5 Tips To Win Over Negative Project Members
Working with a project team can sometimes be a struggle, especially if some team members are not on board with the overall project and goal.
It can be difficult to get them on-side and working as effectively as possible and this could be down to a number of reasons.
Here are my top 5 tips to ensure your project team is happy and full of beans!
1. Understand the situation
First and foremost you need to get to the bottom of the negativity and why the team members are feeling the way they are. You won’t be able to provide the solution if you don’t know what the problem is!
Whatever the problem, ensure that it is managed accordingly e.g. if it is due to a personal matter, then keep it personal. You’ll gain more respect from the project team if you handle delicate matters with professionalism and respect for others.
2. Talk to the team as a whole and as individuals
Communication is probably the best way to deal with situations that arise, if you are willing to get stuck in, be transparent, open and up front with everyone; then people will trust you and your judgement and understand where you are coming from.
As the Project or Program Manager, you will need to work and manage with team members from a range of departments and with various personalities. You’ll start to understand and learn what makes certain people tick, and how to get the best out of them. Talking to the team in a group environment and also on a 1 to 1 basis will ensure you engage at the right levels and deliver the right specific messages.
3. Engage the team and get them all involved
The majority of the time, you can turn negatives into positives by engaging the team and getting everyone involved. Again this one points back to the clear communication at the start. Once you understand the situation then you can make the necessary engagements to ensure a positive outcome.
Regardless of the team member and their role within the project, make sure they feel involved and that their opinion and contribution counts – everyone has a part to play: from the Resources Manager who can pull developers out of a hat, to the admin players who will type up meeting notes, grab rounds of coffees and answer phones.
4. Delegate responsibility and actions
The best Project Managers I’ve worked with have been able to cut a project down to size and then delegate the small parts into chunks for each team member. Obviously it is “horses for courses” and you get your specialist team members onto the chunks that are in their skillset.
Delegating means three things:
- it gets everyone involved and empowers them with the potential success of the project
- it means no one can hide and sit around idly while everyone else works their butt’s off
- it leaves the Project Manager to keep a top level view on the overall direction and tweak the project where necessary
5. Share the success
The project has hit the deadline, come in under budget and delivered above and beyond the client’s quality expectations. Now is the time you should be sharing the success with the ENTIRE team – yes right back to the secretary on reception who managed the calls for your team!
Like I said earlier – everyone has a part to play and once the project is a success, you need to share the love and make everyone feel like they have achieved greatness!
Highlight the issues you faced and the problems that arose, but counter these up with the key team performances and specific individual factors that ensured project success. There’s no need to get emotional and starting thanking God, but simple recognition to the people who played their part will ensure a positive feeling and makes team members want to work with you again in the future.
Let me know if you’ve had any other factors that have helped turn negativity into positivity.
Thanks,
Tony
