How do you empower your team?

Keith Novak Tukwila, Wa, United States

One of the most rewarding parts of my career as a PM, has been when I can use my leadership position to empower my team, remove their roadblocks, and let them do their jobs. The whole energy level of the team increases when they know you have their backs, they're the leaders, and you're the support system.

I remembered this recently when an exec I work for, did something very subtly, but very powerfully, stating that they must suddenly miss the last part of the project review where the functional leaders talk, but I speak for our org. The hand-off was incredibly subtle, but everyone knew that was delegation.

How have you found ways to use your position as the PM to empower others to do their job better instead of being the director?.

Posted: Aug 16, 2019 6:52 PM (Updated by author: Aug 16, 2019 7:45 PM)

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Adrian Carlogea Australia

Aug 18, 2019 12:29 PM

Replying to Keith Novak

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Adrian,
You could not have set me up better for describing how *I* was working to empower other people, when my boss handed me the reigns at the end of the day.

There was an outside organization, trying to place a lot of responsibility on one person on my team, which was completely outside their RAAs. The individual who was being overly-empowerd if you will, was IM-ing me about how they were getting action items completely outside their area of responsibility.

Fortunately I was paying attention and already communicating this to my leadership team in the background. I was able to explain to the concerned teammate that what they were being asked to do was my job, and not their job. If anyone disagrees with that, they come talk to me, and if necessary, I will teach them how to read an org chart.

That made my teammate much happier. My empowerment there was to give them full authority to to their own job, without having to do my job too.

I guess every organization is different but on the projects on which I have worked each team member has his own duties on the project and once he is assigned to those duties he is empowered to do whatever it takes to complete his work.

When there are two or more than two team members with the same duties one of them is designated as the lead in that area and he can make decisions that the other members from his line of work must follow. If the tasks are independent of each other then there can be no lead and each team member works independently.

For instance if you have a business analyst on the team and his duties is to gather the requirements and decide the priorities of the tasks that are about to be completed then he is empowered to make those decisions. The PM does not have to empower the business analyst or delegate these duties to him since his assignment on the project already gives him the power he needs.

Unless the PM is also a very experienced Business Analyst capable of doing the work himself he can't interfere with the work the BA is doing and he can't empower or dis-empower the Business Analyst.

From my experience on a project knowledge is power. The one that has the most knowledge in a certain area has power in that area of the project. The PMs power is often limited to the project management area and he she can't interfere with the work of the other team members.

Posted: Aug 18, 2019 1:32 PM (Updated by author: Aug 18, 2019 1:33 PM)

Keith Novak Tukwila, Wa, United States

Adrian,

I hear what you are saying and agree...

Whether is is a lead of a technology team, or as a PM, I have been a team lead for most of the last 20+ years. In all of that time, my formal job description has included the words, "Works independently to..." One of the insidious parts about being the team leader is that we have a lot of responsibility to get things done, often without the formal authority to give direct orders to those outside our immediate team.

That puts us is in a situation to 1) try and figure out how to influence others (appropriately) to get the job done and 2) makes us vulnerable to outside pressure because we are more concerned about getting the job done and supporting our team than we are about complaining about how this is not my job.

As a PM where we are leader of leaders, it is the exception where I have had to step in and tell people, "That is not your job." Usually the other leads are the ones telling me what their jobs are and what they are not (and quite vocal about it). In the rare occasion where someone comes in from outside, and tries to redirect part of my team, my job is to recognize that, and step in before they have to ask for help. They don't want to ask for help, and if they do, things probably went too far and they are extremely unhappy.

The person causing the issue is probably trying to circumvent me and going straight to the team lead, because they think the other person will be easier to manipulate than me. That's where my job as the PM to ensure the lead on my team knows that I am supporting them by running interference against the people trying to get in their way.

Posted: Aug 18, 2019 4:01 PM

Keith Novak Tukwila, Wa, United States

Aug 18, 2019 10:48 AM

Replying to Kiron Bondale

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Keith -

I find this is easier in contexts where team self-organization is desirable, as we (as leaders) need to practice what we preach!

Strategically skipping ceremonies is a good way to both explicitly empower the team but also to assess whether they are ready to fly on their own.

Playing a game like Delegation Poker is another method of testing individual biases about what decisions we feel comfortable making on our own and which we'd want to push upstream.

It's also about (gently) pushing back when someone comes to you with something which they could do for themselves. Remind them that you support them in their decision making and they can come to you for advice but the decision is theirs.

Kiron

It really is an interesting and nuanced part of our jobs. My initial reaction was, "Great...right when I need the leadership team to back me up, they walk out." It wasn't until later that I realized that what they really did was say, "You've got this, and if you need help you know where to find it."

Posted: Aug 18, 2019 4:23 PM

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