In this post I’ll talk about one of the most prevalent leadership styles I see in project management – the hero project manager. 
 

• Why are we so drawn to this style of management? 
• How can it be a trap that leads to poor performance and burnout? 
• What would a more effective and empowering leadership style look like? 

Essentially, the hero project manager is someone who flies in and saves the day, moving the project forward based on their personal involvement and telling others what to do.
 
Imagine you are responsible for a project. It’s not progressing as expected and the previous manager had to leave due to personal circumstances. Now it’s your responsibility to find a new lead, and you have just the right person in mind. It’s a great project manager who knows what he is doing. He understands the subject matter and has delivered similar projects before.
 
A few weeks later the new manager gets started and works really hard to get the project under control. Soon after, the team knows exactly what needs to get done, and by when. The new PM isn’t afraid of rolling up his sleeves and getting work done. On the contrary – he is involved in detailed decision-making, and whenever an issue crops up, he jumps in to help. There is regular and transparent reporting on progress to senior management and they are delighted with his approach. The client is no longer in despair, but hopeful once again that the project will be delivered on time. 
 
This is the hero project manager in action. Someone who flies in and clears up the mess. It’s a directive and hands-on management style which is popular in many organisations. It’s not difficult to spot why it’s so appealing. In the short term this pacesetting approach does have some merits. The project is picking up pace, there is a higher level of control and inefficiencies are being ironed out. 
 
But what happens after a while? What happens when senior management keeps pushing for aggressive deadlines? What happens when the PM keeps the pressure up for long enough? Essentially, the team becomes exhausted and demotivated due to the high pace and micro management. The more control the manager applies, the more dis-empowered the team will become. 
 
Why is this a problem? Because in an increasingly complex world we need empowered, motivated and skilled teams that can innovate. We need teams that can change course, come up with solutions to complex problems and make quick, informed decisions. The world is far from linear and we can no longer rely on the manager to sort it all out. There is simply too much complexity for that to be a viable option. We need everyone’s hearts and minds to be fully engaged.
 
Pacesetting isn’t wrong. It can be used effectively in the short term to raise the standard of an underperforming team. But over time it leads to exhaustion and poor performance. The team becomes burnt out and disillusioned because their efforts and ideas aren’t being appreciated. 
 
The project manager believes they are doing the right thing and that their push-approach is the only way. They are not aware that by swapping their directive approach for one that’s more inclusive and collaborative they can create a much higher performing team. They are not aware that when they stop solving all the problems, they automatically give more power to the team and encourage people to take more ownership. 
 
Note, that I’m not talking about a laissez-faire approach where the manager blindly trusts the team without ever challenging them. That’s not effective. What we need is engaged and challenging leaders who can align their teams around a common goal and coach them to find their own answers.
 
There are many ways that can help someone transform from manager to leader. Training, coaching, feedback, self-reflection and the willingness to experiment with new behaviours are all part of the journey. On our leadership programmes we train people in tools and behaviours that can help – including asking more open questions, using silence, deepening their communication, truly connecting with others, delegating, and making use of a team charter, to name just a few. 
 
For more resources, check out:
 
Book:
The Power of Project Leadership
 
Blog Posts:
What Makes a High Performing Team
How to Become a Better Coach
How to Deepen Your Communication
How to Prevent Chronic Stress and Burnout
Innovative Leaders Ask Powerful What-If Questions
The Yin & Yang of Project Leadership
 

Consider the most successful team you have been part of or that you know of, and what the characteristics were of that team. How many members did it have? How did the team members communicate with one another? How did they make decisions, and what was the feeling you had when you interacted with the team? 
 
Many of us know instinctively what it feels like to be part of a great team. We feel accepted and trusted and communication seems easy. And when conflict arises it doesn't cause a breakdown. The team is able to openly discuss differences in opinion and agree a way forward.

But even if we deep down know what a great team looks and feels like, the steps we need to take to create such a team aren’t always obvious.
​

Performance depends on the team’s communication patterns
Several studies have been carried out with the aim of identifying the factors that contribute to a team’s performance. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Google for instance have gone to great lengths to study teams and analysed if it made a difference to performance that team members socialised outside of work, had flexible working hours or that they had a high level of cognitive intelligence. But their studies didn’t show any correlation between the factors they studied and team performance. What they did show however was that high performance is closely correlated to a team’s communication patterns and whether all team members actively contribute to making decisions and moving the project forward. 
 
