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...
Maya KalachHead of PMO, IT| Middle East AirlinesBeirut, Lebanon
Team engagement is two fold: PM's responsibility and team member commitment. Each compliments the other. However, it's more PM's responsibility to utilize motivational techniques to stimulate project team involvement.
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1 reply by Enrique Cappella
Sep 12, 2019 4:44 AM
Enrique Cappella
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Maya: short and precise comment. Again the main issue I have found is that PMs rely heaveliy on team members and their functional managers and we PMs forget about our responsability to manage people. It takes a lot of understanding of each members motivation and strengths.
Saving Changes...
Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Aug 30, 2019 4:37 PM
Replying to Kimberly Chavez
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I feel like its important to find out why a team member is under-performing. Occasionally you may have an instance where they are a stellar team member to gain but have a temporary crisis. Often in those circumstances a quick conversation can help determine a corrective course of action. If you have a less than stellar team mate, can they benefit from learning and can the team and project afford that. Maybe their skills aren't as mature as you would like but you can make a difference in their career. In the least favorable scenario you have someone that takes advantage then don't waste time, replace that team member or use outlined measures to get them back on track.
Kimberly I agree that conversations are the most effective way to find out about the hidden issues for low performance, however in my experience PMs are very well trained to do presentations and project charters but we are not skilled in the most important part of the equation: LISTENNING!. You suggestion to have a conversation is great, but once you engage into a conversation we need to understand that the other part is expecting a reaction to solve his / her issue. Remember "one will forget about the issue, but will remember for ever how you talked to him". Saving Changes...
Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Aug 31, 2019 1:44 PM
Replying to Adrian Carlogea
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Good observations, it may be that the person that appears not to be performing well to be in reality the most important resource on the project team.
It is critical that when you evaluate the contribution of the members of a project team to deeply understand the work each of them is doing. PMs with no SME experience can often be wrong when they think that some team members don't perform well. If those PMs have the power to release team members from the project they may end up sabotaging themselves by releasing their best team members.
For all the above reasons I believe functional managers or experts in the line of work of the project team members should analyze this kind of issues and make decisions to resolve them (if needed).
Thank you Adrian and Michael. Your comments are a great contribution. It is very interesting to realize all the issues and rammifications around team and member performance. The systemic or holystic aproach is better and even better to prevent team performance issues since the project initation by building an EDT and and a Resource Asignment Matria that will help in recruiting and bringing on board the needed tram members. However we all know that it is not possible to get the right people and then is when we as PMs need good people skills to understand and correct performance deviations.
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1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Sep 11, 2019 8:04 AM
Adrian Carlogea
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Hi Enrique.
In order to have any chance to "correct" performance issue you must have very good knowledge in the domain of the team member. If the team members is an engineer in a certain domain then you must too be an expert in that domain in order to tell if he/she is doing a good job or not.
What puzzles me is that you are saying that the other team members are happy to fill the gaps and they don't mind if the team member you say is a low performer takes the credit for the work.
This makes be believe that maybe the team member you are saying is a low performer, while not doing the work himself, gives precious direction to the other team member and as such he/she does deserve the credit.
Thank you Adrian and Michael. Your comments are a great contribution. It is very interesting to realize all the issues and rammifications around team and member performance. The systemic or holystic aproach is better and even better to prevent team performance issues since the project initation by building an EDT and and a Resource Asignment Matria that will help in recruiting and bringing on board the needed tram members. However we all know that it is not possible to get the right people and then is when we as PMs need good people skills to understand and correct performance deviations.
Hi Enrique.
In order to have any chance to "correct" performance issue you must have very good knowledge in the domain of the team member. If the team members is an engineer in a certain domain then you must too be an expert in that domain in order to tell if he/she is doing a good job or not.
What puzzles me is that you are saying that the other team members are happy to fill the gaps and they don't mind if the team member you say is a low performer takes the credit for the work.
This makes be believe that maybe the team member you are saying is a low performer, while not doing the work himself, gives precious direction to the other team member and as such he/she does deserve the credit. Saving Changes...
Kimberly ChavezPlatform Program Manager, Integration| BrightspeedOverland Park, Ks, United States
Aug 30, 2019 4:37 PM
Replying to Kimberly Chavez
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I feel like its important to find out why a team member is under-performing. Occasionally you may have an instance where they are a stellar team member to gain but have a temporary crisis. Often in those circumstances a quick conversation can help determine a corrective course of action. If you have a less than stellar team mate, can they benefit from learning and can the team and project afford that. Maybe their skills aren't as mature as you would like but you can make a difference in their career. In the least favorable scenario you have someone that takes advantage then don't waste time, replace that team member or use outlined measures to get them back on track.
