The root of all project management is good leadership. It’s all about fundamentally building a strong team that is able to work together smoothly.
These teams are ultimately responsible for the outcome of each project, and project managers are the ones who have to ensure that their team performs well. Team leaders have to create an environment that is both productive, yet nurturing for their team. But cultivating the right team isn’t just about throwing pizza parties or having shoutouts during team meetings. It’s about truly understanding them and working alongside them that counts. It is your responsibility as project manager to take care of technical risks in project management.
While there is no exact single formula to guarantee success for a team, we’ve got some experience to share. Start your project strong and keep your team happy – build a highly collaborative and effective team with these tips below.
Kickoff Meetings
There are many leaders – especially in Asian countries like Singapore – who start a project with a complex email…. Or heaven forbid, a Slack or Teams message. The team then moves on with their assignments with whatever little information they have, attempting to fumble their way through and hoping for the best.
Our best tip is to conduct proper kickoff meetings. It may seem like a formality, but we promise you that it’s way more than that. It’s a critical opportunity to bring the team together and discuss key pointers, such as goals, timelines, project scopes, risks and more. A kickoff meeting would also provide opportunities for team members to ask questions and clarify doubts.
As a project manager, a kickoff meeting is your chance to ensure that everyone is on the same page before major work begins. This helps to prevent rough patches and problems popping up early in the project journey, and snowballing into bigger problems.
Build Relationships Early
Project managers are so focused on work being delivered that sometimes they tend to forget about building relationships with their team members. These relationships are what enable and support task progression.
For example, if a team member runs into a problem, who can they rely on to come help walk them through the task? Who do they turn to for advice when it comes down to it? In many ways, these day-to-day tasks can be greatly affected by relationships and overall team morale.
Focus on building relationships with your team from the start, but don’t force friendships and connections if they aren’t open to it. It’s more about creating a safe environment for team members to discover connections and bond by their own means. This can be helped with simple methods like sharing sessions, happy hours, or even changing up the seating arrangements during meetings.
But ultimately, you as the project manager should be available and open to help any team member that approaches you for any problems or concerns they may have. Never turn your team members away, or use terse or harsh tones unnecessarily.
Develop Ground Rules
To be an effective project manager, a shortcut to improving team dynamics is to set ground rules.
For example, set ground rules such as notice periods, response times, meeting timings, dress codes or other related rules. What are the standard procedures to deal with things like unexpected delays, project risk management and more?
These are small things that can snowball into huge issues when boundaries and rules are not set from the get-go. Developing the right ground rules can offer opportunities for the team to offer insight on the team culture they wish for.
If done right, developing the right ground rules can provide a meaningful experience that creates a sense of team identity and empowerment.
Manage Your Projects with BluetecMNE SG
Many leaders tend to delude themselves into thinking that a collaborative and wholesome environment will develop by itself over time. However with the involvement of human nature, things tend to change, and project managers have to find ways to develop collaborative environments quickly.
Talk to BluetecMNE today, one of Singapore’s top management consulting firms! Visit our project management page to find out more about what we do. From managing your project scheduling to strategy consulting, only expect the best when you work with us.
Contact us today, and our friendly experts will get back to you with a free quotation!