For the first time in a long time though, I’ve had a team member be my highest risk.
That team member is a superstar in their area; very engaged, responsive, fast-paced and has all the qualities you’d want in a star on your team.
However, he has one small problem, he doesn't work within the team. He works outside of it, like ‘do their own thing’, because ‘the process takes too much time’. To make matters even worse, in the course of ‘doing their own things’, he is causing other team members re-work, and also exposing new risks that now need their own mitigation plans.
Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t give that person a primary role on the project. You’d have someone be the lead, and they would follow that person. Or, you’d have someone be their ‘wingman’, so you could have eyes on them. Unfortunately for me, neither was an option.
To mitigate the risk this person was introducing to my project, what do I need to do? Saving Changes...
Deepesh RammoorthyICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceTarneit, Vic, Australia
Have a one on one chat with this team member and explain exactly how his need to work alone is affecting the team productivity and morale.
If this team member reports to a functional manager and the one on one chat has failed, the next thing you would do is to have a chat with their manager. Saving Changes...
As Deepesh has indicated, first try to see if the superstar's behavior can improve. In some cases, it might be because no one has had a "radical candor" chat with him.
However, if nothing changes and escalation through his management doesn't help, then unless you can request to have him replaced to protect the team, your only solution is to contain the damage he causes.
Kiron Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Please let me say she/he is not a superstar. A superstar always know how to work inside the team. Second, the problem is not the person itself. The problem is you have an unacceptable (sorry for the word) weakness in the project. So, somebody has to help you by escalating. Suppose that is not possible, the only thing that worked for me in the past is to publish and document all the impacts (objective impacts) her/his work is creating to the project. When I wrote publish the path I used is: talk with the person first, talk with the group if the first did not work. You have to show her/him that is not a superstar and moving them from that place. Saving Changes...
"Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t give that person a primary role on the project. You’d have someone be the lead, and they would follow that person."
In my opinion this is simply insane. You have a very talented worker and you normally don't give him the primary role in the project??? I may not be an expert in management but this is probably one of the most foolish things I have ever heard.
When a company has as very good worker it would do anything to keep him and use his full potential.
What I would do is change the policy and the rules to suit this guy. I would not try to enforce the rules on him.
If he is really that good probably the others can't match up with him and he is probably annoyed of having to work with less skilled people. You should put him in charge (at the technical level) so he can take the best technical decisions that would bring the best results.
If he is in charge of the technical side of the project he would know what decisions to take so no reworks would be needed. He should have the primary role in the project own all the relevant tasks and delegate some of them the the least skilled team members.
The best chance for success is when your best worker leads the team at the technical level, but it appears that your organization does not value skilled workers and you consider them risks for your projects. This for me is simply insane, as I have already said. Saving Changes...
Deepesh RammoorthyICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceTarneit, Vic, Australia
First of all I don't agree with a couple of points from Adrian.
"It appears that your organization does not value skilled workers..."
That's a big assumption because Bitish has not presented views regarding their company and what they do /or don't do with skilled workers. He has only come up with a certain scenario involving a certain skilled team member on his project.
"If he is in charge of the technical side of the project he would know what decisions to take so no reworks would be needed."
Again , I don't completely agree. This person may be a superstar technically but the decisions are taken in consultancy with other team members. Yes, this technical person may have very good suggestions because they are highly skilled. No arguing with that.
"If he is really that good probably the others can't match up with him and he is probably annoyed of having to work with less skilled people. You should put him in charge (at the technical level) so he can take the best technical decisions that would bring the best results. "
Here, Adrian might be onto something. Maybe this individual is highly motivated and is a high achiever who needs to be in a role where they can show their full potential.
Bitish, have you tried to offer this person a Technical Leadership role on your project?
If you haven't , perhaps to Adrian's point it may be an option to have a chat with this person and see if they prefer a Technical leadership role.
