Team Leadership itself is not hard. What makes it difficult is fitting it in among a load of other project priorities that face you. You’re under pressure to do this and do that. So, you often default to a combination of doing it yourself, telling people what to do, and getting annoyed with a general lack of progress.
But, when you get your first opportunity to lead a project team, you want to do well. So, these pressures can mount up and suck the energy out of you.
In this article, I want to home-in on the four essentials of project team leadership. None of the fancy stuff. Just the four things that make the biggest difference. And, if you do all four of these well, you will get a great team.
Contents
In this article, I will cover:
- You Get the Team You Deserve
- Focus Your Team Leadership on Individuals
- Build and Share a Clear Plan
- Foster a Sense of Team Spirit
- Communicate Relentlessly… and well
- Basic Care and Maintenance of Your Team
- Deserving Your Project Team
- The Essence of Project Team Leadership
We’ll start with getting the project team you deserve.
You Get the Project Team You Deserve
Leadership isn’t something you are born with, like brown eyes. And it is not something your parents give you like a doll. It is a talent that comes from learning, practicing, and mastering many different skills.
Some people get an opportunity to do this early in their lives, while others must wait a little longer.
Some people seize every opportunity they can, while others let them pass by.
I believe there is a simple truth about team leadership.
And all project managers need to understand it…
You get the team you deserve
You get the team you deserve Share on XFirst and Foremost Team Leadership is about Attitude
‘You get the team you deserve’ does not mean that the universe will reward good people with a good team. And it will punish bad people with a bad team.
If only life were that fair.
Instead, it is about the attitude you take to the people you have. Never confuse rank, position, grade, or status, for leadership. They are very different. Leadership is about who you are, what you do, and how you do it.
Good leadership is about the attitude you take to the people you have.
Let’s face it: few Project Managers are privileged to hand-pick our ideal team. Most often, we get who are allocated to us, and these are the people we must lead. If you take the attitude that this is not the team you wanted, then all is lost.
How to Deserve the Team You Want
On the other hand, if you take the attitude that this is the best team you could have had…
If you invest your time, your energy, and your commitment into helping this team succeed…
Then, perhaps, you’ll deserve a great team.
So, what are the essentials to helping your team succeed?
There are four:
- The Individual
Give everyone the attention they need - The Plan
People will only follow you if they are confident that you know where you are going - The Team
People need to feel part of something worthwhile - Communication
Create an environment where your people can succeed
Focus Your Team Leadership on Individuals
There is no ‘I’ in Team
That’s a pretty old joke, and we know what it means. But it’s wrong!
If there is no sense of individuality in your project team, then where is the diversity that gives a team its:
- Strength in problem-solving
- Robustness in challenge and decision-making, or
- Joy in learning from one another?
Your first (not necessarily top) priority in project team leadership is getting to know each team member and discovering their strengths. It is easy to deprecate people for what they aren’t good at. Go beyond this, though.
Value people for what they can offer – rather than deprecating them for what they cannot. Share on XInvest your time and energy in helping each one to develop and grow as a result of their involvement in your project. There are two dimensions you can stretch people in:
- Skills
The chance to learn new things and to strengthen existing skills towards mastery is intrinsically motivating as well as good for careers and therefore for employers. - Responsibilities
Opportunities to take and discharge more responsibility grow character and judgment.
To learn more…
Build and Share a Clear Plan
A project team needs to feel confident in you as a team leader. And, for that, they need a sense of control and certainty. This is what a plan brings. Without it, your team will have little confidence in you.
But, it is important to involve your team in creating your plan.
You are the project manager. So, it is easy to believe that you have a monopoly on wisdom and foresight, when it comes to planning. You don’t.
There are three compelling reasons to involve team members in planning:
- Together, you have greater collective wisdom than any one of you alone.
- Involving people in the planning process is a recognition of their experience, knowledge, and judgment – which is highly motivating.
- When team members get involved in planning, they become more committed to the plan. They have a reputational stake in making the plan work.
But what about Agile Projects?
The plan that you need to foster confidence is about making sure your team knows what you expect of them, and the part they have to play. This means that what matters are:
- a clear goal
- effective processes
- certainty about what tomorrow holds
A well-run Agile project can offer all this, without a traditional project plan.
Foster a Sense of Team Spirit
People want to feel a sense of belonging and a project team is ideally placed to provide that. So, good project team leadership can offer three things we value particularly highly at work:
- Relationships
A sense that people take care of one another and collaborate effectively - Recognition
Colleagues recognize one another’s contributions - Respect
Team members treat one another with respect, courtesy, and dignity
Your job is to cultivate a team spirit and a strong, positive culture. The best place to start is with a clear goal. A shared and compelling purpose is both motivating and unifying.
What you don’t need, are complex ‘team-building’ events.
Instead, establish a few simple team traditions, like cakes on Friday or celebrating team successes on a Monday morning. These are the sorts of things that bring people together and foster the loyalty, mutual regard, and collaborative behaviors that will carry your project team through easy times and hard.
