How to Boost Project Team Engagement in 3 Steps
An important step towards project leadership is team management.
The importance of leading and supporting your team becomes even clearer when we consider recent studies and surveys showing that large percentages of the workforce are not properly engaged with their company. If you are interested in these surveys, a good place to start your research is at www.gallup.com.
This lack of employee engagement is a sad reality. I really believe that the vast majority of people would prefer to be fully engaged and enjoy work. We spend so much time at work — who wouldn’t want to be happier and more engaged at work?
Here are three ways to engage and lead your project team. This material is taken from Collaborative Project Management: A Handbook, which you can download and read for free.
How to Boost Project Team Engagement in 3 Steps
1. Decide on a Team Model
The selected model should be consistent with collaborative project management. There are many options to consider depending on your organizational structure and the project.
At BrightWork, we form project teams within or between the business groups as needed. At some point, individuals will lead projects and serve as team members on other projects. Some teams have a manager whilst others are self-managed.
2. Build Team Dynamics — the 4 Cs
Create positive team dynamics using the 4 Cs:
- Collegiate / Companions
- Collaborative
- Challenging
- To each other but respectfully with the Conflict necessary for innovation.
- Comfortable asking and answering uncomfortable questions.
In addition to creating the right dynamic for your team, you should also build a team with the right balance of skills, experiences, and attitudes.
3. Desired Team Member Practices
In collaborative project management, everyone takes on the role of leader and the role of a team member. What are the desired practices for the role of a team member? The below list offers some suggestions to discuss with your team.
- Integrity is key for all team members. Always treat others as you wish to be treated.
- Assume personal responsibility for the success of your deliverables.
- Team effort is the key to greater success. Offer help to the team. Be open and expect new tasks outside your own deliverables.
- Mistakes happen. Admit and get over them, but learn from them always.
- Expect issues from time to time. Deal with them quickly. Do not let them fester. When the issue is sorted, leave it behind.
- Respect deadlines and sign-off dates for deliverables.
- This is a fast paced environment at times with multiple simultaneous commitments so you will need to periodically invest in time management practices to be able to deliver on your commitments.
- You need courage as a team member to do the right thing.
- Take the responsibility given to you and contribute to the team.
- Challenge the direction and then accept the team direction.
- Participate in the speed of the group.
As a project manager, you need to develop a leadership style that encourages higher levels of engagement by all team members. If you and your team aspire to collaborative project management, higher levels of engagement are vital, not optional.
This article is an excerpt from our free book, Collaborative Project Management: A Handbook.
Originally published at https://www.brightwork.com.
