Vince Lombardi, arguably one of the greatest football coaches of all time, said, “The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.”

What a powerful idea!

Imagine any technology project you’ve been a part of. What made the project a success? Was it the technology? Was it all because of your efforts? Was the success all because of the project manager? Probably not. Most likely what made the project a success was the “combined effort” of the project team, as in Lombardi’s quote. The team collectively worked toward the project vision and got the job done.

IT projects often require a wide range of skills and talent. As a project manager, you’ll have to lead and inspire your team to work together toward the common goal of the project. Your team members will have to learn to rely on and trust each other. The individuals on your team will need you to help them complete their tasks, challenge their abilities, and provide opportunity for growth and achievement.

The collection of the individual skills working toward a common goal is a powerful force.

Leading the Team

To lead the team, a project manager must first act like a leader. Think of your favorite historical leaders from politics, sports, or business. What are some of the attributes they possessed to lead and inspire? Chances are all the leaders had one common trait: an ability to motivate people to achieve and aspire. Now this is not to say you must be the next motivational circuit speaker, but it does mean you’ll need to develop a method to connect with your team members to inspire them to work toward the vision of your project.

Agile projects embrace the concept of a servant leader. Servant leadership is characterized by carrying food and water for the team. This doesn’t mean, of course, that you are literally carrying pizza and beer for your team, but rather that you are getting the team what they need to be successful. You are keeping people from disrupting the team, so the team can focus on their work. Servant leaders work to remove impediments or blockers so the team can move forward. While this is embraced by agile, servant leadership can be used in any project management approach.

The easiest and most direct path to making others develop a passion for your project is for you, yourself, to develop a passion for the project. Passion for the deliverable, excitement for the project work, and zeal for the success of the project is contagious. Consistently communicate the project vision with excitement, passion, and a sense of group ownership. A project manager who wants to lead the project team has to care not only for the success of the project, but also for the success of the individuals on the team. Take time to get to know the team members, learn what their passions are, and develop a relationship with them to work with them, not over or around them.

Establishing the Project Authority

With any project, regardless of the size, the project manager must establish their authority over that project. Usually, the project manager’s authority is first defined in the project charter, but authority over the project is not the same as authority over the project team members. You, the project manager, will be responsible for the success of the project, so you need to take charge of the activities to finish the project. In other words, responsibility for the success of the project must be accompanied by an equal level of authority over the actions to create the deliverables.

Authority and responsibility are bound together in project management. The success of the project rests on the shoulders of the project manager. The project manager’s career, opportunity for advancement, and reputation all rest on the ability of the project team to finish the project and create the deliverables. As Figure 8-1 demonstrates, if the project manager does not have the authority to assign tasks to the project team members, how can they ever reach the objectives of the project? The level of authority is relative to the autonomy assigned within your organizational structure. It’s not impossible for a project manager to successfully lead a project in a functional or weak matrix environment. The authority of a project manager, in any organizational structure, must be leveraged with the respect of the project team.

Figure 8-1  A project manager must have authority in proportion to responsibility.

Team members, of course, also have a level of responsibility for completing the work, and they have risks involved in the project as well. For example, a team member may be dedicated to the project because they can perceive the personal benefits of working on a successful project. A successful relationship between the team members and the project manager should be symbiotic, as Figure 8-2 depicts.

Figure 8-2  The relationship between the project team and the project manager must be mutually beneficial.

Team members must agree that you are the leader of the project and that they will support your decisions, your management of the resources, and your approach to managing the project. The project manager, though not the manager of the individual team members, still must exude a level of confidence and authority over the project team to gain their respect and desire to work on the project.

Many IT project managers stem from IT backgrounds. For these individuals to be successful, they must possess the following attributes:

•   Organizational skills

•   Passion for the team’s success

•   Passion for the project’s success

•   Ability to work with people

•   Good listening skills

•   Ability to be decent and civil

•   Ability to act professionally

•   Commitment to quality

•   Dedication to finish the project

Mechanics of Leading a Team

There is no magic formula to leading a team. It is one of the unique qualities that some people have naturally, and others must learn. One of the best methods you can use to lead a team is to emulate the leaders you admire. By mimicking the actions of successful leaders, you will be on your way to being successful, too. Much of your ability to lead will come from experience and maturity. There are, however, certain procedures and protocols of project management that you must know to be successful.

Decision Making

Many new project managers are afraid to make decisions. They do not want to offend team members, make a mistake, or look bad in front of management. The fact is, your job as a project manager will require you to make decisions that may not always be popular with the project team. Figure 8-3 demonstrates the balance between acceptable risk and the safeguards of using experienced staff. The decisions you make will need to be in the best interest of fulfilling the project requirements, in alignment with the project budget, and in consideration of the project timeline.

Figure 8-3  Project managers must balance risk and reward to be successful.

