What Do They Need From Me?

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Leadership   ProjectsAtWork  

Recognizing the needs of our team members is a huge step in becoming an effective leader and creating an environment where success is easier to achieve. These needs include confidence, motivation and recognition/reward. But they aren’t the same for everyone.

This is the third article in an ongoing series on project leadership and communication. This series will purposefully stray from the trampled path of safe management advice that abounds in books and blogs. Instead it will seek to inspire good project managers to become better project leaders through forward thinking and cutting-edge approaches.

In last month’s article we were introspective — thinking of ourselves as leaders. That’s an important part of the equation — leadership is in large part about projecting ourselves, using our personality, skills, etc. to help create an environment where everyone can be successful. To complete that equation we need to look at the needs of our team, both individually and as a group, in order to understand the way that they need us to lead.

It’s a cliché to say that everyone is different, but it is important to recognize that different people are motivated by different things, respond better to different types of communication, etc. Most of us have experienced Myers Briggs or similar personality profile tests that seek to categorize us into a certain type of personality, and …

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