On the topic of communication patterns, the researchers found that high performing teams seemed to spend a lot of time communicating face-to-face or via videoconference. Emailing, texting and speaking on large conference calls were found to be a lot less effective and led to poorer performance. In the same vein, videoconference proved to loose its effectiveness the more people attended the call. What this shows is that for high performance to take place, it’s the quality of the communication exchange that matters, and that quality tends to be higher when people interact face-to-face. On remote teams, of course, it isn’t practical to meet face-to-face, but at least we can encourage people to connect individually and to activate their webcam.
 
Everyone speaks roughly the same amount
The researchers also found that in high performing teams the communication exchanges were distributed evenly among the team members. In other words, everybody on the team was actively communicating with each other and at the end of the day everyone had spoken roughly the same amount. Team members didn’t just communicate through the team leader and there weren’t pockets of people who weren’t involved. What this means is that if you are leading a team where only four of the team’s seven members are interacting frequently with each other and are actively contributing to making decisions and influencing the project’s direction, then it’s important that you spend time engaging the last three people. 
 
Regarding the size of the team, it’s been found that high performing teams tend to consist of less than ten team members – presumably, because it’s a lot easier to communicate effectively and engage a small team than a large one. Don't let your team's size be an excuse however to creating a productive team. If you lead a large team, split it into sub-teams and focus on creating high engagement within each of these smaller units. 

The interesting thing about Google’s research, isn’t just the conclusions that communication and contribution are the most important factors for high performing teams, but also how such an environment can be created. This is where the role of the team leader or project leader becomes vital. 
 
The studies show that equal communication and contribution happens when the project leader is able to create an environment where team members feel safe enough to contribute. In teams where a few members are allowed to dominate discussions or where the team leader is too controlling or judging, many members simply don’t come forward with their views and ideas out of fear of being dismissed. 
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​Project Leaders need to have a high level of social sensitivity
For you as a project leader this means that you need to take on the role of a facilitator and that you must moderate the team’s discussions in such a way that the members feel that it’s ok and safe to come forward and share what’s on their mind - be it concerns or new ideas. You can do that by explicitly asking the more reserved team members what their views are and by recognizing their contributions during meetings. At the end of a meeting for instance, you can let each person summarise their reflections and take away's to make sure that everyone has contributed.

Team leaders need to have a high level of social sensitivity and emotional intelligence to do this, as moderating a conversation and making people feel safe is all about reading people, listening, empathising and knowing how to make people feel that they belong in the group.  
 
First, examine what you feel your own role is within the team. Do you feel that it’s your job to come up with great ideas and to show the way - like the perfect superhero? Or do you feel that your primary role is to encourage the team members to contribute and to bring forth ideas? Those leaders who perceive themselves as strong, decisive and fast moving don’t always realise that they cut off the team in the process because they are not sufficiently inclusive. What we have just seen from the research is that high performance happens when all team members play along. This requires the team leader to sometimes slow down and take the council of all members of the team instead of rushing to fix a problem or implement a decision, which only a few contributed to. 
 
Show your vulnerability and create psychological safety
As time is of essence on most projects it can be tempting to jump in like a superhero, force a decision and to ignore the quieter team members. But Google’s research shows that you must be sensitive to everyone within the group and encourage people to be sensitive to each other.

What you want to avoid is a group of bright individualists where people are only thinking about themselves. Instead, help people to be mindful of each other and to share personal stories and emotions. Begin by setting a good example yourself. Become an advocate for trust and respect by sharing something personal that has some weight and that shows your vulnerability. This could be a time in the past when you made a wrong decision, failed at implementing a project or made a faux pas with the client. Or you could share something entirely personal about a health issue or a family conflict. What you will find is that you begin to create what psychologists refer to as psychological safety – a sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up or for sharing something sensitive.
 
When psychological safety is present, people feel free enough to share what’s on their mind – whether it’s a bright new idea or a tough personal challenge. They are able to talk about what is messy and have difficult conversations with colleagues who have different opinions. And this is when high performance can occur. Because when people feel psychologically safe, they bring their entire personality to work where they contribute with all that they have without fear that they will be judged or criticized.

​So dear project managers and leaders, be mindful of how you come across to the team and the extent to which you like to be the superhero. Reduce your levels of control and judgment, and replace it with humility, empathy and sensitivity.

