“I” Is Not A Part of Team

We can choose our friends, but not our family and many times, not our co-workers. A part of life for many of us is working with people that we may not prefer to work with. Sometimes in life, you have to learn to work with people whether you can stand them or not. Something we’ve seen a lot of on Twitter, is project managers who are working with a team member that is hurting the project more than helping it. As letting a team member go may not be an option, and might prove to be more difficult than keeping them around (believe it or not!) we have some good advice for helping that team member realize that “I” is not a part of “Team”.
First and foremost, you need to document the issues that arise. You need to make sure you keep a solid record of the issues you face. It may come in handy down the line for performance reviews or legal issues that could arise. It’s always best to keep accurate documentation, just in case.
Beyond that though, you need to figure out a happy medium. If your team member harbors negative feelings towards you and you know this, try setting up a private meeting for the two of you to hash out your issues. Ask them to meet in a non-threatening place. Try a restaurant or coffee shop instead of the standard office or conference room. Be sympathetic to your team member about their feelings- listen to their issues, because they may assume you are going to attack them when they sit down. Start the conversation with something like “I know we have had some negative feelings, and I want to be able to correct them before they have an effect on our project”. Show them that you are willing to work with them to correct the things that they are uncomfortable with and they will likely be willing to do the same with you.
Offer your team members a way to express their opinions on specific parts of the project that may be frustrating. We have a great list of tools for the virtual project manager that help your team communicate more effectively and offers them a voice in a project, as well as provides you with better ways to be a leader to your team. Your team members will appreciate the opportunity to voice their opinions.
Try offering motivation to your team. Motivation is one of the single most important part of being a leader. Showing them that you not only care about the work they produce, but also about them as human beings can go along way for their morale. Giving your team a few hours off early on a Friday or bringing in coffee can go a long way in showing them that you are a true leader and that you care.
PMCAMPUS offers several PDU courses that offer project managers new perspectives on leadership and engaging a team. Specifically, there is a great course that focuses on PDU’s for assessing your team as a project manager and how to deal with team members who are not meeting standards. What issues do you face with your team members as a project manager? We’d love to hear them. Post a comment or find us on Twitter @PMCAMPUS.