Leading and Motivating Project Teams

Teamworking along with communication skills are valued above leadership for Learning and Skills Council, therefore the team entity is of great importance in terms of structure and function.

A group of people comes together to fulfil a social need; there are several definitions and theories about groups and how these groups function in a business setting. Schein (1988) identifies the following characteristics of a group unit: Group members interact with each other and are psychologically aware of one another and the individuals perceive themselves as part of the group.

In Project Management mainly due to the characteristics of the project context - the nature of work required and the predefined common goal towards the desired outcome - theorists refer to “teams” rather than “groups”, due to the interdependencies between the project group members. Katzenbach and Smith (1999) define team as a small number of people with common purpose, performance goals and mutual accountability, demonstrating complementary skills while working together. Additional factors that distinguish effective teams are: Clear understanding of the set objectives; sufficient skills and know-how is evident among the team members; team types exist within the team; mutual respect and trust exists in individual and team level; and a team reward system in place.

To ensure that a project team is comprised of the right members, that through team work they are expected to meet the goals and objectives of the project, the Project Manager should select individuals that are familiarised with the project process so that they can go easily from forming to performing (Tuckman, 1965 cited in Brooks, 2009). In addition, the PM should ensure that the right degree of diversity exists. Diversity is important for the effectiveness of a project team, not only in terms of demographic characteristics; Belbin (2004) has identified 9 roles that need to be fulfilled in a team in order to be successful and effective. Score results of the relevant questionnaires would be useful to match the roles with the individual team members, increasing the collective strengths of the team.

As leader of a project team, one should adopt a combination of task- and person- oriented leadership style (transformational-transactional), establishing cohesiveness, promoting open communication, full participation of the team in decision-making and conflict resolution between team members when they fail to resolve problems by themselves (Schmid and Adams, 2008). In addition, it is important that team learning is taking place, as it has been found positively related with team stability which results in improvement of team performance (Erhardt, 2011).

In terms of motivation, both at individual and team level the right stimuli –intrinsic and extrinsic rewards should be in place, fulfilling the individuals psychological, physiological and security needs, as described in Maslow’s hierarchy and Herzberg’s two-factor theory.

Other elements related to the individual and team motivation that should be taken under consideration would be

a) establishing clear job design and sufficient work management (Taylorism)

b) ensuring the team participation when setting the team objectives through involvement of individuals,

c) that will result in creating a feeling of ownership which will increase team’s engagement, motivation and performance (Peterson, 2007).

References

Brooks, I. (ed.) (2009) Organisational Behaviour: Individuals, Groups and Organisation. 4th ed. Harlow: Pearson.

Belbin Associates (n.d.) Belbin Team Roles [Online]. Available from: http://www.belbin.com/rte.asp?id=8 (Accessed: 27 January 2017).

Erhardt, N. (2011) ‘Is It All About Teamwork? Understanding Processes in Team-Based Knowledge Work’, Management Learning, 42 (1), pp. 87-112.

Peterson, T.M. (2007). ‘Motivation: How to Increase Project Team Performance’. Project Management Journal, 38 (4), pp.60-69.

Schmid, B. & Adams, J. (2008) ‘Motivation in Project Management: The Project Manager’s Perspective’, Project Management Journal, 39 (2), pp.60-71.