3 Ways to Engage and Inspire Your Project Team

Bruce is the founder of ProjectManagementHacks.com, a resource for growing IT project managers.

  Resource Management   Talent Management  

What causes disinterest and disengagement on project teams? That's a key question for project managers to consider. It's the qualitative factor that underpins many project failures. That email that isn't getting answered? Those endless follow-up requests? Disengagement is a major factor that undermines project success.

The State of Disengagement
Despite economic uncertainty, many professionals struggle to engage effectively at work. The Gallup organization has reported that disengagement at work has been a problem for many years. For example, Gallup research found that disengaged workers in Germany tend to have a higher absenteeism rate and are less likely to recommend their company’s products and services to others.

Disengaged professionals may still show up at the office, but they tend not to bring their creativity and full ability. As Seth Godin explains, attitude and outlook matter much more in the knowledge economy:

“If you worked on the line, we cared about your productivity, not your smile or approach to the work. You could walk in downcast, walk out defeated and get a raise if your productivity was good. No longer. Your attitude is now what's on offer, it's what you sell…the emotional labor of engaging with the work and increasing the energy in the room is precisely what you sell. So sell it.”

Addressing …

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