Manage Project Team

3.3.3T Manage Project Team

There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of techniques that can be applied to managing people in different situations. Many techniques are described in this section that will help you manage your project team members.

Proactively Manage Resources in a Matrix Organization (3.3.3T.P1)

Provide Meaningful Performance Feedback (3.3.3T.P2)

Give Fact-Based Performance Feedback Routinely, Not Just During Formal Reviews (3.3.3T.P3)

Be Diligent in Managing Marginal Performers (3.3.3T.P4)

Exhibit Leadership on Challenging Projects (3.3.3T.P5)

Attack a Team Morale Problem on Many Fronts (3.3.3T.P6)

Work Diligently to Turn Around a Dysfunctional Project Team (3.3.3T.P7)

Manage Political Problems as Issues (3.3.3T.P8)

Openly Address Issues that You Cause (3.3.3T.P9)

Provide Leadership to Implement Critical Change Requests (3.3.3T.P10)

Be Open to Enabling Self-Managed Teams (3.3.3T.P11)

Overcome Team Resistance to Project Management (3.3.3T.P12)

Address Performance Problems with an Early First Meeting (3.3.3T.P13)

Manage Contractors Effectively, But Differently Than Your Employee Staff (3.3.3T.P14)

Understand Your Technical Staff and Manage Them Accordingly (3.3.3T.P15)

Be Sensitive to Differences When Managing a Diverse Staff (3.3.3T.P16)

Escalate a Performance Problem with a Formal Plan (3.3.3T.P17)

Managing Virtual Teams (3.3.3T.P18)

Proactively Manage Resources in a Matrix Organization (3.3.3T.P1)

One of the frustrating parts of being a project manager is that it can be difficult to manage the project when you have no formal management authority over the members of your team. From an organizational perspective, if the people do not report to you as a functional manager, then you are probably operating in some type of matrix structure. The matrix makes the most efficient use of people resources, but it can also be very challenging on the part of project managers.

How do you hold team members accountable for their deadlines without this authority?

From the people side, although the team members do not report to you functionally, their work on the project should still be input into their overall performance review. You can try to hold people accountable by making sure they understand that you will be providing performance feedback into their review. This should also be reiterated and agreed to by the functional managers.

Of course, if team members are missing their deadlines you must also try to determine the cause. For example, if it is due to a lack of skills, this should be addressed through training or replacement resources. If it is because they do not fully understand the expectations you have, then you may have some changes to make as well.

From a process management side, there are project management techniques and processes that should be utilized. First of all, if the availability and performance of the team is in doubt, you should raise this early as a project risk. As part of risk management, you need to put a proactive plan in place to make sure that this risk is addressed. When people miss their deadlines and your deadline is in jeopardy, you may need to raise an issue and perform issues management. During issues management, you again look for the cause of the problem and try to resolve it.

In addition, make sure your team members are communicating proactively with you. In many cases, it is not the fact that people miss their deadlines that gets you frustrated; it is that the team member does not tell you ahead of time. If the team member communicates proactively, you can see the problem beforehand while you still some ability to help. If he just misses the date and does not communicate, then he is not managing expectations as should be done. By the same token, the project manager needs to communicate proactively as well. Communicate well with your team and make sure they understand dates and expectations. Also communicate proactively with the functional managers and make sure they know when there are resource sharing issues or people performance issues.

Matrix management involves a complex and delicate balancing act between project managers and people managers. The project manager usually has limited people management authority in these situations. Even so, it is possible to complete your projects successfully. There are many project management processes and techniques that can help. Utilize them to raise risks and issues when needed. Also, make sure you utilize the project sponsor. The sponsor can help you generate urgency and focus, and can also have an impact on the functional managers to make sure that you have the resources you need to be successful.

Provide Meaningful Performance Feedback (3.3.3T.P2)

The role of the project manager normally does not include providing formal performance reviews to team members. This is usually a responsibility of each employee’s functional manager. However, there is no question that a project manager does need to provide performance feedback to team members to let them know how they are doing and whether they are meeting performance expectations. This includes recognizing when team members meet their commitments and providing feedback to them when they are not meeting your expectations.

Telling people they are doing a good job is easy. It is harder when you have to tell a team member he is not meeting your expectations. When this type of conversation is appropriate, the project manager can use the following techniques:

Plan. This helps managers develop a framework for providing effective feedback. The manager should think ahead of time about the behavior that should be highlighted and how the manager can help the employee improve.
Provide examples. Vague criticism fosters anxiety. Tangible examples are required to highlight the feedback. Typically, you do not need to provide dozens of examples. Hopefully, you can make the point with a couple representative observations.
Motivate. Use motivational techniques in the discussion. The employee is bound to be disappointed by the feedback. Look for opportunities to build the morale of the team member as well, so that he will be eager to improve.
Sandwich. The project manager should start the session with positive comments, then get to the feedback and finish with positive, motivating comments.
Allow time for feedback. The process needs to be a dialogue between the project manager and the team member. So, seek feedback from the team member and allow him to agree, disagree or provide his perspective.
Set a timeframe for action and follow-up. The project manager should document any action items, circulate them to the team member and ensure that they are completed. Before the meeting is over, the project manager and team member should also agree on a follow-up timeframe to check progress.

Give Fact-Based Performance Feedback Routinely, Not Just During Formal Reviews (3.3.3T.P3)

The world is made up of people with various skills and talents. Often, people’s talents drive them to work in certain areas where they excel. In other cases, their individual talents and the jobs they perform are not aligned. Many people have the general skills and the drive required to overcome a lack of alignment.

If everyone excelled in the job they were asked to fulfill there would be much less need for the Human Resource staff. However, it doesn’t always work like that. Some people are not able to meet expectations and managers must not feel guilty about working with them to try to turn things around.

Managers should not be afraid to bring this issue to an employee’s attention. Performance feedback should be given immediately when one employee’s problem keeps the group from providing maximum business value.

The question for many managers is how best to proceed when a performance problem arises. While some may want to start by putting the employee on a performance plan, that is not necessarily the best approach. It is possible the employee has no idea there even is a performance problem. For this reason, there is some preliminary work that needs to be done to properly set the stage for the discussion.

As a manager, consider the following approach,

The first step is to start collecting facts. Gather recent examples of missed deadlines, etc. that can be used when discussing the performance problem with the employee.
Once the factual examples are ready, the second step is to have a preliminary performance discussion. There are three targeted objectives to this meeting:

To make the employee aware of the perceived performance problem;

To get the employee’s feedback and response;

To determine a short-term action plan; this is critical and will be the key to trying to turn the performance around.