Some decisions you will not have to make entirely on your own. The project team can make many decisions. For example, a company that is upgrading all of their workstations from one operating system to another will have many obstacles to pass. One of the primary questions that will need to be answered in the planning stage is how the new operating system will be deployed to the workstations.

Some of the project team members may be in favor of using disk imaging software. Others may want to use scripts and policies to deploy the image. Still other members may want to visit each machine and install from an optical drive or USB drive, assuming that workstations have an optical or USB drive. Obviously, many different approaches exist for installing this operating system, but the team needs to make a clear decision on what the best method is for the project—and why that method is preferred.

A project manager can lead the team through these decisions using the talents, experience, and education of each team member to come to a conclusion. To facilitate the discussion, the project manager may use three types of decision-making processes to arrive at a solution:

•   Directive  The project manager makes the decision with little or no input from the project team. Can you see the danger here? The project manager may be aware of the technology to be implemented, but they may not be the most qualified to make the entire decision. Directive decision making is acceptable, and needed, in some instances, but it isolates the project manager from the project team.

•   Participative  In this model, all team members contribute to the discussion and decision process. This method is ideal for major decisions such as the process to roll out an operating system, design a new application, or develop a web solution for an organization. Through compromise, experience, and brainstorming, the project team and the project manager can create a buzz of energy, excitement, and synergy to arrive at the best possible solution for a decision.

•   Consultative  This approach combines the best of both preceding decision-making processes. The project team meets with the project manager, and together they may arrive at several viable solutions. The project manager can then take the proposed solutions and make a decision based on what they think is best for the project. This approach is ideal when dealing with projects under tight deadlines, restrictive budgets, or complex technology. When there are many variables that can cause the project to stall, the project manager must assume more of the responsibility to safeguard the project.

Working with Team Members

During the process of arriving at a solution or after a solution has been made, some team members may simply disagree with you. Disagreements are fine and are encouraged (if respectful), as they show that team members are thinking and looking for the best solution to a project. In some instances, though, team members may create conflicts among themselves over differences of opinion. These internal conflicts can cause a team to break into cliques or uncooperative partners, and ultimately be a nemesis to the success of the project.

You will have to learn how to be diplomatic among the team members to keep the project moving toward its completion. You will encounter four types of team members in your role as a project manager:

•   Evaders  These team members don’t like confrontation on any level. They would just as soon nod their heads, smile, and scream internally, “No, no, no!” These team members may be new to the company, shy, or intimidated by outspoken team members—including the project manager. When using the participative method to arrive at a decision, everyone’s input is needed—including input from these people. You will learn very quickly who these people are on your project team, as they’ll never or rarely offer a differing opinion or disagree with any suggestions made. To get these individuals involved, try these techniques:

•   Have each team member offer an opinion on the topic, and then write the suggestions on a whiteboard.

•   If possible, allow team members to think about the problem and then e-mail their proposed solution to you.

•   Call directly on the evader team members first when asking for suggestions.

•   Aggressives  These team members love to argue. Their opinions are usually in opposition of the popular opinion, they are brash in their comments, and they are typically smarter than anyone else on the project team—at least they think they are. These folks may be very intelligent and educated on the technology, but they play devil’s advocate out of habit rather than trying to help the team arrive at the best solution. You’ll know who these individuals are rather quickly—as will everyone on the project team. To deal with these folks, try the following methods:

•   Allow these team members to make their recommendations first before taking suggestions from other team members.

•   Ask them to explain their position in clear, precise reasoning.

•   If necessary, speak with them in private and ask for their cooperation when searching for a solution.

•   Thinkers  These team members are sages. They are usually quiet through much of the decision-making process, and then they offer their opinion based on what’s been discussed. These team members are excellent to have on the project team, though sometimes their suggestions stem from other team members’ input. Try to work these thinkers into the discussion by asking them questions or calling for their opinions early on if you think they should contribute early on in the process.

•   Idealists  These team members, while their intentions are good, may see the project as a simple, straight path to completion. They may ignore, or not be aware of, the process to arrive at the proper conclusion. Often idealists are well trained in the technology but have little practical experience in the implementation. These team members are usually open to learning and eager to offer solutions to the project.

Dealing with each of these personas takes patience, insight into their personalities, and knowledge of their motivations. You have to spend time with your team members, develop a relationship with them, and lead by example. You won’t be effective leading your project team if your only time invested with them is talking about the project, their assigned work, and your review of how they’re doing on the project.

Working with Agile Project Teams

Agile project teams don’t utilize a command-and-control concept that’s prevalent in traditional, waterfall project management. Agile project teams are self-led and self-organizing. This means that the team decides who’ll do what work in each iteration of the project. The team’s leader isn’t necessarily the project manager (or scrum master or coach), but can be anyone on the project team. The leader isn’t a formal position, but it’s someone on the team who emerges as a leader that can propel the project forward and lead people on the team follow to the project vision. And the leader can change as the project evolves—the leader isn’t an elected or designated person, but a natural leader based on performance and affinity within the project team.

