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...
Lily MurariuResearch Council Officer Program Advisor| National Research Council CanadaCantley, Quebec, Canada
@Enrique, thanks for bringing forward this matter.
This is done thing to be addressed immediately. Observing and taking note of each team member ability to pull their weight is the responsibility of the project manager or the functional manager, based on the organizational structure in place. It is a matter of performance management that influence the success of the team and the project. It brings fairness and honesty into the discussions that the PM should have with the person who is not doing the job, exploring the reason and also providing the necessary support. Saving Changes...
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.
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...
Alankar KarpeProject and program management, Speaker and mentor | WiproBangalore, India
This happened in one of my earlier teams where other team members were very eager to complete the work for some reason. I think this should not be overlooked. As PM, I must know the reason why this member is not putting his / her 100% efforts.
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1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Aug 29, 2019 10:47 AM
Adrian Carlogea
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So if you find out the reason, how is this information going to help you? Unless you are also a line manager it is not your job as a PM to punish employees that are not performing well. But most importantly you may be wrong when you consider that a team member is not performing well.
Many technical experts may lack good communication skills and as such people that don't come from their line of work may have the wrong impression that they are not performing well because they may not be communicating too much with the PM or with the rest of the team and stakeholders.
This happened in one of my earlier teams where other team members were very eager to complete the work for some reason. I think this should not be overlooked. As PM, I must know the reason why this member is not putting his / her 100% efforts.
So if you find out the reason, how is this information going to help you? Unless you are also a line manager it is not your job as a PM to punish employees that are not performing well. But most importantly you may be wrong when you consider that a team member is not performing well.
Many technical experts may lack good communication skills and as such people that don't come from their line of work may have the wrong impression that they are not performing well because they may not be communicating too much with the PM or with the rest of the team and stakeholders. Saving Changes...
In my opinion, this should not be overlooked, and I say this because what happens when the team jumping in to assist is out? Project work might halt as now, that resource either has to catch up and figure out where things were left off, or cannot complete it at all. It might not be a problem now, but is a huge risk that should be managed and averted if possible.
Am with you Kimberly, Enrique thanks for brining up this subject. Eventhogh its a known and common issue I still believe everyone should have a fair share of work/ Saving Changes...
Kimberly ChavezPlatform Program Manager, Integration| BrightspeedOverland Park, Ks, United States
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.
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2 replies by Enrique Cappella and Kimberly Chavez
Sep 11, 2019 7:23 AM
Enrique Cappella
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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".
Sep 11, 2019 8:11 AM
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.
Saving Changes...
Michal GalazkaPM Coach & Mindsonar Consulant| I help Project Managers deliver projects more effectively & with a smile :-)Poland
Dear All, everything written here before is a great insight. However I'd like to stress that Enrique did write nothing about team's bad emotions concerning this situation. Moreover he wrote: "Other members are more than happy to jump in and fill the gaps". That's why I would recommend to take a look at this situation from a systemic (I guess not mentioned yet) perspective: the project team as a system defends itself - they probably want to a. survive, b. develop, c. achieve goals & have fun. What then could be the deep reason why the others cover gaps of the individual with "more than happy"ness? Enrique, maybe there's something you don't notice? For example: what kind of non-material (unseen) work s/he could do for the team, that the teamwork is done? What kind of informal (invisible) role s/he can play?
The other thing is that Enrique wrote that it "appears that the one member is taking credit for the team success". To be precise it's a description of Enrique's perspective. Before any intervention I would recommend to collect all perspectives of project teammates.
Great issue to discuss - thank you Enrique!
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1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Aug 31, 2019 1:44 PM
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).
Dear All, everything written here before is a great insight. However I'd like to stress that Enrique did write nothing about team's bad emotions concerning this situation. Moreover he wrote: "Other members are more than happy to jump in and fill the gaps". That's why I would recommend to take a look at this situation from a systemic (I guess not mentioned yet) perspective: the project team as a system defends itself - they probably want to a. survive, b. develop, c. achieve goals & have fun. What then could be the deep reason why the others cover gaps of the individual with "more than happy"ness? Enrique, maybe there's something you don't notice? For example: what kind of non-material (unseen) work s/he could do for the team, that the teamwork is done? What kind of informal (invisible) role s/he can play?
The other thing is that Enrique wrote that it "appears that the one member is taking credit for the team success". To be precise it's a description of Enrique's perspective. Before any intervention I would recommend to collect all perspectives of project teammates.
Great issue to discuss - thank you Enrique!
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).
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1 reply by Enrique Cappella
Sep 11, 2019 7:32 AM
Enrique Cappella
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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.
Saving Changes...
Enrique CappellaPartner| Grupo Sinergia & Personal Strenths LatinamericaSabana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Aug 22, 2019 12:46 PM
Replying to Kimberly McCoy
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In my opinion, this should not be overlooked, and I say this because what happens when the team jumping in to assist is out? Project work might halt as now, that resource either has to catch up and figure out where things were left off, or cannot complete it at all. It might not be a problem now, but is a huge risk that should be managed and averted if possible.