Communicate Relentlessly… and well
Nothing stifles my enthusiasm more than the feeling of not knowing what is going on, what is expected of me, and what the future holds.
So, a vital part of team leadership is creating effective communication channels. You must take responsibility not just for communicating well yourself, but also for building a culture of good, collaborative team communication among your team members. If you do this well, it leads to spontaneous collaboration, seamless conflict resolution, and real caring between colleagues.
This is important, because if all you do is become a hub of good communication; then you will become a point of weakness for your team. If you aren’t there, communication will break down.
If all you do is become a hub of good communication; then you will become a point of weakness for your team. Share on X- Great Team Communication: The 10 Commandments
- Communication Skills for Project Managers | The Best Books
- The Single Best Team Effectiveness Tool | Video
Feedback: the Primary Team Leadership Communication Mode
Developing your team members needs constant attention. And the way you can best do this is by offering high-quality performance feedback.
Use feedback to constantly balance the levels of support and challenge you offer. And feed your team members with the resources they need, when they need them.
- Performance Feedback: How to Turbo-Charge Your Project Team Members
- The Value of Positive Feedback | Video
- How to Determine an Appropriate Feedback Approach | Video
Basic Care and Maintenance of Your Team
My principal attitude to team leadership is that you are there to take care of your team. Your job is to ensure that they have the resources they need, and also that you remove unwanted heat and contaminants from your team before they stifle enthusiasm and productivity.
It’s like your job is to keep your team motivated by acting as a human environmental control mechanism. There’s a name for this approach: Servant Leadership.
And, for more depth: How Servant Leadership can Deliver Better Results from Your Project Team
This means Showing Courage
Problems build up and, just like the fizzing bombs in Tom and Jerry. And, if you don’t tackle them quickly, they will explode in your face.
Not only does this hurt you and the people around you, but avoiding problems looks weak to your team. It creates a climate of ‘what next?’ fear. A positive willingness to take on issues rapidly, work on the problems, and make decisions will create confidence in your leadership that will motivate your followers.
Deserving Your Project Team
An enthusiastic team will want to work hard for you.
What will you give them in return?
There is no need for elaborate gifts and bonuses: their role in motivation is exaggerated by the people who have become accustomed to them. Remember that deserving a great team boils down to attitude. Fundamentally, people need to feel valued for their efforts. A three-step process works well:
- Recognize your team members’ contributions
…and help them to learn valuable lessons from their experience - Reward their efforts
…with something as simple as your praise and thanks - Celebrate their successes
…by recognizing them in front of their peers
Here is the most important thing, though. Do not save all of your feedback, praise, and opportunities to learn from experience to the end of the work. Build it into the regular cycle of progress checks and support. This way, you can harvest its benefits throughout the life of your team.
- Project Team Motivation [Everything You Need to Know]
- How to Motivate People – 20 Ways to Give Motivation | Video
The Essence of Project Team Leadership
People want to follow leaders.
So be the leader whom people want to follow.
Define your own leadership template to build the style that feels right to you and creates the culture that you want. Integrity is not negotiable, but here’s what I would also want:
- enthusiasm and confidence,
- optimism and flexibility,
- openness and compassion,
- challenge and excitement.
To find out how teams form:
What are your Team Leadership Essentials?
What will your leadership watchwords be?
And how hard are you prepared to work to make them a day-to-day reality; even on the toughest of days?
Tell us about what you think are the project team leadership essentials in the comments below. And, we’ll look forward to responding to everything you contribute.
This article is adapted from an extract from How to Manage a Great Project by Mike Clayton (Pearson, 2014)
Learn More
I have written a whole book on Project Leadership that takes this approach, and ties it in with my fundamental way of delivering projects. Check out: Brilliant Project Leader: What the Best Project Leaders Know, Do, and Say to Get Results.
We also have a lot of other articles and videos that discuss leadership through a wide variety of different lenses. Here are some of my favorites:
Leadership Articles
- How to Get the Best from Your Project Team with Situational Leadership
- Project Leadership Wisdom: Your Guide to the Seven Pillars
- How Personal Leadership can Get You Better Project Results
- Vital Power Skills for Project Managers: How to Develop Leadership
- Cross-Cultural Leadership: What Does it Mean for Project Managers?
- LEAD Your Team: How to Use Your Top 4 Project Leadership Skills
- How Coaching Skills will Make You a Better Project Leader
- Project Manager to Project Leader: How Big is the Step?
- Everything You Need to Know about How to Build a Great Project Team
Leadership Videos
- Leadership Models Project Managers Need to Know | Video
- Project Team Leadership: 5 Tips for Leading Your Project Team | Video
- Five Project Leadership Tips: Be a Better Project Leader | Video
- Your First Leadership Role: How to Succeed | Video
- Top 7 Leadership Tools and Methods for Team and Project Leaders | Video
- Top 10 Ways to Make an Enthusiastic Team | Video
And a series of videos about specific leadership models, that answer the question, ‘What is…