In a scrum project, the team selects the amount of work they believe they can finish in the iteration. Recall that the selected work is called the sprint backlog. The sprint backlog is then broken down into activities and tasks that the team must complete in order to create the items in the sprint backlog. The team then divvies up the work—the activities—to get the thing done. This is the idea of the team being self-led, self-directed, and self-organizing. The project manager doesn’t delegate to each person what they’ll do in the iteration, the team members do this among themselves.

That’s a big concept many project teams in agile projects struggle with, especially new agile teams. In the early phases of an agile project, the scrum master may have to coach the team more on the principles and processes of agile. Like anything new, it’s helpful to have an experienced person guide the team on how the approach is supposed to work. With time, the team will learn the process and approach and look to the project manager less and less for guidance in the project.

Team Meetings

A project manager who wants to lead an effective team must be organized, prepared, and committed to a strict timetable. When you meet with your team members, they will be looking to you to lead the meeting in an organized, efficient manner. It is not necessary, or advised, to ramble on about the project and discuss issues that are not pertinent. Simply put, call the meeting to order, address the objectives of the meeting, and then finish the meeting. Time in meetings is time not spent completing the project.

Meeting Frequency

Decide at the onset of the project how often the team should meet to discuss the project. Depending on your project, a weekly meeting may be required; in other circumstances, a biweekly meeting is acceptable. The point is to decide how often the team needs to meet as a group to discuss the project as a whole and then stick to that schedule. The project meeting schedule should be documented in the communications management plan.

It is acceptable (and wise) to meet with some members of the project team if the agenda of a meeting is geared toward just those individuals. Project managers often feel the need to involve the entire team in every discussion related to the project—this is a waste of time. While the project manager should make an effort to keep the team informed and moving forward as a whole, there will often be instances when the objectives of a meeting are geared to just a few individuals. These meetings should be separate and in addition to the regularly scheduled team meetings.

Meeting Purpose

Once you have decided to meet on a regular basis for the duration of the project, you must also decide why you are meeting at all. In other words, what is the purpose of the meeting? Typically, you will want to meet regularly with your project team to discuss the status of the work and concerns that may have evolved. Other ongoing topics include

•   Review of tasks completed

•   Review of action items assigned to the project team members

•   Risks

•   Recognition of team members’ achievements

•   Review of outstanding issues on the project

•   News about the project

A project manager should create an agenda of topics that need to be discussed and then stick to the schedule. These regular meetings with the staff should usually consist of the same order of business, the same length of time, and the same participants. In a geographically dispersed project with subteams, teleconferences or videoconferences are ideal.

Using a Meeting Coordinator

A meeting coordinator runs the business of a meeting to keep the topics on schedule and according to the agenda. The project manager does not have to be the meeting coordinator. If you have a very eager team member who is excited about the technology and is ambitious, they may be an excellent meeting coordinator. This individual, like the project manager, must be organized, timely, and able to lead a team meeting. The meeting coordinator will work with the project manager to ensure that key points are covered in the meeting and that the agenda is followed.

When sensitive issues are discussed, the project manager may intervene for the meeting coordinator. If you decide to use a meeting coordinator, you must be certain they have certain attributes:

•   Agreement to maintain the position throughout the project

•   Willingness to learn

•   Willingness to speak before the project team

•   Organizational skills

•   Time management abilities

•   Commitment to gathering resources needed for the meeting

A meeting coordinator can be a great help to the project manager, and the associated responsibilities allow the designated meeting coordinator to gain some experience hosting meetings. You should, however, respect the position and not interrupt as they lead the meeting or take over the meeting. If the meeting coordinator needs help, then step into the role or meet with them outside the meeting to offer advice.

Meeting Minutes

IT projects require documentation on all activities, including meetings. Prior to the meeting, determine who will keep the minutes of the meeting. This does not have to be the same person each time, but it would be helpful if it’s someone who can type up and distribute the minutes to the team members. The person who keeps the minutes of the meeting is called a scribe.

You need meeting minutes because they provide a record of the meeting, the problems and situations that were discussed, and documentation of the project’s progress. Meeting minutes are an excellent method for keeping the team aware of what has already been discussed and settled, resolutions of problems, and proof of the attendees.

Agile Daily Coordination Meetings

Agile projects use a daily coordination meeting, a timeboxed meeting of 15 minutes, in which participants stand. It’s a quick meeting specifically for the project development team, not all the stakeholders. Each person in the meeting defines what they have accomplished since the last coordination meeting, what they are working on today, and if there are impediments blocking progress. It’s quick, simple, and direct.

The meeting model requires that only people with assignments report. The meeting also asks that those reporting communicate with the whole group, not just with the scrum master or project manager. Side conversations aren’t allowed, and big issues are addressed after the meeting. It’s quick, daily, and keeps everyone involved. It’s also an opportunity to introduce any risks or issues that could prevent progress.