In many cases, the manager jumps to the conclusion that there is a performance problem, pure and simple. However, there are a number of different reasons why the employee’s performance may not be up to expectations. Once a manager understands the causes, he will be able to create the right action plan.

This initial performance discussion will help determine the next steps. The employee’s performance problems may have a root cause that can be resolved together. Perhaps just bringing the performance perception to the employee’s attention will help to resolve the situation. Until this initial discussion occurs, it is not possible to know exactly where the problem lies and what solutions might be appropriate.

The first performance meeting should not end before there is a short-term plan for addressing the situation. The short-term plan may require work from both the manager and employee. The plan should also include a time to get back together again, perhaps in about 30 days. It is important to get back together to determine whether there has been any improvement in performance. If there has been, then perhaps the situation just needs to be monitored from that point.

If the performance is still not up to expectations, then the second meeting should again explore causes and see if there are more short-term actions that make sense. If there are, implement them as well. However, if the manager does not think the employee can meet the expectations for the position, he should get Human Resources involved and look at the alternatives available at that time.

Be Diligent in Managing Marginal Performers (3.3.3T.P4)

One problem that many project managers never get comfortable with is dealing with poor performers. This is especially true if they are not meeting expectations, but perhaps not to the level where they should be fired. However, you still have the challenge to try to manage your team and complete your project successfully. You should look at a number of possible causes of poor performance.

Does the person have the right skills and experience? Sometimes people do not deliver up to expectations because they do not have the right skills to do the job. For instance, you assign a person to complete the analysis for a new set of reports, but he is not sure how to ask the right questions or frame a discussion with the clients. If anyone falls into this category, you need to decide whether he could do the work with the right training or whether he should be replaced.
Do they understand your expectations? If people have the right skills, ask whether they really understand what the expectations are. For instance, sometimes when a team member misses a deadline, he might come back and say that he did not think the work was due at that time. If there is some confusion on the expectations, you can have the person confirm back to you in writing his understanding of the expectations for deliverables and dates.
Are there extenuating circumstances? Another area to consider is whether there are any business or personal factors that could explain a person’s performance. For instance, a member of your team may not be very motivated to work if his spouse is very ill. There may not be a way to resolve these situations, but you are looking for reasons why certain people might not be performing up to expectations. If you can find a cause, it will give you some ability to respond, or at least acknowledge it.

If people have the right skills and the right expectations, then the project manager’s options become more limited, and you start to enter the realm of the performance management. It is possible that some team members are not going to do be able to perform up to expectations. They may not be willing to do the job, or they may not be able to do the work regardless of the training and support you provide. If you feel you are at this point, you need to get the appropriate functional manager involved, and usually the Human Resources Department as well. They will give guidance about what types of remedies are available and acceptable within your company.

Even though you have a people issue, you can also utilize process experience to help mitigate the problems you are encountering. For instance, if people are missing significant delivery dates, then you will probably be at risk of the schedule slipping. If dates have to slip because team members are over allocated on other work, you have an issue. If people are delivering late because they are doing more work than was assigned, you may have a scope change process that needs to be working better. If people are not delivering to the right level of quality, you may need to utilize quality management to set guidelines for what deliverables should look like and what the right level of quality is.

It is difficult and frustrating to work with and rely upon people who do not come through. After you look at the problems and try to determine the cause, you may just decide if there are things that you can do as a project manager or if there is a performance problem that needs to be brought to the attention of the functional manager.

Exhibit Leadership on Challenging Projects (3.3.3T.P5)

Project managers need to be leaders. Leadership can be easy when things are going well; everyone will follow you then. However, when times are tough, leadership can be hard, but it is also more vital than ever. Here are some things to keep in mind to lead your team through the difficulty.

Keep your eyes on the big picture. When things get tough, everybody's temptation is to become acutely focused on the problems. A leader stays focused on the vision of completing the project objectives.
Keep positive. When circumstances get tough, even the most loyal team members can be tempted to start shooting and, unfortunately, they sometimes shoot each other. They begin to question each other and find many faults with one another. A leader must keep positive and act rationally and objectively.
Be the first to sacrifice. When there is pain to share, leaders should do just that - lead. If the team needs to work overtime, the project manager should work overtime as well. If the project team needs to come in on a weekend day, the project manager needs to be in as well.
Remain calm. Panic is a common human emotion and no one is immune to it. A leader, however, thinks the problems through and remains calm. Being calm will enable the leader to make the right decisions for the entire team. Panic only leads to disaster, while calm leads to victory.
Motivate. In tough and challenging times, people are naturally down. They tend to be pessimistic. They can't see how it is all going to work out. The project manager should focus on motivating the team and show how the end result will be good.
Create small wins. One of the ways to motivate is to create small wins. When things are bad, the team starts to wonder how they can win. The project manager should look for ways to win – even small, interim victories. With each small win, the leader will build esteem and a positive attitude.
Keep a sense of humor. Hardly anything in life can't be laughed at. As the project manager you need to look for opportunities to instill fun, and laugh at yourself and the situations that present themselves.

A weak project manager is usually unable to get the team out of a large hole because he does not have the ability to lead the way out. When project managers show leadership, the team will follow – maybe not immediately, but eventually. The project manager is in the right position to lead the charge and get the entire project back on sound footing again.

Attack a Team Morale Problem on Many Fronts (3.3.3T.P6)

Morale problems don’t happen overnight, and they cannot be resolved overnight. Typically, the complete causes and remedies are out of your control. However, as the project manager, there are some things that are within your control. Regardless of how much you can do, if the group sees you trying to help, they will feel better as well.

You need some feedback from the group to determine the cause of the morale problems. Once you understand the cause, there are usually multiple ways to help. Here are some examples.

Be a good listener. You will find that the simple act of listening will help people’s morale. Being sympathetic and empathetic are key responses from the project manager. It shows that you at least recognize the problems and are concerned.
Say “thank you”. This is similar to being a good listener. If team members feel that the project manager recognizes their contributions, it will go a long way toward helping them feel better about their situation.
Assign more challenging work. This is a tough one because, in most cases, your work is your work and you cannot change the basic nature of that work. However, there are some things you can do to introduce new challenges. For instance, you can rotate people into new roles. If two people have done the same job for a long time, switch them. This gives each person an opportunity to learn new skills and new areas of expertise, while also giving you more backup coverage. You can also give people more responsibility. This might include letting new people manage the budget for the team, putting people in charge of subteams and assigning new people to manage the work of contractors.
Provide opportunities to learn new technologies. You can try to rotate people into new technologies, switch responsibilities to allow people to learn new skills, and increase the training opportunities.
Make sure people know what is expected of them. You should make sure people are clear on what their job responsibilities are, what their current work activities are, and how their contributions help the entire project to be successful.
Offer more flexibility. Allowing people more control over their jobs and lives can help morale. Examples of work flexibility include:
- Offer flextime options to allow people to work early or late. This could also include four ten-hour days or allowing people to work early or late based on their personal preference.
- Try to offer some form of telecommuting. Look at one to two days per week to start, perhaps just with selected trial people.
Get the right equipment. Make sure people have the right hardware and software they need to do their jobs. It is especially frustrating for people to work on slow equipment, especially when hardware is so cheap.
Look for opportunities to have fun. Look for an opportunity for social events, pizza parties, birthday cakes, etc.
Solicit opinions and ideas from employees. The project manager should encourage team members to become involved and offer their insights on assignments. If team members feel like their opinions and ideas are valuable, they will feel better about their situation.