Should they agree to take on Technical Leadership, they need to understand that:- The successful delivery of a "key" part of the project is their responsibility. They have to motivate others , help others, coach others to make sure that the project is a success. They cannot run off and do things in isolation. They must discuss and consult others on the team. They must run key decisions past the project manager, even if its a "For Your Information". They must hold themselves and others in the team equally accountable for deliverable on the project.
If you have already tried the above, and the person is still not willing to play ball, it's time to have a chat with their Manager.
You as a project manager are responsible for the delivery of the overall project and if Human Resources pose a risk on the project, you have to deal with them as soon as possible and in the most practical way.
Coming back to Adrian's point
"What I would do is change the policy and the rules to suit this guy. I would not try to enforce the rules on him. "
Yes employees are valuable resources in the organization and the organization should try and help them out with training and coaching as much as possible but they are not obliged to change their policy or stance on "Teamwork". Teamwork is expected in organizations and not "Enforced".
"Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t give that person a primary role on the project. You’d have someone be the lead, and they would follow that person."
To Adrian's point and as explained above, It may not be a bad idea to try such a person out as a lead on a project, just to see if they are better off as a Leader than a follower. Saving Changes...
Many years ago I worked on a part of a project in a technical role. On that part of the project I was with another two colleagues from which one was much more senior that me and the other colleague. Let's call this more senior employee as the super star.
Things were not going to well and the solution to finish the project on time was to remove me and the other less senior employee and let the "super star" complete the part of the project by himself. This was a major success.As soon as we were removed the more senior employee had started to work much faster by himself and managed to complete the work on time.
The idea of this experience is that sometimes when you have a much more experienced team member than the others it is better to let him/her finish the work alone as the less experienced team members would just make the project complete in a much longer time.
As I said, for starters you should let the very experienced worker own all the relevant tasks and if he can he should delegate some work to the others. Delegating the work to others and than checking if the work was performed properly sometimes takes much longer time than just completing the work by yourself.
Regarding leaders and followers a super star worker would never be a follower as in most cases he will have better ideas for leading (at the technical level) than the formal technical leader. Leading as a technical leader is completely different than leading as a PM as in the first case being a very experienced workers yourself is mandatory. Saving Changes...
Anton OosthuizenSenior Business Analyst / Project Manager| Self EmployedPretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
The first thing I would do is to investigate to see if superstar's reasons for bypassing some of the processes are valid. We always need to look at things in context before trying to 'fix' anything. Has superstar been working on other project with similar issues? We tend to forget that people will try to do the 'right' thing for only so long before they revert to doing what they feel is best. If a company is imposing a 'right' thing onto superstar and superstar had tried to make it work for a long time there might come a time where superstar will just say F this and do what seems to work. Saving Changes...
Amit SharmaProject Manager| IT MajorDelhi, Delhi, India
Have you spoken to him directly already? Saving Changes...
Is this "superstar" person the lead expert on a software application, by any chance? I have encountered that sort of behaiour before from the person who is seen as the lead expert on a piece of software in an organisation. Interestingly, what I have then found by talking with / visiting other places that use the same software, that our "expert" isn't actually all that "expert" at all. Worth checking.... Saving Changes...
Mikel SteadmanPMO Leader| Development Dimensions InternationalTroy, Nh, United States
My 2 cents:
You need to book time on your calendar to do some deep thinking about your expectations and team culture.
You call this person your superstar. This tells me you value what this person brings, and it's likely this person knows that. This happens in Sales organizations ALL THE TIME. The top rep doesn't conform to the team, but managers are afraid to have a hard discussion with them because the rep brings in the numbers every month. However, over time, the rest of the team becomes disgruntled because they are learning there are two sets of rules.
1. I would work to coach the rest of the team to adopt the skills you value from the superstar. This should be the expectation. If they need training, get it done.
2. I would have a tough discussion on what "Performance" means with your superstar. I would start thinking about including your team's values in that performance expectations (Work as one team, etc)
3. I would manage it close and try to bring both sides together through "organic coaching" and celebrating your values when team members do whatever you consider is the right thing. Saving Changes...
