OK, we’re back to our mini-series on resilience in project teams! Today, I want to give you more practical tips for building resilience. We’ve looked at some of the things to consider for team culture and behaviours, but now we’re looking at more specific things that you can do as a project manager to help your team bounce back and deal with challenges.
- Encourage a growth mindset
Talk about challenges as opportunities for learning and growth. If someone can’t do something or didn’t do it as well as they wanted to, it’s an opportunity for skill building and practice. The more you practice, the better you get!
Put regular post-implementation or post-project reviews in the calendar. Use retrospectives. Don’t blame. And if you haven’t read Carole Dweck’s book or watched her TED talk to the growth mindset, I highly encourage you to do so.
- Take time for team building
I know, team building can feel a bit meh at times. But team-building activities and exercises can strengthen relationships and build trust among team members, so it’s worth putting a few minutes aside during team meetings for social chat, or activities, or case studies, or anything that won’t feel blergh to your team.
We are doing a series of pecha kucha presentations to get to know each other better, so even simple things like that can help.
- Model work-life balance and make it possible for everyone else
Be the leader that logs off at a normal time and doesn’t expect everyone to work late into the evening or respond to messages before they should really have logged on. Manage resource capacity across the project so people aren’t overburdened, as burnout can reduce resilience. You can’t bounce back if you have no energy to do the things you should be doing.
Make sure there is flexibility for people to take holiday time away from work even in busy periods on the project. If you’re in a position to offer it, think about flexible work arrangements. Don’t book meetings when people might be out doing the school run. Encourage regular breaks, and support your colleagues’ well-being to help maintain morale.
- Let people solve problems
Put aside the idea of hero project manager. You don’t need to solve all the problems for the team. Empower them to contribute ideas and solutions. You can facilitate sessions to encourage creative problem-solving, but you don’t have to have all the answers.
This might require some training or support on your part for the team. They can’t solve problems without the right tools or resources, so make sure they are equipped with what they need to handle challenges effectively (before they face the challenge). That might include facilitation training, or conflict resolution training or even stress management tools – you probably already have access to some of these through your organisation.
- Recognise and reward resilience (you don’t have to call it that)
Recognise and reward achievements, especially when times are tough. Shout out someone who solved a problem on your chat channel. Tell someone’s manager that they did a good job at solutioning. Celebrate milestones and achievements together, particularly those that demonstrate the team’s ability to overcome obstacles.
You don’t have to say, “we’re celebrating resilience today!” as that not only sounds weird but might not resonate with the team. Call it out as whatever you want!
What else do you do to help team members and the team overall get more resilient? Have you tried any of these ideas and what happened? Let us know in the comments!
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