There are many reasons for bad morale. Based on the reasons, there are also many ways to try to improve morale. The key is to recognize that the team will not perform as well if morale is bad. So, project managers should keep their eyes open for morale problems and look for ways to keep morale up. Regardless of the limitations of your role, there are always some things such as listening and saying “thanks” that are within your control. There may be many other responses in your control as well.

Work Diligently to Turn Around a Dysfunctional Project Team (3.3.3T.P7)

Many teams have some personality conflicts among team members. However, on some teams the personal animosity is so great that the team has a hard time functioning together. The project manager that is originally a part of the team is probably part of the problem, so he usually has a limited ability to identify and resolve the problem. However, when this problem is recognized by the sponsor or the functional manager, the project manager is often replaced (this is usually an easier option than trying to replace the entire project team).

If you are a project manager that takes over a dysfunctional project team, there are a number of areas that require your attention.

The first thing you want to do is assess the current state of the project. Your response to the project team problems will depend on where you are at with the schedule. For instance, if you have 30 days of work remaining, you will have less ability to make an impact on the team dynamics. In this case, the best course of action may be to try to motivate the team for the final push and watch the schedule closely. On the other hand, if your project has many months to go, then you need to see what can be done to repair the damage on the team as well as re-plan the schedule to deliver on a new realistic timeframe. Any plan is going to include the following items:

Communicate well. If the project manager is a poor communicator, it can result in a miserable project experience for everyone. Teams with poor morale tend to have poor communication channels. Don’t let rumors and uncertainty fester. Make sure you share as much information as you can about the project status and anything else that may impact the project team.
Praise and compliment. When people on your team do a good job, make sure they know it. People don’t expect money or gifts when they do a good job – just a pat on the back and a ‘well done’ by their manager. Give it to them – both informally and formally.
Set clear expectations. People need to understand what is expected of them so that they know the challenges they need to meet. Make sure you give clear instructions when you hand out work so that people understand what they are expected to do.
Don’t over commit your team. As you try to improve morale, you also need to be careful not to over-commit the team. Determine the work remaining to finish the project and remove anything that is extraneous or can be done after implementation.
Manage scope. Make sure you manage scope tightly and try to defer all changes until after the original project is completed.
Win some small battles. Poor morale can cause your team to miss deadlines, which causes more pressure and degrades morale even further. The opposite is true as well. If the team can start hitting some interim deadlines (and you communicate this fact and praise them), the team morale should improve, which may make it easier to hit your next deadline.

These are some ideas for turning the project around. Make sure you understand where you are in the schedule so you know how much time you have to make significant changes. Also, make sure you try to identify as many team problems as you can, as well as the root causes if possible. Then, put together an action plan based on how much work and time is remaining on the project. If there is not a lot of time remaining, focus on the schedule. If a lot of time is remaining, focus on repairing the project team, as well as completing the schedule.

Manage Political Problems as Issues (3.3.3T.P8)

The larger your project gets, the more you will find that the issues you encounter are more and more political in nature. In other words, the issues have to do with the use of resources, project direction, project deliverables, how the project should be run, how the project impacts people, etc. The resolution of these issues requires you to gain consensus among people that have differences of opinion. In other words, the resolution requires you to recognize and work in office politics.

Generally speaking, politics is all about interacting with people and influencing them to get things done. This can be a good thing, a bad thing, or a neutral thing, depending on the tactics people use. The behavior of people can make office politics good or bad. Let’s consider some examples of how utilizing political skills might be good, but can also be bad.

You are able to move your ideas forward in the organization and get people to act on them (good) ... by currying favor, suppressing other opposing ideas and taking credit for the ideas of your staff (bad).
you have an ability to reach consensus on complex matters with a number of different stakeholders (good) ... by working behind the scenes with people in power, making deals and destroying people who don’t get on board (bad).
You receive funding for projects that are important to you and to your organization (good) … by misrepresenting the costs and benefits, and by going around the existing funding processes (bad).
You develop a reputation as someone who can get things done (good) … by using legitimate and illegitimate tactics and by walking over people that get in your way (bad).

The point of the examples is to show that influencing people and getting things done in a company bureaucracy is a good thing and the general term of “office politics” can have good connotations or bad. However, the typical use of the term is used to describe the shady methods that are used to get things done in the company bureaucracy.

It is not uncommon for a project team to be impacted by office politics. This can occur when there is a difference of opinion on the project deliverables, requirements, scope change requests, risk perceptions, etc. Are these differences of opinion caused by office politics, or just a legitimate and valid difference of opinion between people who both think that they are representing the best interest of the company?

Dealing with office politics is not a standard project management process. However, once the politics start to impact the project adversely, the situation should be identified as an issue, since the resolution is outside the control of the project team. You can’t utilize a checklist to resolve political issues. Political problems are people-related and situational. What works for one person in one situation may not work for another person in the same situation because people, and their reactions, are different. Identifying the problem as an issue will bring visibility to the situation and hopefully get the proper people involved in the resolution.

Generally, project managers need to become good at identifying and trying to resolve political issues. There are three areas to work on.

Try to recognize situations and events where politics are most likely to be involved. This could include decision points, competition for budget and resources, and setting project direction and priorities.
In general, deal with people openly and honestly. When you provide an opinion or recommendation, express the pros and cons to provide a balanced view to other parties. Make sure you distinguish the facts from your opinions so the other parties know the difference. You should always try to communicate proactively with all stakeholders.
If you feel uncomfortable with what you are asked to do, get your sponsor or your functional manager involved. They tend to have more political savvy and positional authority, and they should be able to provide advice and cover for you.

If you feel good about what you are doing, how you are influencing and how you are getting things done, then you are probably handling office politics the right way. If you feel guilty about how you are treating people and if you have second thoughts about the methods you are using to get things done, you are probably practicing the dark side of office politics.

