{"id":2160,"date":"2009-04-30T17:42:33","date_gmt":"2009-05-01T00:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=2160"},"modified":"2019-08-07T14:31:31","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T21:31:31","slug":"leveraging-team-member-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=2160","title":{"rendered":"Leveraging Team Member Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"incognito-pm1\"As an incognito project manager, I found it quite motivating when our team leader acknowledged and made use of background and skills that I possessed beyond the task I was brought in to provide.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tapping into these skills to help solve the problems we were facing and to better manage our stakeholders established a higher level of partnership and teamwork not otherwise possible if our PM had attempted to tackle these challenges on her own.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Such team member utilization however requires the following to really make it work:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Know and respect your team members<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are each of your team member\u2019s strengths and weaknesses?\u00a0 <\/span>What is their interpersonal style and how does that compliment your own? \u00a0<\/span>How could they help with the project management challenges you are facing?\u00a0 <\/span>What background and experiences have they had?\u00a0 <\/span>What are their interests and aspirations?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Keep roles clearly defined<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Delegate tasks, not your authority (such as it is \u2013 but that\u2019s a whole \u2018nother topic).\u00a0 <\/span>Establish boundaries on what you would like team members to do to help, and how you would like them to go about it.\u00a0 <\/span>Our project manager, for example, invited me to join a meeting with a key stakeholder to discuss a future project.\u00a0 <\/span>Prior to the meeting we talked about my role, and how she wanted me to bring in my expertise.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Test the waters for motivation and ability<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t assume your team members want to use the skill set you see in them. \u00a0<\/span>Talk to them first.\u00a0 <\/span>They may not be willing to go there at the moment. \u00a0<\/span>Also don\u2019t assume a high level of proficiency.\u00a0 <\/span>It may have been a long time ago, and things could have changed since then. \u00a0<\/span>Start with little assignments, then expand from there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Balance requests with workload requirements<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course the immediate tasks and schedule are the highest priority for your project team members.\u00a0 <\/span>They may get excited about helping out, but if it takes them away from doing the tasks they have been assigned, hold off for another day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Your project team is your key to project success.\u00a0 <\/span>Make full use of their background and experience as needed – and appropriate.\u00a0 <\/span>Such partnership will keep them engaged and motivated \u2013 and help ensure both the project and you are successful.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Doug Bedinger<\/span><\/p>\n

a.k.a. The Incognito Project Manager<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As an incognito project manager, I found it quite motivating when our team leader acknowledged and made use of background […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14242,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160\/revisions\/14242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}