10 Mar “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” — Helen Keller
If we want to pick something heavy up, we need to use all our fingers. Teamwork is something similar. Unless each team member does his work well, the entire workload cannot be completed well. A team can attain a collective goal only when each of the team members achieve their individual goals. For the best team performance, the entire team needs to be on the same page and need clarity about the vision and mission of the project. The team needs to understand objectives of the project and their roles and responsibilities very clearly.
Everyone in the team needs to remember that each of them is required to complete the jigsaw puzzle.If you want your team to work well, each team member has to understand his position in the jigsaw puzzle. The jigsaw puzzle piece can fit in in only one position and the jigsaw puzzle will never be complete without the piece!
To build a team that fits together like a jigsaw puzzle, you need to work in that direction. Great teams are always built with that focus. They never come together by sheer chance. The project manager is a leader and coach for the team. A good leader will always be a great team builder. What does a project manager need to work on to build a great team?
Communicate Project Vision Clearly
True, your team needs to know the work to be done. Each one of them needs to clearly understand what the project is about, what finally it is trying to deliver, what are the challenges on the way and what purpose the project is going to serve in order to complete the project successfully. Once they understand what needs to be achieved, they will understand their own roles and responsibilities clearly. They will realize how they need to collaborate in order to deliver.
One weak link here can spoil the show entirely. The project manager needs to ensure that each one of his team members has understood the project vision clearly.
Communicate Continuously
A good project manager spends most of his time communicating with concerned people. It is very easy to forget or ignore the need to communicate with his own team.
Effective communication is the link that bonds all the team members together and helps them work like a homogeneous unit. A slip in communicating with the team can be very costly for the team. A project usually will change a ;ot during the course of time and if the project manager assumes that each team member is aware of the changes, he may be making a big mistake! Never assume that whatever you want to communicate is already known to the team. It is your responsibility to ensure that the team is clear about the project vision, the needs, requirements, changes and anything else that needs to be communicated. It will ensure that the entire project team is on the same page.
Empower
A great team is that team where each team member is empowered to work in his wisdom. Each team member is there in the team as he has certain skills and knows how to employ them. When a team member gets freedom to use his own skills in the interest of the project, they will work better. They will own their work and not only perform the tasks assigned to them monotonously. Empowering a person automatically makes them responsible for their work and actions. Something that comes from within and is not enforced. Invariably, this will result in great work
Encourage New Ideas
A team that is well bonded, works well together. Once they are comfortable with each other, they come up with suggestions and ideas. A project manager needs to encourage this environment so that the team may find different opportunities to do the work in a better way or save time or save money or deliver better quality!
Generation of new ideas should be encouraged, however small they are. Every drop adds to the sea!
Support
Conflicts between team members are natural. The conflicts can be resolved by the team members themselves collaboratively if they are sure about the support they get from the project manager. The team that is sure about the project manager’s support in spite of making mistakes, will not shy away from taking responsibilities and thinking out of box to do better work
The Project Manager As A Leader
Remember, as John Maxwell says, “Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flow charts. It’s about one life influencing others”
Unless the project manager is approachable, the team will not be able to trust him. The project manager who understands the problems of the team without spelling out, is trusted by the team easily. As a leader you should be able to understand their work pressures and help them cope with the same so that they start having faith in you.
Building a team that works well together is something that the project manager does by leading from front!
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