Openly Address Issues that You Cause (3.3.3T.P9)

No one is perfect. A project manager typically does the best job he can given the information that is available at the time. However, there are times when issues arise because of a mistake that the project manager makes. This could be a mistake in communication, a mistake in estimation, a mistake in understanding the project deliverables, etc. It would have to be a fairly large mistake to be classified as a formal issue, but large mistakes happen all the time.

Issues management is normally a cold and logical process involving problem identification and resolution techniques. However, these specific types of issues can be especially difficult to resolve since the project manager may feel some defensiveness (and perhaps embarrassment) for having caused the problem to begin with. Sometimes that fact that the problem was caused by the project manager makes it difficult to address the problem openly and in a timely manner. If this happens to you, use the following steps to deal with it effectively.

Own the problem. You must first recognize the problem and own-up to the fact that you caused it. If you cause the problem but try to blame it on others, you will probably find that resolving the problem is much more painful for you. If you caused the problem, or if you were partially at fault, be mature and honest enough to own it.
Communicate openly. You may be surprised how liberating it can be to just come right out and say that you blew it! If you own and communicate that you made a mistake, others will no longer feel the need to play the “blame game” – you have already admitted it! Your team can move quickly into resolving the problem instead.
Resolve the problem coolly and calmly. you have the personally-painful part out of the way. Now look for alternatives and resolve the problem using your normal issues management techniques. Don’t get caught up in the personal pain by acting defensive or by looking for ways that you can save face. Given the mistake made, look for the best resolution for your project.
Learn from the mistake. Generally each mistake you make can be turned into a learning experience. You can put better processes in place if that is appropriate. You can also take a personal key-learning and change your management processes (maybe even slightly) so that this type of problem does not occur again.

It is common for managers to state that the only positive to come out of a bad experience is that they learn not to do it again. It would be great if there were better places to learn than the “school of hard knocks.” However, as stated earlier, none of us are perfect either. When you make a major mistake, own up to it and communicate quickly. Then figure out how to overcome the problem and make personal adjustments so that the problem never occurs again.

If you will handle problems like this you will generally find that people give you the benefit of the doubt, and in fact many will even admire you for the way you address these personal challenges.

Provide Leadership to Implement Critical Change Requests (3.3.3T.P10)

Change is not inherently bad or good. However, the team can react to changes in positive and negative ways, depending on the state of the project. A typical reaction from most project teams is to just go ahead and make the changes. However, there is another reaction that can be more problematic: the team may not want to make any more changes. This situation usually occurs on projects that have had problems and could be for a variety of reasons.

This may be a long project, perhaps requiring overtime, and people just want the project to end.
The proposed changes will require a lot of work, and the deadline date is being held firm. Again, overtime may be required from the team.
Members of the project team and the client have not had a smooth relationship on the project. There may be project team members that do not want to help the client further.
The changes require major upstream rework to the design, which will require changes to construction and re-testing of the entire solution.

All of these situations (and more) result in a scenario where the project team is not motivated to support scope changes. This puts the project manager in a tough position where he has to get the rest of the team on board for one last charge.

Frankly, it’s a tough sell. The team is tired and they are not motivated. In fact, morale may be poor. However, this is the time for the project manager to show leadership. Since the cause of the team problems is probably complex, the solution should be multi-faceted as well. Here are some things for the project manager to consider.

Explain the facts first. Do not start with a rah-rah speech right away. First meet with the team and explain the background and circumstances. Then talk through the changes that are needed and why they are important from a business perspective.
Acknowledge the pain. The project manager must acknowledge the problems. Let the team members know that you understand that they may not want to make the changes and that their morale is poor. Don’t dwell on it – but acknowledge it.
Be motivational. Now is the time to motivate the team. Appeal to their sense of working together as a team to get through this adversity. Let them know the value they are providing to the company.
Talk to everyone one-on-one. In addition to the team meeting, talk to the entire team one-on-one to understand where they are at mentally. Listen to their concerns and get their personal commitment to work hard and keep going.
Get management and the sponsor involved. Now is also a good time to ask your manager and your sponsor to talk to the team, thank them for their work so far and ask for their continued help getting through the changes.
Look for perks. Little perks can help a team get through motivational and morale trouble. These can be as simple as donuts in the morning and pizza for those that have to work late overtime.
Make sure the clients are in there with you. Normally if the project team is working extra, the clients are sharing the pain as well. However, the project manager should make sure they are.
Communicate proactively. Keep everyone informed as to the state of the project and the time and effort remaining. If the project manager starts getting closed and secretive with information, it causes many more problems to morale.
Celebrate successes. The project manager does not need to wait until the project is over to declare success. Look for milestones, or mini-milestones, as opportunities to celebrate a victory and give praise to team members.

A project manager needs to have more management and leadership skills than simply telling people to “do their jobs.” This is a tough situation and requires good people management skills to get through successfully. Success is never guaranteed, but utilizing some of these tips can help you get through a tough situation.

Be Open to Enabling Self-Managed Teams (3.3.3T.P11)

Teamwork is used to complete most of the work in an organization. When people work on a team, they can become more motivated and enthusiastic, develop new ideas to improve group performance, and assume greater responsibility in putting these plans into action.

A self-managed project team is a specific type of team that maintains a high degree of collaboration and manages itself, with the objective of becoming a very high-performing team. On self-managed project teams, trust grows among the team members as work progresses, and they become motivated to accept more difficult challenges. The focus in these types of groups is on performance, as well as on teamwork. Their success requires strong personal and company commitment, skills development, and support from team members and management.

All self-managed teams need training to prepare them to work in this new paradigm. A very common mistake is to throw people into a self-managed environment without adequate preparation. This results in chaos, frustration and paralysis. The best time to offer training is when the team is initially being formed, and then on an ongoing basis when the team encounters situations it cannot handle.

Of course, the team cannot be trained in every possible contingency. One of the objectives of a self-managed team is that they be flexible enough to resolve unforeseen problems when they occur. No amount of training and planning can bring perfect results. Unforeseen problems will certainly arise, and the team must be prepared to invest adequate resources and energy to work through all impediments.

Overcome Team Resistance to Project Management (3.3.3T.P12)

It's one thing to build a Project Charter and the schedule. It's another thing to effectively manage the project. If you could issue the plan and the work assignments and have everyone complete his activities on time, your life would be much easier. However, the process of managing the team and the schedule becomes complicated because of the people element involved. People are unpredictable. To understand how the project is proceeding and to ensure that it stays on track, controls are needed. You may need to go around and ask people how they are doing. You need people to tell you in Status Reports and status meeting how they are doing. You need to keep updated statistics on work completed, in-progress and not started.

