Project Management

How to Use Your Position to Improve Team Members

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As a project manager, do you realize how many people are observing you? It’s true—in addition to all of our varied responsibilities, we also have team members constantly watching and depending on us for their next moves.

To take advantage of all this attention to benefit the project and organization, a project manager should always remember the three “i” words: help team members improve, be an inspiring professional model, and illustrate project management excellence.

Improve. First, be aware of the wealth of talent your resources hold, as well as what their professional development needs are. You may want to cross-train team members so project activities can continue even if someone leaves the project.

In addition, in some organizations, project managers are asked to contribute to team members’ performance reviews, which gives you another opportunity to suggest areas of improvement. It’s also helpful to pass along training events that you know could interest and enhance the skill sets of your team members.

Inspire. Whether or not members of your team want to become project managers, you should always be a good example of one. How you act on the job says a lot about your profession and your organization, and will be a cue for others to follow.

In addition, you can use your status as project manager to show team members that they can be leaders in whatever position they hold.

Illustrate. Demonstrate project management hard and soft skills. For example, you could show a disorganized team member better techniques for issue and defect logs, or help a struggling team member learn ways to communicate with stakeholders more confidently.

Consistently turning these three words into action takes conscious effort. The good news is that project managers have a fantastic opportunity to be a partner in their team members’ growth. 

Do you practice these leadership skills to foster growth in your team members? What other leadership skills would you add to the list?

 


Posted by Bernadine Douglas on: March 24, 2015 10:53 PM | Permalink

Comments (2)

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Syed Waqar Hussain Project Management Consultant| TPS Wordlwide Karachi, Pakistan
True! It is very important to make your position attractive to your team members, I mean they should respect you from all dimensions. Eventually, it will give benefits to the project.

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Thilo Wack Head of Existing Product and Test Lab| optimed Tholey-Hasborn, Germany
Being a role model for me also implies that I'm not aloof and detached, so that the team can look up at me when I'm disseminating my pieces of wisdom. You need to be in the trenches with the team and show respect, only then people will really follow your lead. You also have to publicly admit your own mistakes if you want people to learn from theirs (with or without your additional input).

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