No matter how good you might be at your job, you are only as effective as your team. A project manager cannot do it all on his or her own – you have to have the help of a team to ensure that milestones are met, tasks are completed and you keep moving forward with the project. However, encouraging team effectiveness can be hard to do. The following tips will help you accomplish this.
Training
One of the most overlooked aspects of effectiveness is knowing what needs to be done. For many team members, that knowledge is earned by experience in the real world. However, that’s the wrong way to go about it. You will find that this slows your team down, reduces the success of your project and increases errors and problems. In order to ensure that your team is as effective as possible, invest in training to guarantee that they know their role, how to communicate and more.
Trim the Fat
Hopefully, you put quite a bit of thought into the formation of your team. The team members you choose will have a direct effect on your success or failure. However, there may come a time when you realize that some of your team members are less than ideal for the project. When this occurs, remove them from the team. Cutting the fat will help your run a leaner, more productive team and can help with issues like cost and time overruns (largely due to lazy team members who are unwilling or unable to complete tasks in a timely manner).
Make Sure They Know What You Expect
In order to ensure that your team is as efficient as possible, it’s vital that they know what you expect of them. This applies to all areas of the project and every individual task or milestone within the larger project. Ensure that you and your team are always on the same page, and you’ll find that not only is your efficiency better, but that your team members are happier as well. In addition to clearly conveying what you expect from them, ensure that you hold each team member accountable.
Get to Know Them
While you might not think it, getting to know your team members can help improve efficiency by a considerable amount. Know what is important to each team member, what drives them and how they work. This will help you structure your team environment to fit your members’ needs rather than forcing them to conform to an artificial environment.
Respect Your Team Members
Every team member expects and deserves to be treated with respect. Treating your members with respect shows that you value their contributions to the project and that they are valued parts of the greater whole. Show respect in all of your interactions.
With these simple tips, you can start improving effectiveness within your team, no matter what type of project you might have in the works. There’s no reason for inefficiency when you know what you’re doing.
