People Management, Team Management skills for Project Managers & Leads
Trust - Be Open and Honest
Be as open and honest with your team mates as you can. Answer their questions directly and act
as a conduit of information for them, not a barrier. If you feel you cannot divulge something, say so.
Your team will appreciate your honestly and reciprocate by relaying information and producing
honest and accurate estimates for you.
Equality - Be fair and even handed
If there is a project issue that needs to be addressed you can normally broach it as a subject for the
whole team to address. By sharing the burden for issues, most teams pull together to solve the
problem. By landing it on the shoulders of one or more individuals you often split the team and
cause conflict. Open discussion of the problem will encourage the team to take ownership for the
problem and solve it themselves.
Loyalty - Protect your team
You will have a split responsibility - on the one hand you have a duty to your client to see the
project succeeds - on the other you have a responsibility to represent your team and to support
each other. Usually these two aims should be neatly aligned but not always!
In a situation where you have to choose between the two you need to take the difficult moral
stance. Discuss the situation with your team mates and
come up with a solution, present this to the client instead.
Learn to delegate
If you are dividing up work make sure you delegate properly.
Proper delegation entails laying out the task so someone understand its, so that it has reasonable
and achievable goals and so that you give them all the support they require to get the job done.
It also entails giving them enough room to get the task done on their own. If you leave the
execution of tasks to them they will, in return, leave you alone to get on with your job. If you spend
you time looking over their shoulders it will only annoy them and waste your valuable time.