How do you balance the need for direction and autonomy in your project team?
Balancing the need for direction and autonomy in your project team is a key skill for project managers. It can affect the motivation, performance, and satisfaction of your team members, as well as the quality and timeliness of your project deliverables. But how do you find the right balance between giving clear guidance and empowering your team to make decisions and solve problems? In this article, we will explore some factors and strategies that can help you achieve this balance and lead your project team effectively.
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Oseghale Okohue BEngr. Msc. MBA. DBA. Prince2®PractitionerEngineering Project Manager | EPICM, Oil & Gas, Subsea Engineering, Renewable Energy (Solar, Wind, Hydrogen, Electrical…
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Rusty Lincoln, MBASenior Business Consultant | Spreadsheets are my happy place.
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Julia MorenoGerente de Projetos | Gestão de Projetos de TI | Excelência Operacional | Gestão Estratégica | Inovação em Processos |…
One of the first steps to balance direction and autonomy is to assess the maturity of your project team. This means evaluating their skills, knowledge, experience, and confidence in relation to the project tasks and goals. A common model for this is the situational leadership theory, which suggests four levels of team maturity: low, moderate, high, and very high. Depending on the level of maturity, your team may need more or less direction and autonomy from you as the project manager. For example, a low-maturity team may need more direction and supervision, while a very high-maturity team may need more autonomy and support.
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Farchid Honarmand
Head of Project Management at Concentrix, a global technology and services leader.
Pour évaluer la maturité des membres d'une équipe projet, vous pouvez utiliser le modèle de maturité de Tuckman, qui se divise en quatre étapes : la formation, la tempête, la normalisation et la performance. Observez comment les membres interagissent, résolvent les conflits, prennent des décisions et collaborent tout au long du projet. Évaluez également leur capacité à travailler de manière autonome, à s'adapter aux changements et à atteindre les objectifs fixés. Utilisez des évaluations régulières, des feedbacks et des discussions ouvertes pour comprendre leur progression et leur niveau de maturité individuelle et collective.
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1. Clearly set goals, allowing flexibility for varied approaches. 2. Define roles and responsibilities precisely to ensure accountability. 3. Foster open communication, welcoming diverse perspectives. 4. Establish clear boundaries and decision-making authority. 5. Offer ample support, monitor progress closely, and celebrate achievements together.
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Assessing your team's maturity start from understanding their skills, knowledge, and confidence levels. From my experience, we need to tailor our approach accordingly. For instance, a low-maturity team might benefit from more guidance and supervision, whereas a high-maturity team may thrive with greater autonomy and support. The idea is to striking the right balance to empower your team while ensuring things get done.
Based on your team's maturity, you can adapt your leadership style to provide the appropriate level of direction and autonomy. There are different ways to categorize leadership styles, but one useful framework is the Hersey-Blanchard model, which identifies four styles: telling, selling, participating, and delegating. Each style corresponds to a different combination of task-oriented and relationship-oriented behaviors. For example, telling is a high-task, low-relationship style that involves giving clear instructions and expectations, while delegating is a low-task, low-relationship style that involves giving minimal guidance and allowing the team to make decisions. You can use these styles flexibly and adjust them according to the situation and the needs of your team.
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Balancing direction and autonomy in a project team is all about adapting your leadership style to empower team members while providing clear goals. Start by setting a vision and objectives, then allow your team the freedom to approach tasks in their own way. This means trusting their expertise and judgment. Regular check-ins help maintain alignment without micromanaging. Foster a culture of open communication where feedback is both given and received constructively. Encourage innovation and creative problem-solving, but be ready to step in with guidance when needed. Ultimately, the goal is to inspire confidence and ownership, while keeping the team focused and on track.
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Farchid Honarmand
Head of Project Management at Concentrix, a global technology and services leader.
(edited)En partant de la phase de formation du modèle de Tuckman, fournissez des instructions claires et un leadership directif. Pendant la tempête, encouragez la collaboration et la résolution de conflits tout en offrant un soutien et des orientations. Dans la phase de normalisation, adoptez un style de leadership participatif en encourageant l'autonomie et la prise de décision partagée. Enfin, lors de la phase de performance, adoptez un leadership délégatif en permettant à l'équipe de travailler de manière autonome tout en fournissant un soutien en cas de besoin. Adaptant ainsi votre style de leadership en fonction de la maturité de l'équipe, vous maximiserez son efficacité et sa performance.