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Diversity and inclusion and increase team performance

I recently listened to an interview on PM Podcast with Agata Czopek – a speaker at PMI’s global conference on the topic of inclusive leadership. I listened with great interest as many of her observations are reflected in my own book, The Power of project Leadership. And although Agata uses terms that are a bit different to my own, the underlying messages are the same: To build an effective and innovative team you have to bring people together with different kinds of thinking, fully include them in discussions and decision-making and make them feel psychologically safe.  

​Diversity leads to higher performance
In the podcast interview Agata explains that the future lies in diversity and inclusion. As project managers we want our team members to be innovative, to solve problems and to identify risks before they turn into issues. This is much more likely to happen if there is diversity of thinking inside the team. People with different backgrounds, culture and gender, see the world from different angles and solve problems in different ways. In teams where there is diversity of thinking, levels of innovation can be up to 20% higher and 30% more risks can be spotted.
 
These statistics are backed up by McKinsey research which shows that companies in the top-quartile for gender diversity on executive teams are 21% more likely to outperform on profitability and 27% more likely to have superior value creation. But it’s not just gender that’s making a difference. Companies in the top-quartile for ethnic/cultural diversity on executive teams were 33% more likely to have industry-leading profitability. McKinsey’s research also shows that there is a penalty for opting out. Companies in the bottom quartile for both gender and ethnic/ cultural diversity were 29% less likely to achieve above-average profitability than were all other companies in the data set. Not only were they not leading, they were lagging.
 
Although the business case is strong for inclusion and for hiring people who are wired differently, this is not always common practice. The issue is that we tend to surround ourselves with people who think like we do. And that’s a really bad idea if you want your team to excel in the long team. The financial crisis was partly caused by organizations run by similar types of people with a large appetite for risk and monetary results. A much more balanced team would be one were all personality types are represented. You do need someone who is results-oriented in your team, but you also need people who are fun, inspiring and creative, people who value harmony and sustainability and someone who looks after the detail and ensures that work is completed to a high standard.
 
Diversity of thinking is not enough. You also need inclusion.
Diversity of thinking doesn’t automatically create a team that’s good at innovating, solving problems or spotting risks. Diversity without inclusion won’t work. You also have to include people and treat them with fairness and respect. As I have written about previously people have six fundamental human needs that need to be fulfilled. These fundamental needs are related to feeling safe and certain, feeling valued and significant, feeling that we belong in the team, feeling that we have opportunities to grow and develop and that the work we do have meaning and purpose.
 
As a project manager and leader you have to cater for these human needs if you want people to contribute and come forward with their knowledge and ideas. Some of it is pretty simple such as spending time together, going for lunch, collaboratively solving problems, inviting everyone to team meetings and making information readily available. If people feel excluded there’s little chance they are going to contribute. Other aspects require more thought and emotional intelligence, such as making people feel safe and certain. If team members don’t feel safe to contribute with their ideas and openly ask a question or share a concern, they will hold back and withdraw from the debate.
 
To increase your team’s performance, make a conscious effort to include all team members, be interested and curious about their background and what they have to say. No one enjoys working for a diminishing leader who likes to hear himself talk and who believes that he is the smartest person in the room. Instead walk your talk and show that diversity and inclusion can have a real impact on project performance. As an inclusive leader you have to empower the team, foster collaboration and seek to overcome your biases and blind spots. An important aspect is making sure that your way of thinking doesn’t have an adverse effect on decision-making. How can you do that? By asking your team for feedback. Opening yourself up to other people’s views on your leadership style is one of the most powerful things you can do on your road to becoming and inclusive leader. 


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What makes a high performing project team?

If you’re leading a project or a team you will know first hand that some people are easily motivated and committed to the work they do, whilst others are much harder to get through to. They ask lots of critical questions and resist any kind of control. If you are to overcome this kind of challenge and influence even the rebels on your team, you may have to change your approach. 

​It turns out that there is a relatively simple way to analyse and categorise people, which helps us understand how we respond differently to assignments, rules, habits and expectations. According to Gretchen Rubin, the best selling author of the Happiness Project, people fall into one of four categories when it comes to motivating themselves to getting work done.  The four different categories that she talks about are Obligers, Questioners, Upholders and Rebels. According to her experience, the majority of people are obligers and questioners.
 
Understanding the category that each of your team members fall into will help you to better motivate and influence them to contribute constructively to your project. At a personal level it’s also useful to know which type you are, as it will help you to follow through with your commitments to yourself and others.
 
