As a Project Manager, you are a leader of a team. As a Project Manager, in many instances you are not directly responsible for those team members and you are personally responsible for more than a handful of projects. How have you utilized delegation and indirect management to your advantage to get the best out of your teams? Saving Changes...
Eric SimmsSenior Program ManagerBaltimore, Maryland, United States
When you say 'not personally responsible for those team members', do you mean they don't formally report to you, so you can't give team members assignments and expect them to carry them out?
If you don't have formal authority over team members, the best (and perhaps only) way to delegate is to first establish your expert and/or referent authority. You need to give people a reason to want to listen to you when they don't have to, which means you need to show them how listening to you will benefit them. One way you can quickly establish yourself as useful is through your communications. Some PMs love to have meetings whenever possible, even when they accomplish little. Most people hate wasting their time in this way, so they come to see these PMs as bureaucratic and useless, and will ignore their requests. If you only have meetings when necessary, and make sure every moment of the meeting is well-organized and relevant, people will be much more open to doing what you ask of them. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
I build one-on-one relationships with project team members to provide them with the best project environment. Saving Changes...
I start by finding out what I can delegate to whom. Two major ways I do this are:
1) Ask the lead of each sub team what is their existing plan. Some will show me a very nicely detailed MS Project file showing that they already have a detailed plan. I can delegate significant responsibility to these teams and try not to interfere. Some will stare at me with a blank expression and don't even know how to approach developing a plan. These people need more of my focus.
2) Delegate small things, which will have minor impacts if not done adequately. If they deliver successfully with minimal help from me, I will delegate more responsibility. If they fail to deliver, I will give them more help.
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2 replies by Adrian Carlogea
Aug 29, 2019 2:15 PM
Adrian Carlogea
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Aug 29, 2019 2:15 PM
Adrian Carlogea
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Project team members don't need any kind of delegation of responsibility from the PM as they already have all the responsibility needed to do their job.
If you are trying to "delegate" responsibility the team members may end up saying that you are lazy and don't want to do your job. Team members only need autonomy for performing their actual work and nothing more.
In regards to planning the team members must provide the information needed for it but there is no advantage it they end up leading this process.
As I said most PMs are not real managers and are not there to lead or delegate responsibility instead they are there to provide project management expertise to the project including the team.
You would be surprised but for many team members being involved in project management activities is not an empowerment but and annoyance. As a PM you have to do anything so that the team members only focus on their actual work and don't get involved in decision making that has nothing to do with their work.
Many if not most PMs are not real managers and that's why nobody reports to them directly. There are a lot of reasons why nobody directly reports to the PMs and why they are not in charge of other employees but I don't want to go to those reasons now.
The fact that most PMs are not formal leaders of the project teams does not mean that the project team members can get away with not doing the job.
For an employee working on a project is a job assignment even if it is a temporary one, but projects are temporary anyway. The team members are usually not accountable to the PM for their work on the project but this does not mean that they are not accountable at all.
I have seen a trend in many companies to have functional projects teams which are teams inside functional departments that have members that only work on projects. So those team members are only doing project work and not operational work. The Team Leads of such teams are accountable for the work their direct reports are performing on the projects on which they are assigned.
So my recommendation is to forget about leadership of the project team and concentrate more on collaborating with the team members and help them rather that giving them orders. It is not a good idea to try to behave like a boss when you are not really a formal boss. Even if you are a boss it is still not a good idea to act like a boss. Saving Changes...
I start by finding out what I can delegate to whom. Two major ways I do this are:
1) Ask the lead of each sub team what is their existing plan. Some will show me a very nicely detailed MS Project file showing that they already have a detailed plan. I can delegate significant responsibility to these teams and try not to interfere. Some will stare at me with a blank expression and don't even know how to approach developing a plan. These people need more of my focus.
2) Delegate small things, which will have minor impacts if not done adequately. If they deliver successfully with minimal help from me, I will delegate more responsibility. If they fail to deliver, I will give them more help.
I start by finding out what I can delegate to whom. Two major ways I do this are:
1) Ask the lead of each sub team what is their existing plan. Some will show me a very nicely detailed MS Project file showing that they already have a detailed plan. I can delegate significant responsibility to these teams and try not to interfere. Some will stare at me with a blank expression and don't even know how to approach developing a plan. These people need more of my focus.
2) Delegate small things, which will have minor impacts if not done adequately. If they deliver successfully with minimal help from me, I will delegate more responsibility. If they fail to deliver, I will give them more help.
Project team members don't need any kind of delegation of responsibility from the PM as they already have all the responsibility needed to do their job.
If you are trying to "delegate" responsibility the team members may end up saying that you are lazy and don't want to do your job. Team members only need autonomy for performing their actual work and nothing more.
In regards to planning the team members must provide the information needed for it but there is no advantage it they end up leading this process.
As I said most PMs are not real managers and are not there to lead or delegate responsibility instead they are there to provide project management expertise to the project including the team.
You would be surprised but for many team members being involved in project management activities is not an empowerment but and annoyance. As a PM you have to do anything so that the team members only focus on their actual work and don't get involved in decision making that has nothing to do with their work.
