After you come up with a clear definition, schedule, and budget for your project, you need to plan for the way
in which you’ll lead your project team. Because projects are often seen by team members as intrusions into
their routines—extra work that’s imposed on them—you may have to contend with resistance within the
team, or at least help team members resolve scheduling conflicts.
To make a project work smoothly, you may have to alter your leadership style. You should also clearly define
your function and the function of the team.
Some suggestions are listed in Figure 2-1 and explained as follows:
1. Clarify your leadership role. A department manager may gain the respect of his or her department
staff over time, regardless of individual style. But a project manager, like each person on the team, is
often thrust into a temporary leadership role, often over individuals from other departments. In this
situation, it’s important to let your project team know how you perceive that role.
Your function will vary depending on the complexity of each project and on the size and nature of the
team. But for most projects, you will function not as a supervisor or mediator but as a coordinator. You
may often have to participate directly in many phases of the job to make sure that resources work
together, budgets are controlled, and schedules are met.
Figure 2-1 Project leadership goals.
2. Follow through on all aspects of the job. Remember that because projects are exceptions, team
members may not understand their roles as clearly as you’d like or might assume. So you must be able
to follow through on assignments and make sure they’re clearly understood in terms of the desired
result and deadline—a level of follow-through greater than you’d need in supervising a seasoned
department. A good method is to approach assignments and supervision as though you were training
new employees—at the same time not becoming so involved in overseeing that the team members feel
like trainees.
3. Emphasize organization and scheduling. Project leaders depend on a very well organized schedule
of work and division of assignments. Therefore, it’s important to write everything down. Use checklists
to make sure that work is proceeding on schedule and that everyone knows what’s expected of them
and when completion is due. You may want to work from a clipboard and solve problems as they come
up, even to the point that you don’t get directly involved in the work itself.
4. Be aware of team priorities and conflicts. Rarely do project team members abandon their own
recurring tasks to spend all of their time on temporary projects. Your project is more likely to represent
extra duty; some team members may even consider it a low priority. They are likely to face conflicts in
deadlines, since departmental tasks and project tasks cannot both be completed within a limited amount
of time. This problem is especially difficult to resolve when team members report to you for the project
and to someone else the rest of the time.
Therefore, ask team members to let you know in advance about future scheduling conflicts, and then
seek a solution—if necessary, by reassigning tasks. To avoid unnecessary conflicts that place team
members in the middle, stay in touch with the managers of their departments.
5. Be available to team members. Just as your team members must continue to execute departmental
tasks, you will have to continue leading your department. But no matter how much pressure you’re
under, and no matter how much work you have, you should be available to your team. When they
approach you with problems or questions, be sure you make time to work out a solution.
6. Ask for participation and respond to it. A team functions more democratically than a department;
otherwise it isn’t really a team. Ask your team to offer ideas, propose solutions and procedures, and
take part in executing the project’s objective. Most of all, make their participation a reality, not just a
concept. You need to listen well when members offer ideas; when the ideas make sense, be willing to
change your assumptions.