Unfortunately, team members do not always respond well to these management and control processes for a number of reasons.

They may think the processes are cumbersome and keep them from completing their deliverables.
They may feel they will be punished for bringing bad news or doing things incorrectly.
They may not feel the project management processes are effective.
They may have a normal human tendency against processes that feel like controls.
Team members may have tried to follow the processes, but found they were not complete or they were not supported by other people.
They may feel that the project manager is not following the procedures, so why should they.
They may see people going around the processes without consequences.

Knowing and recognizing these normal human tendencies will help counter the resistance you may encounter on your project. The project manager also needs to communicate the processes effectively, including their overall value to the project. Once discussed with the team, it is important to apply the project management processes consistently so that they can be adopted successfully on the project.

Address Performance Problems with an Early First Meeting (3.3.3T.P13)

When dealing with a difficult employee, first look at performance. If the employee is part of a project, the first question is whether the behavior is impacting the project in terms of its deliverables or its deadlines.

The next question from a project perspective is whether the behavior may cause problems in the future. If so, then you could consider this a project risk. In fact, at this point, risk is the biggest concern. There are a number of risks, including:

A risk that the behavior will, in fact, lead to missed deadline dates in the future.
A risk that the behavior will alienate the rest of the team and that overall cohesion and morale will suffer. This may cause the team’s performance to suffer as a result.
A risk that the lack of knowledge sharing will have a serious impact on the project if the employee leaves.

If the manager perceives the employee may become a significant risk, he should address this situation proactively. The place to start with personnel problems is usually to take the most direct route - a face-to-face discussion. In this discussion, the manager can discuss his or her perceptions of the employee’s behavior and why it will (or may) cause problems on the project. The manager understands the risks to the project and should communicate these risks to the employee.

One of the benefits of the first meeting is that the manager can share the concerns, and the employee will have a chance to tell his or her side of the story. You never know how these first discussions will progress. Sometimes they are difficult and don’t accomplish what you hope. However, sometimes the person you are talking to will agree with you and tell you the reason for his or her behavior. As a manager, if you know the causes, you might have some ability to help fix them.

The employee may have a problem in his or her personal life (which may or may not be shared). There might be personality problems between the employee and other members of the team. Sometimes people hoard information if they think their job is in jeopardy. Regardless, if you can get some sense as to the cause of a problem, you have a chance of determining a remedy.

In fact, there may be a number of remedies that the manager and employee can work on together. This includes trying to build up the employee’s communication and people interaction skills, providing continued people-coaching, or changing the employee’s job in a way that will allow him or her to excel. The exact solution will depend on the give and take that comes out of this meeting.

The meeting should end with some concrete commitments for addressing the problem. The manager needs to feel comfortable that the employee will again start to engage with the rest of the team. The manager must also receive some real commitments for cross-training so that the employee can teach his or her skills and techniques to other people on the team. If they cannot agree on these points, then the meeting will not have been successful and a further escalation may be necessary. If the employee agrees to a short-term plan of action, but then doesn’t follow through, then an escalation may be in order once again.

Manage Contractors Effectively, But Differently Than Your Employee Staff (3.3.3T.P14)

The use of contractors is a fact of life for many organizations. Many companies today have made a conscious decision to hire only a core staff of employees. When there is more work than the core group can handle, the company does not increase the employee count. Instead they hire contract resources to fill in the gaps. When the additional work is gone, the contractors go away.

There is not always a clear distinction between the terms “contractor” and “consultant.” For this lesson, a consultant is someone used for a specific skill set and in most cases he is responsible for completing one or more specific deliverables. A contractor, on the other hand, is used as a supplemental resource to help absorb additional workload, and he goes away when the workload is completed. However, even if you have enough employees to staff your workload, you might still utilize consultants to work in areas where you do not have the right skill level. For instance, you might contract a marketing company to help with a web advertising campaign. Or, if your company purchases a specific third-party computer package, you may need consultant help to install the software.

On the other hand, a contractor would typically come in on a time-and-material basis to work on whatever needed to be done at the time. You might have a specific area he needs to work in, and so you would hire a contractor with a specific skill set. However, once he was contracted, the contractor would do whatever you required, for as long as you needed them. In other words (and no disrespect intended), you typically hire consultants for “brainpower” and you hire contractors for “horsepower.” Again, this is how we will use the terms for this lesson. Other companies have different ways to look at the two roles.

Let’s look more closely at contractors. Managers sometimes are put in a sticky situation when a contractor, hired to work on a project, starts to perform poorly. Normally, a manager would deal with poor employee performance through a process of trying to determine the cause of the performance problem, further monitoring, getting very specific on deliverables and due dates, documenting the performance problems, etc.

However, contractors are not technically an employee of the company, so this level of performance monitoring is not appropriate. In fact, it can be dangerous. There used to be an informal barrier that separated employees and contractors, but in many instances managers treated contractors the same as employees. Contractors were invited to employee meetings, they went to employee training, they attended employee parties and lunches and they were generally treated the same as employees. The staff knew that the people were contractors, but in most ways they were treated just like another employee.

Now companies need to be more diligent in keeping a wall between employees and contractors. The problem arose because contractors started to sue their former clients for employee benefits. The contractors argued, successfully, that they were, in fact, actually employees of the company where they worked on contract. For proof, they showed that they worked the same hours as the employees, worked in the same space as the employees, attended the same meetings as employees, and in all aspects of their jobs were treated as employees.

This is where a manager’s situation becomes trickier. Ten years ago, my advice might have been to just take the direct route and sit down with a contractor to see what was going on. However, as you can see by the last discussion, this approach could cause problems today. Dealing with performance is one aspect of a manager-subordinate relationship. If not careful, this type of discussion might be used against the company to show that the contractor should really be classified as an employee.

On the other hand, you cannot erect a solid wall between a manager and a contractor either. A manager needs to communicate with all team members, and this communication by itself cannot be viewed as being part of a manager-subordinate relationship. Likewise, a manager needs to assign work, receive status information and hold people accountable for deadlines. These are not all aspects of a simple manager-subordinate relationship either.

So, where do you draw the line? Generally speaking, most companies have a policy to make sure that employees treat contractors fairly and with respect but avoid getting into any situations that would logically be considered a part of a functional manager-subordinate relationship.

For example, one of the responsibilities of a project manager is to assign work and gather feedback on status. This is a relationship between a project manager and a team member. It is not a sign that there is a functional manager-subordinate relationship. On the other hand, if you provide a performance review for a contractor, that would seem to be a situation between a functional manager and an employee subordinate.