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1 reply by Keith Novak
Aug 29, 2019 3:22 PM
Keith Novak
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I agree and disagree on different points. I fully believe in leading the team rather than dictating. If the PM is too much a dictator, they may be the bottleneck as they hold all decision making authority. Team members may go so far as follow the direction to the letter knowing it will fail, and will be the leader's fault, not their own.
Project team members often have responsibility already to work within the boundaries of their own functional team, but not when it crosses multiple groups and a decision is required. I do recognize that some people don't want any more authority or responsibility. Others may want more control of their own destiny, or more responsibility and visibility to further their careers. Before I was a PM, I was an engineer who was delegated more and more authority to develop my own methods and plans. When I showed I was competent, I was promoted and given more leadership roles.
On highly effective teams, one of our main purposes for meeting is to figure out how to help each other. It doesn't appear lazy to hand off some work when everyone knows you are fighting hard to remove roadblocks from the team.
I tend to try and follow the principle of "Commander's Intent". If the smart people on the team clearly understand the objectives, and my general decision making criteria, then by delegating some decision making authority, they can identify problems and address them without waiting for my blessing. They will sometimes do things I didn't want, or would have done differently, but that is usually a minor cost compared to how much more efficient they can be overall.
There are other people who just want to be told what to do. That's fine too. They don't want to do my job, and I wouldn't want to do theirs.
Saving Changes...
Alexandre CostaScrum Master| Integer Consulting - Pictet technologiesLoures, Portugal
I agree with Keith. The process of delegation is fairly straightforward.
First you must know 3 things:
1 - Who possess the knowledge about the area you want to delegate
2 - Who possess the knowledge but also knows how to do
3 - The person has the will to do it
Than complete de process:
4 - Give authority
5 - Regular checks and feedback toward work independence with time. Saving Changes...
Project team members don't need any kind of delegation of responsibility from the PM as they already have all the responsibility needed to do their job.
If you are trying to "delegate" responsibility the team members may end up saying that you are lazy and don't want to do your job. Team members only need autonomy for performing their actual work and nothing more.
In regards to planning the team members must provide the information needed for it but there is no advantage it they end up leading this process.
As I said most PMs are not real managers and are not there to lead or delegate responsibility instead they are there to provide project management expertise to the project including the team.
You would be surprised but for many team members being involved in project management activities is not an empowerment but and annoyance. As a PM you have to do anything so that the team members only focus on their actual work and don't get involved in decision making that has nothing to do with their work.
I agree and disagree on different points. I fully believe in leading the team rather than dictating. If the PM is too much a dictator, they may be the bottleneck as they hold all decision making authority. Team members may go so far as follow the direction to the letter knowing it will fail, and will be the leader's fault, not their own.
Project team members often have responsibility already to work within the boundaries of their own functional team, but not when it crosses multiple groups and a decision is required. I do recognize that some people don't want any more authority or responsibility. Others may want more control of their own destiny, or more responsibility and visibility to further their careers. Before I was a PM, I was an engineer who was delegated more and more authority to develop my own methods and plans. When I showed I was competent, I was promoted and given more leadership roles.
On highly effective teams, one of our main purposes for meeting is to figure out how to help each other. It doesn't appear lazy to hand off some work when everyone knows you are fighting hard to remove roadblocks from the team.
I tend to try and follow the principle of "Commander's Intent". If the smart people on the team clearly understand the objectives, and my general decision making criteria, then by delegating some decision making authority, they can identify problems and address them without waiting for my blessing. They will sometimes do things I didn't want, or would have done differently, but that is usually a minor cost compared to how much more efficient they can be overall.
There are other people who just want to be told what to do. That's fine too. They don't want to do my job, and I wouldn't want to do theirs.
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1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Aug 30, 2019 11:06 AM
Adrian Carlogea
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You would be surprised how many project team members would love to work with a dictator PM. :D
In order to be loved the dictator PM must not do two things:
- make technical decisions and enforce them to the team, this is easy since most PMs don't have technical expertise anyway so they can't make such decisions
- agree things with the stakeholders without first checking with the team if those things are achievable, doing this however proves the PM is incompetent.
If a PM asks a team member to make a decision but the PM himself does not have the knowledge to make the decision himself then this is can't be considered delegation. PMs can only delegate project management related tasks but the team members may not be too happy to perform them.
I don't want to offend you but many people working on projects, especially technical experts, consider project management to be mainly administrative work, paperwork, reporting tracking and no real decision making and no real leadership. I consider PMs to be mainly facilitators than real command and control leaders.
Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Joshua,
yes, delegation (sharing power and trusting) as well as indirect management (focus on what and why not how) are tools to use in such a situation of 'leading without authority', which often occurs in a matrix organization.
Other leadership features are necessary in addition to that: e.g. empathy to understand the needs and motivations of the team members, as well their conflicts, negotiation with other managers about the timing of tasks, conflict resolution, setting clear vision to encourage inspiration over motivation. Saving Changes...
Lonnie PacelliAuthor & President| ProjectManagementAdvisor.comBellevue, Wa, United States
They need a reason to follow you and feel as if the project is important to their management. If team members don't report to you ensure their line management agrees as to project importance and priority and has the faith in you to execute. Saving Changes...
