Page 76 - DMGT521_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Unit 5: Functions of a Project Manager

5.4 Building Project Team Notes

If we are building a project team we should keep following points in our mind:
Suppose that you as a manager have been asked to form a team for the life of a particular project.
How should you set about choosing your people and forming them into a well functioning
group?

5.4.1 Selecting Your Team

Take care to choose the right people. Pick them for their skills and abilities as they apply to your
particular project. You don’t necessarily need the person most qualified in absolute terms, but
you need the person most qualified for your specific project. Concentrate on the skills you need
for the job in hand. Don’t be seduced by reams of paper qualifications that you will never need.
You almost certainly need a mixture of team members each with a different set of skills and
abilities, rather than a series of clones all with identical skills. Ensure that taken as a group they
together represent all the skills you need in the proportions that you need them.
Don’t overlook the need to choose people who can all get along with each other and work
together as a team. A group of prima donnas is the last thing you want.

5.4.2 Set the Tone and the Ground Rules

Do this at your very first team meeting. Make sure that you call this at the very start of your
project and that everyone in your team comes to the meeting. Don’t be late yourself and don’t
allow lateness in others.
This is the meeting where you have to make it clear who is in charge and what you expect from
your team. This is where the team hierarchies and reporting structures are restated. This is the
time to remove any ambiguities or potential conflicts. Make sure everyone is clear about his
role and responsibilities. Delegate tasks as appropriate and make it clear who hold the delegated
authority.

5.4.3 Setting Clear Goals

You must set clear achievable goals. You must set them for your team as a whole and you must
set them for the individuals within your team. They must be unambiguous and they must be
mutually attainable. That is to say, no one individual’s goal should in any way conflict with that
of another individual. In fact you want it to be in everybody’s interest that each individual
achieves his own goal. Design the goals accordingly. You must try to build a team that works
together with common aims, all working towards the same final goal.

5.4.4 Achievable Early Goals

Make use of your goals to build team spirit and enthusiasm. Do this by setting small, easily-
attainable goals early on in your project while your team is still bedding-in and settling down.
Make them worthwhile goals, but goals that you are almost certain can be reached. In this way
your team will notch up some early successes, which will certainly boost morale and establish
a sense of pride in the achievement. Later goals that you set can (and should) be more taxing and
testing, but the early successes will do wonders for the spirit of the team. This spirit will endure
long into the future as the going gets tougher.

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