Now suppose you have hired a contractor, and he is no longer meeting expectations. In this situation, you must be clear that you are assigning work and gathering feedback on the status of that work. If the work is not completed on time, you have every right to question the contractor as to the cause. There could be a myriad of reasons. The work could have simply been overestimated. Perhaps the contractor was pulled into other work. Therefore, sitting down with the contractor first to determine if there is a simple cause should not be a problem.

What happens after this meeting will help determine whether you will need to get the contracting company involved. If the contractor’s performance gets back to acceptable, the situation will have worked itself out. On the other hand, if the situation is not resolved, you have a performance problem to address. Because the problem involves a contractor, you cannot deal with the performance problems strictly on your own.

The more appropriate course of action will be to call the contracting company and get them involved. You can explain to the appropriate person at the contract company that the contractor is starting to have performance problems. Describe the situation and your observations. You can then request that the contracting company get involved. The contractor’s manager at the contracting company can then talk to him or her in a more formal manager-subordinate relationship. The contractor’s manager can then get back to you with the results of the meeting.

This process may seem cumbersome, but it is the nature of contractor relationships. To do much more may invite further scrutiny down the road if there is a question about whether the contractor is in fact a contractor or an employee.

In summary, a manager should feel free to communicate and interact with the contractor (and any of his or her contract staff) in any way that is appropriate for workload management. However, the manager has much less flexibility when it comes to any situation that is more appropriate for a formal manager-subordinate relationship. In these types of situations, you need to get the contracting company involved so that it can take on the formal functional management relationship that is appropriate.

Understand Your Technical Staff and Manage Them Accordingly (3.3.3T.P15)

One important thing to remember first is that it is impossible to categorize everyone within a profession. You can make some general assumptions about IT people, but this does not mean that the assumptions apply to everyone. As a manager, you must ultimately have multiple techniques that you can apply to different people in different circumstances. One technique will not work for all people at all times.

That being said, let’s make some generalizations about managing technical staff.

They tend to be introverts. Generally speaking, the definition of an introvert is one who is primarily more comfortable with an inward focus in life while an extrovert is generally more comfortable with an outward focus. For example, when introverts receive a lot of new information, they tend to want to think for a while before speaking or drawing conclusions. Extroverts, on the other hand, are more comfortable expressing ideas to others. If they jump to the wrong conclusions, they just change their minds. Basically extroverts are comfortable thinking out loud. Introverts would rather think through the “rough drafts” in their minds and then talk when they think they have a coherent and logical position.
They tend to think more logically than emotionally. This tendency should be obvious. Technical staffers typically are not motivated by a lot of “rah-rah” speeches. In fact, they tend to be cynical of this type of motivation. They will usually listen politely (perhaps even snickering to themselves), but the effects are short-term. On the other hand, they can be persuaded and motivated by a logical argument. If the logical argument can be combined with some motivational techniques, you might have a chance to actually get them excited.
They tend to be problem solvers. This is a great strength of technical staff as well as one of their weaknesses. Most technical people love nothing better than to be confronted with a problem. They get excited and they immediately start to apply their problem-solving skills. The weakness comes in because there is a tendency to jump on a problem without fully understanding it first. This often can lead to being less than optimal in the use of resources. In many cases, the technical person will attack a problem immediately, and then have to regroup when they realize they didn’t really have a full understanding of the problem to begin with.
They tend to be technically creative. This may seem like a contradiction. Your first thought might be that the sales and marketing staffs are the creative people. In fact they are – in the sales and marketing areas. They will also be the first to tell you so – because they are extroverts. However, the technical discipline requires a fair degree of creativity as well. This is especially true in the IT world. In many cases, there is not one best solution to a business problem. In the development (programming) field, for instance, analysts need creativity when they are defining a solution with the business clients. Designers need to be creative applying technology in the best manner. Programmers need to be creative as well in trying to apply the best techniques to build the most elegant solution.

Understanding these general characteristics is the place to start if you are a manager of technical staff. Once you begin to understand how people work and how they are motivated, you can start to think of the best way to manage them. Not all of these ideas will be applicable to your staff, and even if they were, you might not be able to move on all fronts at the same time.

First, managers should make sure they created an environment conducive to performing well. For an IT staff, this includes making sure they have the tools to do their job, and removing any organizational roadblocks. For example, the staff should have good equipment. It does not necessarily need to be state of the art, but it should be of acceptable quality. Because they are in the IT field, IT people get frustrated when they don’t have the right hardware to do their jobs effectively. Creating the right environment also means removing organizational roadblocks and shielding the team from organizational politics. IT people will tend to get cynical fast if they feel like politics is starting to become involved in their work or in decisions that affect them.

Managers should also make sure their people have the skills needed to do their jobs and that they receive opportunities to grow into new technical areas. IT people love to learn new things. Many people like to learn about new technology just for the sake of knowing it. Other people feel like they must get hands-on experience in new technology. Managers should look for options to keep the staff learning. This does not have to be third-party training classes. It can include computer-based training, seminars, webinars, books, magazines, etc.

In most instances, people don’t have the option of getting hands-on experience in new technology – simply because their company does not have it, or because the person is valuable where he is. One potential option in many teams is to rotate assignments. People working in the support/maintenance area can get a chance to rotate responsibilities, allowing them to learn new things. Project team members may be able to cross-train in different areas to allow them to learn new skills as well.

Managers should strive to be proactive communicators. Remember, many IT people are introverts who like to process information internally. They may or may not come up to you and ask you what is going on all of the time. Nevertheless, technical people spend a lot of time in internal reflection, so make sure they have enough information to keep their mental models in tune. Managers should make sure that they communicate as much as they can about what is going on in the company, their organization and their group. At a lower level, managers need to make sure that people understand what they are doing and why. The staff needs to know how the work they are doing provides value to the company. If you have staff working on projects, you need to make sure that the project managers are communicating the project status, what they are doing and why, and how each person is contributing to the final solution.

Managers also need to make sure that the team continues to think of itself as a cohesive group. Since IT people tend to be introverts you might think they prefer to work alone. In some cases that is actually true, but usually that is not the case. IT staff may prefer to work independently, but they also like being a part of the team. Managers should nurture this need as well. For instance, they should have regular team meetings. If the team is not used to these meetings, they may first view them as a waste of time. But soon the team will enjoy them for the chance to get back together with the rest of the group. Managers should also make sure they have opportunities to do fun stuff as a group – even if it is just going to lunch together once in a while.

You might note that many of these management techniques are not unique to technical staff in general or IT staff in particular. It is true that many of the techniques can be used in other areas as well. However, they are particularly applicable to the IT staff. Now that you have gone through many ideas, here is a summary of some of the general points you should consider as you manage your staff.