Virtual Team Communications

As more and more of us are working from home, we’re using web conferencing software to communicate. While video and phone conferences can be great, we often lose the value of the face-to-face communication, immediate, clear feedback, and nonverbal clues. With technical tools to host and attend meetings, project managers need to ensure that their message is clear and understood. E-mail and SMS messages can often be misinterpreted. Have you ever sent a joke via text and the recipient didn’t get the humor? I have. The tone and inflection of our voices carry nuances that affect the message’s meaning—something we lose in texts, e-mails, and chat applications.

Collaboration tools can be leveraged to help virtual teams work together even though they’re far apart from each other. Collaboration tools for idea sharing include

•   Enterprise social media  This is a forum like LinkedIn or Facebook but just for your organization

•   Multi-authoring software  Multiple people can work on the same file at once.

•   Workflow and e-signature platforms  These tools are ideal for moving work through a defined process, like purchasing equipment or scheduling a vacation for approval.

•   Whiteboard apps  Draw, save, and print a whiteboard with multiple people contributing.

•   Cloud-based project management applications  Instead of a local version of the app, team members access the project management application via the Internet. Popular versions include Monday.com, Trello, Basecamp, and even Microsoft Project.

Like any tool, to be effective the team needs to learn how to use collaboration tools. I’ve seen many organizations make the mistake of buying a new app and expecting instant results with the application. Uh, no. That’s like buying an airplane and expecting to be able to fly immediately; simply not how it works. It takes time, effort, education, and patience to become proficient in anything. Some apps are easier than others, but it will still take time and effort to become efficient at the new software.

Maintaining Team Leadership

Once the project has been launched, the meeting schedule has been established, and the project team has developed a routine for completing, reporting, and finishing assignments, it’s tempting to relax and let the project take care of itself. Unfortunately, as Figure 8-4 shows, predictive projects won’t lead themselves to the finish line—the project manager has to do this.

Figure 8-4  Projects require the project manager’s constant attention.

A constant flux of problems, scenarios, lagging tasks, and technology challenges will be lurking just beneath the surface no matter how calm things may appear. The project manager must lead the team around the pitfalls, past the traps, and over the hurdles to finish the project. This requires a project manager with many talents, abilities, and experience. So what is the ideal project manager as a leader?

Background and Experience

When it comes to information technology, experience means practically everything. An IT project manager may see project management as a logical segue into a management position with a company—and certainly it can be. But to be a great IT project manager, you need experience within the technology sector. By relating personally to the technology, you gain a level of respect not only from the project team but also from management. Your experience in the IT field will allow your guiding hand to nudge the project back into alignment with the project’s goals. Some IT professionals, however, may be lacking in the interpersonal skills, tact, and charm that is sometimes required to motivate and lead a group of individuals.

For other IT professionals, it may be difficult to surrender the workload to the project team. They may discover that it’s difficult to assert their authority and rely on someone else to complete the implementation. It may behoove these professionals to take a management course such as Dale Carnegie Training to enhance their ability as a manager.

But what of project managers who come from other industries? Perhaps they’ve joined a company to become a project manager within the IT field, but their experience is based on a traditional managerial background. How can these individuals relate to the technology and the type of people who excel with technology?

These individuals will have to rely on their skills as managers to relate to and lead a project team. They will need to rely heavily on the subject matter experts on their team to give them accurate information. They are also going to have to work with the project team to learn about the technology they are implementing to gain technology experience. It may be helpful for these professionals to enroll in a course on the technology being implemented to understand the process of the implementation from a technician’s point of view.

Of course, the best project managers, who are always in demand, are the rare individuals who have years of technology experience but also have the keen ability to work with and lead the project team. Figure 8-5 demonstrates the ideal balance of managerial experience and technical background for any IT project manager. You can become one of these professionals regardless of where you are in your career right now. The secret is to identify the areas of your career where you may be lacking and then seek out projects and opportunities to gain experience with the technology or the management position.

Figure 8-5  Managerial and technical experience is necessary for IT project managers.

Working Toward the Finish

A project requires many things: finances, hardware, time, and other resources. Chief among the required resources is a commitment from all parties involved in the project. This includes the project manager, management, the project sponsor, and the project team. You will need to create and maintain a relationship with each of these parties to ensure their continued support of the project and their commitment to seeing the project through. Project managers who isolate parties that are not actively involved with the implementation are doing their project and career a disservice. Management, project sponsors, and departments that are impacted by the technology implementation want to hear from the project manager on a regular basis, as Figure 8-6 shows. They want, and need, to be kept informed.

Figure 8-6  Project managers must keep many people informed on the project status.

Here’s a nifty formula to demonstrate the number of opportunities for communication to fail in a project: N(N – 1)/2, where N represents the number of stakeholders. For example, imagine a small project with just 20 stakeholders. In this example the formula would read 20(19)/2 = 190 communication channels. That’s 190 opportunities for communication to fail—and it’s a sure sign that the larger the project is, the more communication the project manager must undertake.

