruction should be created and issued to all project participants. The document should be small, easy to understand and take into account all the details, the basics of future activities.
In addition, in the process of work, it is recommended to keep records in which progress is recorded, schedules are drawn up, and areas of responsibility are distributed.
Types of Team Management
Types of Project Team Management
It's no secret that each working group develops its own organizational culture, unlike others. It corresponds to the special forms and unique management principles of each individual project manager. These types of project team management are determined depending on the form of adoption and the way management decisions are implemented.
Among them are the basic options, very similar to the types of culture:
- authoritarian style - provides for individual and peremptory decision-making by the project team leader, appropriate for projects involving unlimited human resources with low qualifications and a small professional level;
- entrepreneurial (organizational) style - involves motivation by monetary remuneration, suitable for projects related to the introduction of new products to the market;
- bureaucratic style - focuses on regulations, orders and penalties, is successfully used to implement budget management systems and describe business processes;
- democratic style - establishes rules jointly developed by the team, considers the working group as a professional community aimed at achieving results and personal development, is among the most common options for managing a project team;
- dialogue style - involves the use of knowledge of the participants as the main managerial factor, distributes the functions of the leader among several subjects, is suitable only in case of high activity and equality of these participants.
You can't say that a particular style is the most successful. The choice should be made depending on the level of training and professionalism of the team, its cohesion, the number of projects already completed before and many other factors.
Methods and tools for managing the project team
As an aid, the manager should use additional tools to manage the project team. There are five main methods that are able to establish, optimize and improve the work of the team. Let's highlight and consider them in more detail.
Observation and discussion
An informal method used to communicate with team members about the progress, successes and failures, difficulties and mood of the staff.
Performance evaluation
The essence of this technology is direct meetings and meetings of the participants of the working group with the project manager to organize the receipt by the performers of the assessment, the definition of their activities. During the conversation, problems are also identified, the duties of employees are clarified, goals for the near future are created and determined.
Problem log
The main task of the project manager is to solve problems that threaten the successful implementation of the project. In the event that the difficulty cannot be resolved in an informal setting, it is recommended to record the operation in a special journal. In addition to the essence of the problem or case, it should indicate the specific people responsible for solving it, as well as the deadline for completing the task.
Interpersonal communication
Interpersonal skills for the management and development of the project team are needed to motivate the team, maintain good relations, and be able to achieve better results during the project. For example, the core competencies are:
- leadership - allows you to choose the right direction of work, convince people to follow themselves, inspire, motivate;
- influence - helps to build trusting relationships, listen, force;
effective decision-making - involves the possession of excellent intuition or reliable information for making the most effective and productive decisions.
Conflict resolution
Misunderstandings, disagreements, conflicts arise not only between employees, but also between the manager and managers. They greatly affect the progress of the project, so it is very important to regulate them quickly and constructively, not allowing the general mood of the team to deteriorate. That is why the project manager needs to know about the basic methods of conflict resolution. These include:
- problem solving - calm elimination of the difficulty by the project manager without confrontation with a member of the team;
- cooperation - assistance in decision-making;
- compromise is a path of concessions and consensus for the common good;
- coercion is not the best way for a peaceful and long-term solution to the problem, because it does not solve the initial disagreement, undermines the authority of the project manager, worsens the mood of the team;
- anti-aliasing - a method that minimizes, but at the same time does not eliminate the contradictions that have arisen;
- evasion is the worst means, since it does not allow to resolve the conflict at all, to resolve the difficulties in communication between people.
- The use of these methods of project team management helps the manager to become an effective project manager who leads his subordinates to successful activities. In addition, modern tools can come to his aid, for example, online platforms for managing project teams.
Leader Task - a system for managing a project team
Convenient manager for teamwork Leader Task greatly simplifies the joint work of the labor collective, increases the speed, effectiveness and quality of activities. The manager has the opportunity to unite employees on a single platform, where it is easy to monitor people's activities, track progress at all stages, statistics and perform analysis of the project being headed, even in a remote format.
The online service allows staff to share information at any time, discuss ideas together, delegate assignments, set and distribute tasks among each other. In addition, the program disperses roles, appoints observers. Each subordinate sees only his area of responsibility and carries out the required work with those tasks, presentations and projects that need his direct participation.
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