Another factor that can help you balance direction and autonomy is effective communication. Communication is essential for any project team, but especially for those that work remotely or across different locations and time zones. You need to communicate clearly and consistently with your team, using the appropriate channels and tools. You also need to listen actively and empathetically to your team, encouraging feedback and input. Communication can help you establish trust, alignment, and collaboration among your team members, as well as avoid misunderstandings, conflicts, and delays.
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Using effective communication is crucial for balancing the need for direction and autonomy within project teams. While clear directions and instructions provide the necessary guidance and focus, granting autonomy fosters creativity, innovation, and ownership among team members. Project managers can strike this balance by communicating project goals, deadlines, and expectations clearly, while also encouraging autonomy through open communication, delegated tasks, and feedback channels. By using effective communication techniques, project managers can drive their teams towards success while empowering individuals to contribute their talents and ideas to the project.
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Effective communication is the most important skill for a team leader. It's the base for building trust and team spirit. In my career I have specialised in working with multicultural and international teams. Over the years I have learned that different stakeholders need different approaches and different communication styles. Identifying the appropriate style early on is a big advantage.
A good way to balance direction and autonomy is to set SMART goals and milestones for your project. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. SMART goals and milestones can help you define the scope, quality, and schedule of your project, as well as the roles and responsibilities of your team. They can also help you monitor and evaluate the progress and performance of your project and your team. By setting SMART goals and milestones, you can provide clear direction and expectations to your team, while also giving them autonomy and flexibility to achieve them.
One of the benefits of giving autonomy to your project team is that it can empower them to make decisions and solve problems. This can increase their motivation, creativity, and ownership of their work, as well as their ability to adapt to changes and challenges. However, to empower your team effectively, you need to provide some guidance and support. You can do this by defining the decision-making authority and process for your project, as well as the boundaries and criteria for making decisions. You can also provide coaching and mentoring to your team, as well as resources and tools to help them solve problems.
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Para empoderar al equipo en la toma de decisiones, es importante tener reuniones de inicio y cierre de semana, dónde el team manager guía al equipo en todo lo que se debe realizar y les da las herramientas necesarias para que el equipo pueda resolver de manera autónoma. Además, cuando el manager efectúa refuerzo positivo y constructivo una vez las tareas están hechas, el equipo se siente más estable y más seguro.
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Unleash problem-solving power! Empower your team (ditch micromanagement!) & watch them become decision-making ninjas! Freedom & authority = boosted motivation, creativity & ownership. Plus, adaptability to conquer challenges! But wait...equip them! Define decision process & boundaries. Offer coaching & resources. Empower = ignite potential & project awesomeness!
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As project managers, providing guidance to our teams while encouraging them to find solutions is crucial for building a high-performing team. Instead of dictating solutions, we need to guide the team by asking the right questions and experimenting. By empowering our team members to find solutions themselves, we not only promote a sense of ownership and accountability but also foster their problem-solving skills and creativity. This approach builds a culture of trust and collaboration, where team members feel valued for their contributions and are more engaged in their work. Providing this level of guidance requires us to have a deep understanding of the project's goals, the team's capabilities, and the context of the problem at hand.
Finally, a great way to balance direction and autonomy is to recognize and reward your team's achievements. Recognition and reward can boost your team's morale, engagement, and loyalty, as well as reinforce the desired behaviors and outcomes. You can recognize and reward your team in different ways, such as giving feedback, praise, appreciation, incentives, or opportunities for growth and development. You can also celebrate your team's successes, both big and small, and share them with other stakeholders. By recognizing and rewarding your team, you can show them that you value their contributions and trust their abilities.
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It has become a constant in my career: Always take time to celebrate every achievement. While it is important -when closing a project for example- to reflect on what could be improved in the future, it is as important to recognise and reward the successes of every member and of the team as a whole. Everyone should be valued for their contributions at work. Positivity is everything!
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