Commitment from the Project Team’s Managers

If you are working in a functional or matrix environment, managing a project team is a complex process that requires a commitment from the team members’ managers. These managers may represent several different departments within the organization, or they could all work directly within the IT department. The structure of your organization will have a huge impact on the attitude and outlook of the project team on the technology project.

For example, if all the team members have the same manager, as is the case in a functional organization, it will be easier to coordinate activities and participation from all of the team members and the one manager. This scenario is typical in smaller companies or organizations with a very tightly structured IT department. In these instances, a relationship between you and the manager is easier to create than in a project that has team members from several departments with different managers.

Typically, your project team will consist of people from various departments who have an interest in the development and implementation of the technology. In these instances, you’ll need to develop a relationship with each of their managers to relay to them what their employees are contributing to the project. A relationship is also needed so that the managers can see the importance of the project and the team members’ dedication to it.

Project Completion and Team Members’ Growth

As a project manager, your obvious goal is to complete the project as planned, on time, and on budget. As you begin to assign your team members to tasks, you’ll have a serious challenge to conquer. Team members will look to you to assign tasks that allow them to grow and learn new skills. You, on the other hand, will be looking toward the project deliverables and will want to use the resources available to get there the best and fastest way you can. The paradox is your desire to assign the strongest resources to the critical path and the desire of the team members to learn new skills and improve their abilities. This is the concept of acceptable risk with regard to team development, as Figure 8-7 demonstrates.

Figure 8-7  Team members’ growth must be balanced with the project’s health.

The managers of the team members will want you to assign tasks to their employees fairly and according to their skills, but also to allow them to stretch their abilities. The team members, according to the WIIFM (“What’s In It For Me”) principle, will have a desire to complete the exciting parts of the project to gain valuable experience for their own career growth. You, of course, have a desire to complete the project smoothly and accurately from the start.

A project manager who never allows team members to attempt tasks that may be slightly beyond their grasp will not win the support of the project team. A project manager must give team members a chance to learn from the work and glean new skills and abilities. If you always assign the critical path tasks to the same technically advanced team members, they may become bored with always doing the same type of work, just as the less technically astute team members may be bored with their perceived menial duties.

A solution that you should try to incorporate is mentoring. Allow inexperienced (but willing to learn) team members to work with more advanced team members on the critical path assignments. By coupling team members on assignments through the critical path, you are accomplishing several things:

•   Allowing the inexperienced team member to gain new experience

•   Allowing the technical team member to share their knowledge

•   Providing a degree of on-the-job training

•   Ensuring the critical path will be completed accurately

•   Satisfying the needs of management to allow team members to grow

•   Allowing your resources to become more savvy for future projects

Motivating the Team

Your team looks to you for more than just directions on what tasks should be completed next, settlements of issues, and updates on the project. Your team also looks to you for motivation. Motivation is more than a pep speech and a positive quote in your outgoing e-mails. Motivation, in project management, is the ability to transfer your excitement to your team members and have them act on that excitement. This section is a reminder of the Management Theories discussed in Chapter 3.

No matter how wonderful your smile, your ability to talk with your project team, and your passion for the project, not everyone will be motivated. Much of the motivation of the project doesn’t even stem from the project manager! The motivation and level of excitement will come from the company itself, the working atmosphere, and the overall commitment to the organization of each project team member.

Understanding Motivation

Fred Herzberg, a management consultant and business theorist, conducted a study in 1959 that resulted in his Motivation-Hygiene Theory. This study’s results, as demonstrated in Figure 8-8, showed that workers are impacted by nontangible factors called motivating agents and hygiene agents. Motivating agents are elements such as opportunities to learn new skills, promotions, and rewards for our hard work. Hygiene agents are elements we expect in employment: a paycheck, insurance, a safe working environment, vacation time, and a sense of community. The presence of hygiene agents does nothing to motivate employees—only motivating agents motivate them. However, the absence of hygiene agents will demotivate workers.

Figure 8-8  Hygiene agents must exist before motivating agents can be offered.

Herzberg’s theory also asserts that people are either motivation seekers or hygiene seekers. Hygiene seekers take comfort in

•   Company policy and administration

•   Supervision

•   Salary

•   Interpersonal relationships

•   Working conditions

These employees like to feel safe, guarded, and secure in their job and their organization. They are not overly excited by opportunity, growth, or the challenge of the work.

Inversely, motivation seekers take comfort in the following five factors:

•   Achievement

•   Recognition

•   The work itself

•   Responsibility

•   Advancement

The contrast between the two types of workers is startling. The hygiene seekers take comfort in, for example, the health insurance policies, the sick day allowance, and the number of vacation days allowed per year. While motivation seekers appreciate the company policies, they find more comfort in the challenge of achievement, growth, and opportunity for advancement.

Which would you rather have on your project team? Chances are you’ll encounter both types of workers, so the actual motivation for each type of employee will vary. Perhaps for the hygiene seekers, time off for work, a bonus, or the opportunity to travel on the project will be their reward. Motivation seekers will look for more long-term rewards than a free day from work and will be motivated by their achievements, their opportunity for advancement, and public recognition of the work they’ve completed.

