Work Management Success and Dr. Doolittle's Push-Me-Pull-Me

 

Have you ever felt like Dr. Doolittle's Push-Me-Pull-Me? 

Struggling to meet deadlines and feeling unsure of whether or not you are headed in the right direction could make anyone on the project team feel like Doolittle's exotic friend.  It's easy to forget that successful project management is more than managing time-lines and milestones.  I've come to appreciate that your particular work management philosophy or the project management tools you use are secondary in importance to an ability to provide a sense of direction and successfully lead the team.

I think everyone would agree that keeping a project team headed in the right direction is critical to project success—and even more important if project teams feel like they are being constantly pushed or pulled in different directions.  Nobody enjoys the feeling Lewis Carroll described as, "The faster I run, the behinder I get."

Although these few principles aren't original to me, let me share a few suggestions to help you lead everyone on your project team in the right direction:

1. Recognize that everyone on the team wants to do a good job—they just need to know how that is defined.  We all understand that the definition of project success needs to be clearly defined before a project begins.  I believe that the same is true for the individual members of our project teams.  Clearly articulating expectations is crucial if we want the members of our teams to be successful.
2. Give team members the opportunity to take ownership of their responsibilities, report on their progress, and accept accountability.  Project management software (to one degree or another) can help facilitate this, but even if you don't use a software tool, provide a means for team members to accept their contribution to project success, report on their progress during the life of the project along with the associated responsibility for their individual assignments.
3. Make sure that the objectives and business benefit of the project is understood by everyone on the team.  One PMO I am aware of identifies the business benefit of every project on every screen and form the project team views.  However, if you're not using a project management software, you might want to consider identifying the business value and objectives in the team common area, on a whiteboard, or other location where team members can be reminded every day.
4. I'm a real believer in management by walking around.  Spend time working with the team every day.  It's easy to find yourself buried in paperwork or other administrative tasks over the course of any given day.  Creating an open atmosphere where team communication and collaboration is really encouraged requires managers to spend regular and productive time working with members of the project team.
5. Offer sincere and relevant praise for a job well done.  I once worked with a guy who would nonchalantly tell the team every time he saw them, "Good job gang.  You're the best."  Unfortunately, the power of positive feedback resides in specific recognition of successful behavior—not insincere "atta-boys."  In fact, his insincere attempts de-motivated and demoralized the team.

By remembering that people want to do a good job, they want to know the value of what they are doing, they want ownership of their role, and they want sincere and relevant recognition of their accomplishments, project managers can overcome the push-me-pull-me phenomenon so prevalent in organizations and effectively lead the team in the right direction.

What do you do to keep project teams on the right track and avoid being pulled in a dozen different directions at once.