Try to establish an environment where people feel they have what they need to do their jobs. This includes having appropriate hardware, software, policies, procedures, etc.
Technical people like to understand the work processes in the group, and then they like to be creative in working within that structure. So, set the high-level rules, but don’t micromanage the details.
Give people as much information as they need to do their jobs. Technical staff tends to reflect on this information. Ask for their ideas and opinions, but give them time and ample opportunities. Don’t expect them to react immediately.
Shield the team from office politics and all of the distractions that can abound in a large company. Tell people what they need to know (see prior point), but don’t get them bogged down in the organization muck.
Give people continuous opportunities to learn. This includes encouraging people to invest the time to learn, but also helping with some opportunities. There are many creative ways to learn new things. Once a person has mastered a certain skill or aspect of his job and he starts to become bored, look for ways he can cross-train and learn new areas of the group.
Be there when needed and respond to problems and concerns. Not all problems can be fixed, but many times the simple act of listening and trying is enough. People will give you credit for trying, even if the ultimate resolution to a problem is not available.

Be Sensitive to Differences When Managing a Diverse Staff (3.3.3T.P16)

you have all heard the saying “it takes all kinds of people to (fill in the blank).” Yes, in fact it does take all kinds of people to make a team, a department, a company or even a country. Think about how boring life would be if we were all the same. Some people aren’t so crazy about themselves to begin with. Just imagine if everyone was the same as them.

The best teams are usually made up of a diverse group of people that come together to make something work. Different people have different strengths and weaknesses and the puzzle is completed when the strengths of some people interlock with the weaknesses of others.

When you talk about diversity, however, you are usually talking about broader concepts than just having a diverse set of skills. You are usually referring to having a group of men and women with diverse cultures, ethnicity and racial backgrounds. These diverse groups of people need to come together for the purpose of working together on some set of common objectives.

There are a number of reasons why diversity is important to companies. First, a diverse workforce usually (but not always) implies that your company is not consciously or unconsciously discriminating against people. The thought here is that a company or organization that is made up of mostly men may be discriminating against women. Likewise, an organization made up entirely of Caucasians may be discriminating against Blacks. This discrimination may not be obvious. It may simply be a matter of managers tending to hire people that are more like them. However, this can result in many qualified applicants being passed over.

The other thing that diversity does is open up a broader range of ideas and points of view. For instance, men and women may have different ways of thinking about problems. When complex problems arise, wouldn’t it be better to have four ideas to consider from a group of men and women, rather than only two solutions from a group of men that all think similarly? In some organizations, diversity is vital to being able to achieve success.

For instance, the marketing organization can better appeal to a broad spectrum of clients if the marketing team is made up of a broad spectrum of people. In other words, a team of five white males is going to have a hard time marketing effectively to Latinos, African-Americans and women. Hiring five more white males might help a little, but is not going to solve the basic problem. It seems obvious that a diverse marketing team made up of men, women, Latinos, etc. would have a greater chance of success.

So the question now is how best to manage a diverse workforce. As a manager, the first point to remember is the simple fact that all people are different. It is important to recognize the differences and to blend the individuals into a cohesive team. Managers should consider managing diversity from a number of angles.

Don’t tolerate prejudice or harassment. This is the vital starting point and if a manager cannot handle this requirement, he needs to be replaced. Before you get into some of the finer points of managing a diverse work force, a manager needs to be absolutely sure that the environment is safe and that the playing field is level. Harassment and hostile activities cannot be tolerated.
Be aware of the differences. The thought here is that each person is different because of who they are, but they are also different because of the culture where they grew up. For example, a woman might be quiet because she has an introverted personality. She may also be quiet because she is from a culture where women do not find it as easy to push their opinions in front of men. The manager of the group should be aware of this and make it a point to seek out everyone’s opinion.
Be supportive of the differences when possible. This is a key aspect of managing a diverse workforce. The manager is responsible for figuring out how to make it all work out. If a manager looks for reasons why things won’t work, the diversity of the team will be seen as an impediment, not a strength.
Help everyone grow. Look for reasons to give everyone responsibilities and opportunities. Again, don’t look for reasons to limit people. Focus on their strengths instead.

While diversity can neatly work out to the benefit of all, it is true that in some limited cases, a cultural need may actually have an adverse and significant impact on an individual’s ability to do a certain job. However, if you manage with diversity in mind, you will find these situations are few and far between. If a manager tries, he will find he can make the differences work in most instances. These situations will work out to the benefit of the individual and the benefit of the team.

Escalate a Performance Problem with a Formal Plan (3.3.3T.P17)

One of the hardest jobs of a manager is to take an employee down a path that may ultimately result in termination. It is hard enough for most managers to provide performance feedback to begin with – even when the employee performance is good. When the employee performance is not where it needs to be, it is even harder.

The first thing you need to do when you see a performance problem is sit down with the employee, discuss the performance observations, try to determine a cause and put a short-term action plan in place so that the employee has a chance to turn the situation around.

Unfortunately, sometimes the initial performance feedback and short-term plan do not have the desired effect. If this occurs, the manager needs to take additional actions. In some companies and in some positions, the next step might be a demotion or termination. This might also be the case at smaller companies where the management team needs to make personnel decisions quickly, and where the company is not under as many obligations from a Human Resources standpoint.

In larger companies, however, managers normally don’t have the authority to fire employees on their own. The Human Resources Department normally has processes in place to make sure that people are treated fairly and within allowable legal guidelines. If a manager tried to resolve a situation on his or her own but was unsuccessful, it is time to bring a formal Human Resources process into play.

A manager that highlights a performance problem and tries to deal with it deserves credit. Many managers shy away from confronting these situations head-on – to the detriment of the entire organization. However, for the good of the person and the good of the organization, a performance problem should not be allowed to linger.

Managers sometimes hesitate to take personnel-related actions because of their concern for how the rest of the team will react. If the employee is a popular one, there is a tendency to believe that the team will react negatively. In fact, that might be the case if the manager acts arbitrarily. However, if the manager gives an employee plenty of time to improve his or her performance but the problem does not go away, termination may still be necessary. In this situation, the manager should be able to explain to the rest of the team how every effort was made in the employee’s favor. The rest of the team should understand first-hand that the employee’s performance was weak. Also, they should understand that replacing that employee is in the best interest of the team, the entire organization and perhaps in the employee’s best interest as well.

A team knows its weak links. In many situations, the rest of the team ends up working harder to compensate for the person with the weak performance. In the best cases, the team does so willingly (and perhaps subconsciously), but their actions mean that they cannot be effective. In the worst case, teammates start to turn against the poor performer, causing resentment, animosity and friction among team members.