In all of us, there is likely a mixture of both the hygiene seeker and the motivation seeker. The trick for you is to determine which personality type is predominant in your project team members and then act accordingly.

What Team Members Need

Another viewpoint on motivation is that people are motivated by needs. According to Abraham Maslow, people work in order to satisfy a hierarchy of their needs. The pinnacle of needs is self-actualization. People want to contribute, prove their worth, and use their skills and abilities. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, shown in Figure 8-9, states that people reach their full potential by fulfilling one layer of needs at a time.

Figure 8-9  Maslow’s theory states that people work for self-actualization.

1.   Physiological People require these necessities to live: air, water, food, clothing, and shelter.

2.   Safety People need safety and security; this can include stability in life, work, and culture.

3.   Social People are social creatures and need love, approval, and friends.

4.   Esteem People strive for the respect, appreciation, and approval of others.

5.   Self-actualization At the pinnacle of needs, people seek personal growth, knowledge, and fulfillment.

In this theory, you need to satisfy the lower-level needs before you can ascend and satisfy the higher needs. While this theory may not help you become an instantaneously better project manager, it will help you understand what may be motivating your project team members. Another theory, also based on needs, is McClelland’s Theory of Needs. David McClelland developed his acquired-needs theory based on his belief that a person’s needs are acquired and develop over time. People’s needs are shaped by life experiences and circumstances. This theory is also known as the Three Needs Theory, because there are just three needs for each individual, and one need is considered the driving motivation behind the actions people take. Depending on the person’s experiences, the order and magnitude of each need shifts:

•   Need for achievement  People who have this dominant trait need to achieve, so they avoid both low-risk and high-risk situations. Achievers like to work alone or with other high achievers, and they need regular feedback to gauge their achievement and progress.

•   Need for affiliation  People who have a driving need for affiliation look for harmonious relationships, want to feel accepted by people, and conform to the norms of the project team.

•   Need for power  People who have a need for power are usually seeking either personal or institutional power. Personal power generally means wanting to control and direct other people. Institutional power means wanting to direct the efforts of others for the betterment of the organization.

McClelland developed the Thematic Apperception Test to determine what needs drive individuals. The test comprises a series of pictures, and the test-taker has to create a story about what’s happening in the pictures. Through the storytelling, the test-taker will reveal which need is driving their life at that time.

Theorizing on Management and Leadership

Management is about getting things done and creating key results. Leadership is about aligning, motivating, and directing people. As a project manager, your focus will be on the management side of the house much of the time, and you’ll lead part of the time. When it comes to management, you should consider Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y. McGregor states that management believes there are two generic categories of workers—basically, good and bad. The theory states that management actually shifts from position to position, depending on the worker and the conditions that warrant the behavior of the manager:

•   X is bad. These people need to be watched all the time and micromanaged; they cannot be trusted. X people avoid work, shun responsibility, and lack the aptitude to achieve.

•   Y is good. These people are self-led and motivated, and they can accomplish new tasks proactively.

In reality, it’s not that management truly believes that all employees are either good or bad, but that how you manage the employees will shift according to circumstances, conditions, and your history with the person. With some employees, you can get out of the way and let them do their work, while other employees want you to micromanage them, direct their every action, and provide your constant input. According to McGregor’s theories, you’ll identify the type of employee and then adjust your management style accordingly.

Another theory is William Ouchi’s Theory Z. This isn’t directly related to McGregor’s theories, but it is based on the participative management style of the Japanese. This theory states that workers are motivated by a sense of commitment, opportunity, and advancement. Workers in an organization subscribing to Theory Z learn the business by moving up through the ranks of the company. Ouchi’s theory also credits the idea of “lifetime employment.” Workers will stay with one company until they retire because they are dedicated to the company that is, in turn, dedicated to them.

Finally, Vroom’s expectancy theory states that people will match their behaviors to what they expect as a result of their behaviors. In other words, people will work in relation to the expected reward of the work. If the attractiveness of the reward is desirable to the worker, they will work to receive it—and people expect to be rewarded for their effort.

CompTIA Project+ Exam Highlight: Project Team Management

The CompTIA Project+ Exam will test your knowledge of managing and leading project teams. Your primary focus as a project manager is to manage the project team to complete the project work in order to satisfy the project objectives. By understanding the type of personalities on your project team, the interests of the project team members, and things that motivate project team members, you can adjust your management style.

1.8 Compare and contrast communication management concepts  When it comes to leading and managing the project team, you’ll be using communication. Communication, it’s been said, is 90 percent of a project manager’s job. To get the team to follow the rules, work together, and report on their project accomplishments, they’ll need to communicate with you, the project manager. You’ll also be communicating with project stakeholders, as they expect updates on the project. Communication must be precise, appropriate, and honest; skewed or sloppy communication can have ramifications on the project work and the attitude of the people within the project.

