Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
As a project manager, have you even had a situation where one team member is not doing their share of the work, but the work of the team is still getting completed? Other members are more than happy to jump in and fill the gaps, but is appears that the one member is taking credit for the team success. Since the work is getting done, should you just forget it and focus on problem areas? Saving Changes...
Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Aug 22, 2019 2:51 PM
Replying to Charles Brouse
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It should be addressed. There is a team dynamic that is off and while the team may be performing, this is most definitely a risk.
Charles, I agree. However it seems to me that this is a common situation and Project Managers usually oversee this type of risks. In my opinion there is a gap in the people management skills that prevent project success. Saving Changes...
Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Aug 22, 2019 2:21 PM
Replying to Vincent Guerard
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It seem to me there is two problem in your case, not assuming the proper work load and « taking credit for the team success ».
On the first part Kimberly and Kiron are to the point it is about fairness.
The second point is about honesty, it is one of the most disturbing action to a team spirit.
Vincent, tthank you and I would like to add that lack of honesty and fairness ussually degradates credibility and leadership. Saving Changes...
Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Aug 22, 2019 4:06 PM
Replying to Jochen Thomas
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Unfortunately this seems to be a common experience in most major projects. Its important to understand that not everyone is a superstar but everyone has a role to get the job done. However if I observe a non-contributor, I work to engage that person to change behavior or remove them from the task... not changing behavior will eventually lead to some type of reaction from the rest of the team....
Jochen, we concurr...furthermore, the high performers will demand action and if the PM does not manage the situation, they might claim for fairness Saving Changes...
Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Aug 22, 2019 6:01 PM
Replying to Amany Nuseibeh
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Thank you Enrique for posting this interesting question. Thanks also to all the contributions and wise advice from Kimberly, Kiron, Vincent, Charles and Jochen.
my 5 cents addition is that sometimes, we have a new junior person within the team who are yet to learn so as to be able to contribute. Hence, this team member might ride the wave and either excel and contribute at a later stage, or take other team members contribution for granted. This is something to watch for and the strategies/approach described above could take care of the situation. However, if that team member has been hired based on experience and skills. However, they are not pulling their weight, it's time for an honest and frank discussion.
Thank you for your kind words and comments Amany. Saving Changes...
Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Aug 23, 2019 3:38 AM
Replying to Adrian Carlogea
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Like always this kind of issues are for functional managers to resolve or for team leads and technical leads.
People that are not from the same line of work as the team members can't understand their work in detail an can't tell for sure who is the best performing team member and who is not doing his/her share of the work.
If you are a PM that previously did the work of that team member then yes you may try to do something about this issues if not you should either stay away or at most you could escalate the issue to the functional manager. This however can backfire as the functional manager may say that the employee is very good and is doing a very good job on the project.
Since projects are temporary you may not even work with that employee in the future and I don't think is worth risking your relationship with the functional manager for this potential issue.
Adrian, that certainly is a risk and it needs to be evaluated, however there are other risks involved if you don´t manage the situation related to your crediblity within the organization and competences to manage people and talent.
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1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Aug 25, 2019 6:10 PM
Adrian Carlogea
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If both the PM and the "problem" project team member are permanent employees of the organization then chances are that both are individual contributors working on different departments and under different management. It is not the responsibility of the employees working on one department to manage the individual performance of employees working on other departments.
In cases as the above what can you do as a PM to solve this kind of issues when the team member is not your subordinate but can as well be someone more senior than you in the organization.
I have seen junior PMs in their mid 20s managing projects in which some team members were much more senior than them at the organization level. It is not possible for a more junior employee to manage performance issues regarding more senior employees.
The "problem " team member may as well be some functional team leader that is on the project to help his subordinates but he may end up not doing a lot of work since he may be busy with other things.
Saving Changes...
Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Aug 23, 2019 8:57 AM
Replying to Stéphane Parent
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I remember taking a team dynamics course where all the work had to be done within a team of students. Part of our final grade was a set amount of points each student could attribute to each member of their team, as they saw fit. It's amazing what happens when your performance measurement is in the hands of your team mates.
Thank you Stéphane. Yes I agree there are several techniques and methods to manage and evaluate team and member performance and the selection will depend very much on several characteristics if the project eg.: cost, restrictions, virtual vs presential, etc. Saving Changes...
Simona BonghezManaging Partner| Colors in Projects ltdBucharest, Romania
Great discussion topic, Enrique, and so many valuable perspectives shared as answers. I would like to add a comment regarding the reason for which a response to such unbalanced workload is mandatory (and to the frustration it raises): the bad apple effect. This refers to “the idea that one person who breaks the rules can inspire other people to break the rules also". If there is no reaction to the non-contributor, other team members will consider that this something acceptable and soon, it will become the "social norm". And then the Scrum Master, Project Manager, Line Manager, etc will have to solve a much bigger issue that a singular non-contributor.
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1 reply by Enrique Cappella
Aug 24, 2019 7:09 AM
Enrique Cappella
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Hi Simona! Yes indeed...I concurr with you. This bad apple efect will spread over the project and worse over the organizations involved if the PM decides not to manage the issue. And...thank you for your contribution and kind words.
Usually, people tends to take up the stuffs others didn’t finish, automatically . But negative feeling builds up during this process.
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1 reply by Enrique Cappella
Aug 24, 2019 7:12 AM
Enrique Cappella
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Thank you Alex. And that negative feeling will grow until crisis comes through. In my experience, the worse is when it is not visible and decreases the team´s overall performance and the effect is visible until nothing can be done.
Saving Changes...
Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Aug 23, 2019 11:18 AM
Replying to Simona Bonghez
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Great discussion topic, Enrique, and so many valuable perspectives shared as answers. I would like to add a comment regarding the reason for which a response to such unbalanced workload is mandatory (and to the frustration it raises): the bad apple effect. This refers to “the idea that one person who breaks the rules can inspire other people to break the rules also". If there is no reaction to the non-contributor, other team members will consider that this something acceptable and soon, it will become the "social norm". And then the Scrum Master, Project Manager, Line Manager, etc will have to solve a much bigger issue that a singular non-contributor.
Hi Simona! Yes indeed...I concurr with you. This bad apple efect will spread over the project and worse over the organizations involved if the PM decides not to manage the issue. And...thank you for your contribution and kind words. Saving Changes...
Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Aug 23, 2019 10:16 PM
Replying to Alex Poon
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Usually, people tends to take up the stuffs others didn’t finish, automatically . But negative feeling builds up during this process.
Thank you Alex. And that negative feeling will grow until crisis comes through. In my experience, the worse is when it is not visible and decreases the team´s overall performance and the effect is visible until nothing can be done. Saving Changes...
