RAJESH K LProject Manager, PMP| Bharat Electronics, Bengaluru, IndiaBengaluru, Karnataka, India
Empowering the team members has lot of advantages like faster decision and time oriented results. It can pose a lot of serious issues on team coordination and effectiveness Saving Changes...
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Wade HarshmanScrum Master| GDITIndianapolis, In, United States
Most of the disadvantages are short term. A newly empowered team will make mistakes because they don't have layers of management working to identify and avoid errors.
In the long term, however, the team will learn to avoid those same mistakes, and those layers of management can be reduced, which will shorten the time required to make decisions and optimize the team's value. Empowerment also contributes significantly to employee satisfaction, which will help you attract and retain talent. Saving Changes...
Edward DanielsProject Manager| IndependentGlen Burnie, Md, United States
PMs should strive to empower their teams, it is the way to develop your team. The PM is one person and while S/he may have autonomy at most organizations, it can get really exhausting making every decision. Learn to delegate to the SMEs on your teams and with boundaries of what is acceptable or not, i think mistakes and errors will be minimal.
On my projects, i delegate and let my SMEs be active participants running the project. In meeting with my stakeholders, i don't do all the explaining, i encourage my SMEs to present and not only does it give team members an opportunity to get out of their comfort zone, they learn new skills; public speaking, stakeholder engagement and being on the hot seat as well.
In my experience, team members who feel empowered see themselves as integral to the project and act accordingly in getting positive results. A lot of things go wrong on projects; inaccurate reporting or testing, disengaged team who may be out sick, which may delay your project and etc. However, having team members who feel empowered, respected and believe they have a stake in it, can only help projects succeed. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
I personally don't think there are cons of empowering the team. If there are any issues in the short term, good management and leadership should help you go through the culture change to an empowering environment. I agree with Edward, lots of things present challenges on a team, but the more empowered they are, the more they are resilient and capable of dealing with them. Saving Changes...
LORI WILSONRETIRED - Technical Project Manager| RETIRED - LifePoint HealthClarkston, Wa, United States
Hello Rajesh: I agree with Elizabeth and Edward - both spot on. I have never really seen a negative impact from empowering any team I have ever worked with. Saving Changes...