1.9 Given a scenario, apply effective meeting management techniques  Meetings are an opportunity to quickly and effective bring together the required project stakeholders and share information about the project. Meetings should have an agenda that’s distributed to the needed meeting participants before the meeting begins. All meetings should be timeboxed, have a meeting leader or coordinator to keep things on track, and have a scribe to document the meeting minutes. Efficient meetings are appreciated, while rambling, sloppy meetings are frustrating, as participants have been invited away from their work for information that’s not relevant to their goals or the vision of the project.

1.10 Given a scenario, perform basic activities related to team and resource management  The project team needs to know who’s in charge of the project—the project manager. The organizational structure will affect the amount of power the project manager has over the project. The project team needs to know what the project ground rules are, what your expectations of the project team are, and how they can operate within the project. By involving the project team in the decision-making process, you’ll garner their trust and ownership of the project. The participative and consultative decision-making approaches get the team involved in the project direction. By getting the team involved in the project decisions, you’ll create respect, synergy, and a sense of ownership in team members of the project work and the project creation.

3.2 Compare and contrast various project management productivity tools  Teams need to be able to communicate with one another, document their project work, update task information, and find information through the project management information systems. While some may argue that a whiteboard, a notebook, and a stack of markers are all that you really need to be effective, that’s not realistic for most projects (or your CompTIA Project+ exam). Communications tools, like web conferencing software, internal wikis, calendaring tools, and cloud-based solutions, help the team work collaboratively even if they are not physically located together. Communication with non-co-located teams, or virtual teams, requires more diligence to be effective.

Chapter Review

As the project manager, you will find yourself managing things, such as quality, scope, and risk, but leading people to achieve the project goals. Through your actions, your example, and your excitement for the project, you will find solutions to motivate, inspire, and urge your team to complete the project according to plan. Adaptive project teams are self-led and self-organizing, as the team members will determine who’ll do what work based on the backlog.

You can nearly always succeed by emulating the activities, processes, and solutions of other successful project managers and leaders you admire. By mimicking the abilities of successful leaders, you can begin to absorb and implement the same talents with your team.

IT project managers who come from a technical background may need to learn interpersonal skills, organizational abilities, and management techniques to best lead the team and benefit the organization. On the other hand, project managers who come from a more traditional management background will need to gain experience and education in the technology being implemented to be most effective.

You must allow the team to make decisions as a group. Discussion from each team member’s perspective is required and will contribute to the overall good of the project. You’ll also need a method for dealing with team members who don’t want to contribute, or who become confrontational when others disagree with their suggestions. There must be a balance of input, compromise, and some disagreement in discussions by the project team.

Managers of the project team must be as committed to the project as the project manager and the project team. To be a successful project manager, you have to make an effort to create relationships with management and share the news of the project status. The team members must also be given an opportunity to increase their value and their skills by working on important assignments. This can be accomplished by partnering less experienced team members with more advanced professionals.

Finally, you need to recognize the two primary personality types—hygiene seekers and motivation seekers—and learn to use what excites them to move them forward on the project. Motivation seekers are likely to be the more exciting personalities. These folks are achievers, entrepreneurial in nature, and excited by learning.

Leading a project team is one of the project manager’s toughest assignments. Developing a personal relationship with each team member, establishing mutual respect, and motivating each person to succeed not only will help you complete the project but will also make you a better person.

Exercises

These exercises allow you to apply the knowledge you have learned in this chapter and are followed by possible solutions.

Exercise Solutions

The following offer possible solutions for the chapter exercises.

Questions

1.   You are the project manager of the NYQ Project. You suspect that some project team members aren’t interested in the project. What is the best path to make others develop a passion for the project?

A.   Offer bonuses if the project is completed on time.

B.   Remind the team members that the project is essential to their careers.

C.   Become passionate about the project yourself.

D.   Remind the team members that mistakes they make on the project will be documented.

2.   Why must the project manager have authority over a predictive project?

A.   To ensure that the team will complete the work as dictated

B.   To ensure that the actions required to complete the project will be enforced

C.   To ensure that the budget required to complete the project is available

D.   To ensure that the organization realizes your potential as an effective manager

3.   What management theory suggests that people will perform better when they are offered a reward that motivates them?

A.   Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory

B.   McClelland’s Theory of Needs

C.   Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

D.   McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

4.   Complete this sentence: A successful relationship between the team members and the project manager should be _______________.

A.   Orderly

B.   Symbiotic

C.   Symbolic

D.   Relaxed

5.   Of the following, which are two skills that a project manager must have to be successful?

A.   Public speaking abilities

B.   Organizational skills

C.   Ambition for a successful career

D.   Passion for the project

6.   McClelland’s Theory of Needs suggests that people are driven by one of three needs. Which one of the following is not one of the three needs in McClelland’s theory?

