Aug 29, 2019 3:22 PM
Replying to 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.
