A Little Bit of Everything

  Talent Management   Teams   PM Network  

To get the most out of a team, you need to know what makes each person tick. But sometimes it takes a little digging to figure out who has which skills, work style, personality traits and quirks.

And the results just might surprise you.

“You really need to give a lot of thought to the roles and responsibilities matrix from the outset and have the team contribute to the process,” says Katherine Ericsson, PMP, director of the project management office at Southern Wine and Spirits of America, Miramar, Florida, USA. “It’s amazing the hid­den skills you can discover if you do it right.”

Although it can certainly be tempt­ing to go with their instincts, project leaders should make an effort to get beyond surface impressions.

“We all categorize people in terms of gender, nationality, ethnic groups and so on, even if we pretend that we don’t,” says Laura M. Graves, associate profes­sor of management at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.

“It’s important to recognize the power of stereotypes and be careful that our expectations don’t determine the roles we
assign people to,” she says. “Otherwise it’s very easy to underutilize talent.”

At the same time, project managers should be aware of how cultural differences affect team behaviors.

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