A.   Power

B.   Affiliation

C.   Reward

D.   Achievement

7.   Of the following, which decision-making process is reflective of the directive decision?

A.   A project manager who makes the decision with no team input

B.   A project manager who makes a decision based on team members’ counsel and advice

C.   A project manager who allows the team members to arrive at their own decision

D.   A project manager who allows the team members to arrive at their own decision with the project manager’s approval

8.   Of the following, which decision-making process is reflective of the consultative decision?

A.   A project manager who makes the decision with no team input

B.   A project manager who makes a decision based on team members’ counsel and advice

C.   A project manager who allows the team members to arrive at their own decision

D.   A project manager who allows the team members to arrive at their own decision with the project manager’s approval

9.   Why is disagreeing considered an effective part of team discussions?

A.   It keeps the team members competitive against one another.

B.   It allows the project manager to pit team members against each other to keep the project moving.

C.   It shows that the project team is thinking and considering alternative solutions.

D.   It allows team members to become passionate about their decisions.

10.   Of the following, which is not a method you should employ when working with evaders during a team discussion?

A.   Have each team member offer their opinion on the topic, and then write the suggestion on the whiteboard.

B.   If possible, allow team members to think about the problem and then e-mail their proposed solution to you.

C.   Have the evader listen to all of the comments and then make their decision.

D.   Call directly on the evader team members first when asking for suggestions.

11.   You are a project manager for an application development project. You have eight team members who are all adding opinions about the web connectivity feature of the application. Of the following statements, which one most likely came from a team member with the aggressive personality type?

A.   I’ve done this before so I know it works.

B.   We could model our application after a project we’ve made before.

C.   I agree with Susan.

D.   I think we should take two different approaches and let the users decide which is most effective.

12.   How often should a project manager meet with the entire project team?

A.   On a regular basis, as warranted by the size and duration of the project

B.   As directed by management

C.   At least weekly

D.   At least monthly

13.   Of the following, which is the best choice for conducting meetings when the project team is dispersed geographically?

A.   Have the entire project team travel to a central location to discuss the project.

B.   Have the team leaders from each subteam travel to a central location to conduct the project. Team leaders would then report the results to the team when they return from the trip.

C.   Have the project manager travel to each location and meet with the project team there.

D.   Use videoconference software to link to all of the different teams to discuss the project.

14.   Why should project team meetings have minutes recorded?

A.   It allows management to have a record of each meeting.

B.   It allows the project sponsor to have a record of the meeting without having to attend.

C.   It allows the project manager to maintain a record of what was discussed.

D.   It allows subteams to have details on what is happening in the other subteams’ meetings.

15.   Of the following, which two are attributes of a successful project manager?

A.   Experience working with technology

B.   Experience working with the project team

C.   Experience working with the project sponsor

D.   Experience as a traditional manager

Answers

1.   C. The best method you can use to make others become passionate about a project is to become passionate about it yourself. Your excitement and desire for success are contagious.

2.   B. A project manager needs authority over a project to ensure that the team will complete the tasks to finish the project. Because a project manager is responsible for the success or failure of a project, they should also be given a level of authority to ensure their success.

3.   A. Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory states that performance can be promoted through motivating agents, which are often rewards. Hygiene agents, such as a paycheck and benefits, are needed before motivating agents are effective.

4.   B. The relationship between the project team and the project manager should be mutually beneficial, or symbiotic.

5.   B, D. Organizational skills and a real passion for the project are two attributes every project manager requires.

6.   C. Reward is not one of the three needs of McClelland’s Theory of Needs. His theory states that people are driven by power, affiliation, or achievement.

7.   A. When a project manager makes a decision with no team input, but based on their own experience, research, or intuition, they are making a directive decision.

8.   B. A consultative decision allows the project manager and the project team to work together to make a decision. This is ideal for situations where the project manager may not be well versed in the technology but must make a decision to safeguard the project.

9.   C. Some disagreements in a team meeting are healthy because it shows the team is working toward the best solutions. Compromise and openness to different ideas are fantastic components to any project.

10.   C. Evaders are team members who avoid confrontations and do not want to contradict any other team member. By allowing the team member to wait until they’ve heard all of the other team members’ suggestions, their true opinion may be masked by the desire to agree with the majority of opinions.

11.   A. Aggressive team members are typically experienced but have no qualms about stressing their ability to always be right.

12.   A. Project managers should determine a schedule that is appropriate for the project. A team that meets too often will waste valuable work time. A team that meets infrequently will miss an opportunity to discuss and resolve issues on the project.

13.   D. Videoconference software is an excellent solution for all of the team members to participate in a discussion of the project without losing days to and incurring expenses for travel.

14.   C. Minutes need to be kept in team meetings so that the project manager has a record of the discussion of the meeting. It allows the project manager another avenue to document the details of the meetings.

15.   A, D. A project manager who has experience either in working with technology or in the role as a traditional manager has an advantage over unproven project managers. Technical experience plus a traditional management background is a great combination for any IT project manager.