work more independently, perhaps even with much more freedom than you would ever allow in your
department. Imposing an overly structured environment on your team members may stifle their
freedom to act and impede the creativity and team spirit you want to encourage.
Solution: Encourage individual responsibility and effort. Team members respond best when they are
allowed a degree of independence. Teamwork, ironically, often grows from allowing people to solve
problems as individuals. They can work together when the restrictions of a well-defined department are
removed. Give your team the freedom to tackle an area of responsibility and to see it through.
• Problem: The leader is too involved and too assertive. You might be what is called a hands-on
manager, one who likes to roll up your sleeves and do your share of the work. That approach is
appropriate in many departments, and it keeps you in touch with your permanent staff. But for a
project, such an approach could impede progress. If you insist that the project be done your way, you
are not allowing a team to form. That requires a less assertive approach.
Solution: Lead your team in a different way. Think of your project team differently from how you think
of your department. Reduce your role to that of monitor. Watch the budget and the schedule, and ensure
that your team comes through; be available to solve problems that your team wants you to solve. For
some projects, you may need to work on the same level as your team because of deadline pressures,
lack of people on your team, or unexpected problems and delays. But step in only if your team needs
you, not because you assume that’s always the best way to proceed.
• Problem: The team is isolated through lack of delegation. Project management is an excellent
opportunity for sharpening your delegation skills. If you do not delegate effectively, your team will
sense that it’s being left out of the primary work of the project, and everyone will feel isolated. Just as a
department manager has to keep staff informed of changes that affect them, you should plan to involve
your project team in every phase of the job.
Solution: Coach the team, but allow it the freedom to act. It would be a disaster for a sports coach to
take the place of a player because the job wasn’t being done correctly. If you see one or more team
members failing in their areas of responsibility, don’t step in and do the work yourself. Work closely
with them, not only to help them complete tasks, but to enable them to recognize the phase and project
goals in operation. Help your team to succeed instead of allowing delegation to work in reverse.
• Problem: Team members let their egos rule. You face a difficult challenge when your team stops
operating as a unit and becomes a group of individuals in conflict. When team members begin to
compete with one another for credit, for work, or for the way to proceed, recognize that the problem is
not theirs, it’s yours. A team run on ego cannot function well. The intended goal is replaced with
personal goals, and your project is in jeopardy of being lost in the shuffle.
Solution: Stress team and project goals over individual success. As team leader, you are responsible for
the motives and goals of your team. You may have to remind your team members more than once that
they are heading for a common goal and that individual credit or recognition has no place in your
project team. You can get the point across by example: Don’t present the job as your project, or its
success or failure in terms of your career. It is a team effort, and you will be most likely to succeed
when you demonstrate that belief through your own actions.
It has been important to address the personal element of your project before going on to discuss the budget
and the schedule. The structure of your team will define these other requirements to a large degree, and your
success as a project manager will depend on the people you select and the way in which they work together or
are allowed to create on their own team. Chapter 4, shows how the budget fits into the organizational plan of
your project.
WORK PROJECT
1. List three ideas for solving the problem of having a project team imposed on you, and explain how
this problem can be solved.
2. Explain why the “area of responsibility” approach is different from assigning tasks to team
members.
3. Why should you always assume that an outside department’s priorities must come first?
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