Usually poor performers are uneasy in the situation as well. Sometimes a perceived performance problem hits them totally by surprise. However, in most cases, they already understand the situation. Poor performers should see that they are missing deadlines or that "completed" work requires a lot of rework. Once they get on a short-term improvement plan, they become keenly aware of whether or not their performance is meeting expectations. If they still cannot meet expectations, it will become increasingly obvious to them. This situation will cause them more anxiety, which can drive performance down even lower. The situation should be resolved as soon as possible for the sake of the employee as well as the organization.

Remember that putting a formal performance plan in place is not the same as termination. The performance plan is really a way to save the person from possible termination. A good performance plan puts everything into black and white, and it should precisely set expectations. Specifically, include the following items in your performance plan:

The basics: Employee name, manager name, date, organization, etc.
Length of the performance plan. Specifically state the end date. Don’t just say three months. Instead, say the 30^th of June, 200X.
Expectations. Set the specific expectations of the manager, along with interim due dates as appropriate. For instance, if the employee has a series of deliverables due over the next two months, place them into this performance plan, along with the due dates.
Employee reporting requirements. Ask the employee to complete interim performance reports, in writing, every week or every other week. This must be completed and submitted to the manager on time.
Manager reporting requirements. The performance plan spells out the commitment of the manager as well. One thing that the manager needs to do is provide ongoing written feedback to the employee on how he is progressing against the performance plan.
Approvals. Signatures of the employee, manager and Human Resource manager. This confirms that the performance plan was read and understood.

Once the performance plan is signed, it is activated. The employee should strive to meet the expectations of the performance plan. The manager must provide ongoing feedback on the employee’s performance and whether the employee is meeting expectations. This entire process is set up to manage expectations. If the employee is not meeting expectations, the manager must continue to say so in the ongoing written feedback. This ensures there are no surprises.

There are a number of ways performance situations can turn out.

The employee completes the plan successfully. This indicates that his performance is now meeting expectations. It does not mean he is excelling. It only means that he has met the requirements of the performance plan. If he can continue to perform at this level, he will probably be okay. If his performance slips again, more drastic measures may be needed, including having to take termination action without the benefit of another performance plan.
The employee quits. In many cases, when an employee finds himself on a performance plan, he takes the hint to start looking for another job. As a manager, you should be prepared for this situation. In fact, this may be the best solution for everyone. The employee ends up with an opportunity where he may have a better chance to succeed. The company gets to immediately look for a new person rather than continue with the performance plan that may or may not be successful.
The employee fails the plan. A performance plan is a serious attempt to turn around unacceptable performance. A performance plan is also the last attempt to turn around unacceptable performance. When you put a formal performance plan in place, there needs to be a stated timeframe for the plan and it must be clear what comes after the unsuccessful completion of a plan – termination. However, the company must feel good about how the situation was handled. The employee was given the benefits of a short-term informal plan. The employee was also given a chance to complete a formal performance plan. As part of the plan, the manager was providing ongoing feedback so that there were no surprises that the employee was still not meeting expectations. Therefore, termination would be the obvious and expected result. In fact, it could be said that the employee fired himself, since he was in direct control of the process leading to his termination.

The point at which you create a formal performance plan is a significant one. The performance plan must clearly contain the criteria for success and failure. Once in place, the manager is just executing a process and the process must be followed exactly according to the performance plan. Any deviations from the employee could result in his failing the plan at that point. Any deviations from the manager might result in having to revalidate the plan.

Managing Virtual Teams (3.3.3T.P18)

Most everyone works in a team environment. It has always been understood that the most effective teams are those located together. In fact, many managers decide to co-locate their team after reorganization, even though the constant churn of people moving from place to place is seen by others as unproductive.

Against this backdrop is a global phenomenon that is driving team staffing in the other direction. The Internet, faster and more reliable communication, and collaborative tools are allowing people to come together on teams that are no longer co-located. In fact, the whole concept of “globalization” is pushing work all over the globe, with independent people and teams working anywhere and everywhere.

These groups are sometimes referred to as “virtual” teams. They are real teams and they fit a classic definition of teams in terms of working together to achieve a common set of objectives. However, they are referred to as “virtual” mostly because they do not communicate and interact in a traditional face-to-face manner.

There are some special techniques that can be used to manage these virtual teams.

Establish team objectives. The team members need to know and understand what it is that they are doing together. If people only understand their own role and their own work, they will always just be individual contributors.
Remind everyone they are a team. If the team members think they are all working independently, they will act independent. If they know they are part of a team working on common objectives and deliverables, they will tend to feel better about their work and be more active in their collaboration with other team members.
Establish ground rules. Even though the team members may be remote, they still need to exhibit a common and acceptable set of behaviors. In fact, it is probably more important for virtual teams. These ground rules include setting the hours when the team members are expected to be working, establishing lunch times, determining which meetings are mandatory (in-person, web or phone), setting expectations for communication turnaround times, etc.
Obtain the right technology. There have probably always been virtual teams. However, this trend has accelerated in the past few years. The technology is there to support virtual teams - there is really no reason to be without it. This includes fast access to the Internet, audio conferencing, videocams, collaborative software, shared directories, etc.
Look for opportunities to “socialize.” Team members located together have opportunities to socialize throughout the day. Virtual teams don’t usually have this same opportunity to interact with each other, so it is more important for the project manager to look for ways they can bond. This might include getting everyone together one time in a face-to-face setting – perhaps a Project Kickoff meeting.
Be sensitive to cultural difference. It is possible that your virtual team all thinks and acts the same way. However, more and more virtual teams consist of people from multiple countries and multiple cultures. If you are the project manager on this type of team, make sure you have some appreciation for the differences in how people work and how they behave.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. The project manager needs to be extra proactive in his communication to make sure everyone understands what is expected. People can start to feel isolated if they do not receive regular communication. It is hard enough to keep everyone informed on a “regular” project. The communication lines on a virtual team must be opened up especially wide. The project manager can provide this steady stream of communication.
Adjust and compromise on time differences. The project manager needs to recognize that what is convenient for the project manager is not always convenient to the team members. For instance, if you are a manager in a global company it may not be practical to start all project meetings at 9:00 am. That may be convenient to the manager but it can result in resentment from people in other global locations that need to stay very late for these meetings.
Be extra diligent in workload management. The project manager needs to be very precise in assigning work to the virtual team and he needs to ensure that work is completed on time.
Give people shorter assignments. This is not the time to give people long assignments and hope that they are completed by the deadline. Instead of assigning a six-week activity, for instance, the project manager should assign the work in three two-week activities. In the former case, he would not know for sure if the work was done for six weeks. In the latter case, he can tell every two weeks if the work is on track.