My career background has me managing direct reports before I began managing projects. I think that skill is not nearly developed enough in the project management career field and yet it is just as important. Managing Stakeholders can be similar in some respects but when it comes to managing team members and performance, it's all together different. Soft skills should also be refined because being able to manage with grace and integrity are just as important.
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1 reply by Enrique Cappella
Sep 12, 2019 8:32 AM
Enrique Cappella
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Thank yuou for ypur contribution. I agree 100%.
Saving Changes...
Josh NicholsonCustomer Success Manager | Project Management Tools| nTaskCa, United States
Yes, this happens at times when few team members don't show that much interest in giving input in the team efforts. Though this might not affect the project deliverables in short term but effect the long term team success. So, this definitely needs to be rectified.
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1 reply by Enrique Cappella
Sep 12, 2019 4:46 AM
Enrique Cappella
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Josh I agree on the long term effect. The high performers will doubt in further asignments when the PM allow the low performers survive and even be recognized at the same level as them.
Saving Changes...
Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Sep 11, 2019 4:50 AM
Replying to Maya Kalach
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Team engagement is two fold: PM's responsibility and team member commitment. Each compliments the other. However, it's more PM's responsibility to utilize motivational techniques to stimulate project team involvement.
Maya: short and precise comment. Again the main issue I have found is that PMs rely heaveliy on team members and their functional managers and we PMs forget about our responsability to manage people. It takes a lot of understanding of each members motivation and strengths.
...
1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Sep 12, 2019 12:54 PM
Adrian Carlogea
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The reason many if not most PMs must rely so much on team members and functional managers is because those people have the knowledge and the expertise required to complete the work on the project. Most PMs don't have such expertise and worse many of them don't even have domain knowledge.
Of course many project teams are cross-functional so you can't ask the PM to be an expert in everything but the lack of expertise is what causes the reliance on others to make decisions.
And of course is also a matter of authority and seniority. Most PMs are considered individual contributors and not real managers and as such they don't have the formal authority to manage people. PMs have different seniority levels equivalent to that of the team members. So if is very common to have team members more senior and at higher pay than the PM.
The authority over the project team members is limited and does not include resolving individual performance issues. Of course PMs can raise these issues to the people managers but they are not authorised to resolve them themselves.
In order to directly manage people you must have their expertise otherwise you can't even tell if they are really good workers or not.
Saving Changes...
Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Sep 11, 2019 8:32 AM
Replying to Josh Nicholson
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Yes, this happens at times when few team members don't show that much interest in giving input in the team efforts. Though this might not affect the project deliverables in short term but effect the long term team success. So, this definitely needs to be rectified.
Josh I agree on the long term effect. The high performers will doubt in further asignments when the PM allow the low performers survive and even be recognized at the same level as them.
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1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Sep 12, 2019 12:58 PM
Adrian Carlogea
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There is nothing most PMs can do about this. In most cases the team members don't directly report to them.
If for example a PM thinks a team member is a low performer but his line manager thinks he is brilliant then the PM has to accept the reality as there is not much he can do about it.
Saving Changes...
Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Sep 11, 2019 8:11 AM
Replying to Kimberly Chavez
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My career background has me managing direct reports before I began managing projects. I think that skill is not nearly developed enough in the project management career field and yet it is just as important. Managing Stakeholders can be similar in some respects but when it comes to managing team members and performance, it's all together different. Soft skills should also be refined because being able to manage with grace and integrity are just as important.
Thank yuou for ypur contribution. I agree 100%. Saving Changes...
Maya: short and precise comment. Again the main issue I have found is that PMs rely heaveliy on team members and their functional managers and we PMs forget about our responsability to manage people. It takes a lot of understanding of each members motivation and strengths.
The reason many if not most PMs must rely so much on team members and functional managers is because those people have the knowledge and the expertise required to complete the work on the project. Most PMs don't have such expertise and worse many of them don't even have domain knowledge.
Of course many project teams are cross-functional so you can't ask the PM to be an expert in everything but the lack of expertise is what causes the reliance on others to make decisions.
And of course is also a matter of authority and seniority. Most PMs are considered individual contributors and not real managers and as such they don't have the formal authority to manage people. PMs have different seniority levels equivalent to that of the team members. So if is very common to have team members more senior and at higher pay than the PM.
The authority over the project team members is limited and does not include resolving individual performance issues. Of course PMs can raise these issues to the people managers but they are not authorised to resolve them themselves.
In order to directly manage people you must have their expertise otherwise you can't even tell if they are really good workers or not. Saving Changes...
I see where one young boy has just passed 500 hours sitting in a treetop. There is a good deal of discussion as to what to do with a civilization that produces prodigies like that. Wouldn't it be a good idea to take his ladder away from him and leave him up there?
