Some suggestions in dealing with top management are:
- Develop in-depth plans and major milestones that must be approved by top management during the design phase of the project.
- Ask top management associated with your project for their information reporting needs and frequency.
- Develop a status reporting methodology to be distributed on a scheduled basis.
- Keep them informed of project risks and potential impacts at all times.
The project team
Your project team available to project managers on their project or borrowed rather than assigned to the project on a full time basis. As project manager you need to provide leadership, direction and above all, the support to team members as they go about accomplishing their tasks. Working closely with the team to solve problems can help you learn from the team and build rapport. Showing your support for the project team and for each member will help you get their support and cooperation.
Some difficulties in dealing with project team members include:
- Since project team members are borrowed and they don’t report to you, their priorities may be elsewhere.
- They may be juggling many projects as well as their full time job and have difficulty meeting any deadline.
- Personality conflicts may arise. These may be cause by differences in social style or values or they may be the result of some bad experience when people worked together in the past.
- You may find out about missed deadlines when it is too late to recover.
Managing project team members requires interpersonal skills. Here are some suggestions that can help:
- Involve team members in project planning.
- Arrange to meet privately and informally with each team member at several points in the project, perhaps for lunch or coffee.
- Be available to hear team members concerns at any time.
- Encourage team members to pitch in and help others when needed.
- Complete a project performance review for team members.
Your manager
Typically the boss decides what our assignment is and who can work with us on our projects. Keeping your manager informed will help ensure that you get the necessary resources to complete your project.
- If things go wrong on a project, it is nice to have an understanding and supportive boss to go to bat for us if necessary. By supporting your manager, you will find your manager will support you more often.
- Find out exactly how your performance will be measured.
- When unclear about directions, ask for clarification.
- Develop a reporting schedule that is acceptable to your boss.
- Communicate frequently.
Peers
Peers are people on the project team who are at the same level in the organization as you. These people will, in fact, also have a vested interest in the product. However, they will have neither the leadership responsibilities nor the accountability for the success or failure of the project that you have.
Your relationship with peers can be impeded by:
- Inadequate control over peers.
- Political maneuvering or sabotage.
- Personality conflict or technical conflict.
- Envy because your peer may have wanted to lead the project.
- Conflicting instructions from your manager and your peer’s manager.