The way that Rubin categorises us is by looking at how likely we are to respond to a rule. In her terminology a rule can either be external or internal. An example of an external rule would be a deadline or a request from your manager. An example of an internal rule would be a personal goal you’d like to achieve or a new year’s resolution. No one asked you to do it. It stems from your own internal desire.
 
1. Obliger
An obliger is someone who responds well to external demands and rules set by others. They do however struggle to keep the rules they set themselves and carry through with private goals. In other words, they are motivated by structures, accountability and deadlines imposed by others. They hate letting other people down and are motivated by doing what’s expected of them. In a team they are super reliable because they like to please. On the flipside they are not good at self-starting because no one is checking on them. They can also be prone to burnout and have difficulties saying no.  
 
If you have an obliger on your team you probably don’t need to do much more than create some outer accountability, for instance by giving them clear deadlines. But don’t put too much pressure on them, as it will cause them to overwork and get stressed. If they feel that you are exploiting them they may end up walking away.
 
If through reading this you realise that you are an obliger yourself, you’ll need to create some external accountability to help meet your inner goals.  If you want to exercise more for instance, sign up with a personal trainer or work out with a friend who can serve as an accountability buddy. For other types of goals you can also work with a coach who will help you stay accountable to yourself.
 
2. Questioner
The questioner is someone who queries everything. They will only follow a rule or a request if it makes sense to them. They are motivated by sound reasons and good arguments – not by random requests or policies. Their favourite question is why something needs to get done and what the purpose is. On the plus side they can be very healthy for an organisation or a project because of their no-nonsense approach. If they agree that something needs to get done, they’ll be highly engaged. If not they won’t deliver what you expect. The drawback is their constant need to question things, which can be exhausting to everyone around.
 
If you work with a questioner always come prepared. Give them as much information as you have and let them know why the work you are asking them to do is important. If they don’t speak up, ask them what questions and concerns they have. It’s best to get their worries out in the open so that you can address them and also explain what happens if the work isn’t done.
 
It could also be that you are a questioner and that you struggle to get the things done that are important to you. If so, do sufficient research and get clarity on why you’re pursuing a certain aim in a certain way. Reassure yourself that the approach you’re leaning towards makes the most sense. If you find that you’re holding yourself back because you’re waiting for perfect information, remember that not all information is required to take the first step. To get the benefit from something you do need to get started.
 
3. Upholder
The upholder is someone who respects inner rules and expectations as well as outer rules. They are motivated by fulfilment and by that nice feeling of getting stuff done and achieving something. On the plus side they are self-starters, reliable and don’t need a lot of supervision or accountability. They typically wake up and thinking “what’s on my to-do list today?” On the negative side they need clear rules to be able to operate and avoid letting anyone down. They don’t like to deviate from rules and get frustrated – paralyzed even – when rules are ambiguous or lacking.  To others they can come across as rigid or cold. At times they can even make others feel bad because of their high levels of productivity
 
If you work with an upholder on your project, always give clear directions. Brief them on what you expect and by when you expect it. Also discuss how often you will check in with each other so that you both have full clarity.
 
If you are personally an upholder (like I am) then it’s probably easy for you to get work done and to achieve the things you want. On the flipside, be aware of how rigid you might appear to others. Be able to let go of your strict rules, and when things change, don’t freak out. Take a deep breath!
 
4. Rebel
The rebel is someone who resists all rules – outer as well as inner. They want to do as they please and are motivated by their present desire. If you ask them to do something, not only will they not do it, they are very likely to want to do the opposite. They resist all control, even self-control. They act from a sense of freedom and don’t give themselves rules. They begin their day by asking “What do I want to do today?” Rebels aren’t constrained by rules and love to not have any. On a positive note it means that they will sometimes be fine to do what others won’t do as they may not be bound by social etiquette or worry about how others see them. On the negative side they can be frustrating to work with because of their nonconforming manner.
 
If you work with a rebel the best thing you can do is probably to challenge them. They do like a good challenge as long as it comes with buckets of freedom. Like with a rebellious child, say that you bet they can’t do it, e.g. produce a winning slogan. They’ll likely think “I’ll show you!” Be playful and give them freedom to rise to the challenge. You can also get through to them by demonstrating what happens if they don’t show up and take part in an activity. But don't nudge them. Let them arrive at the conclusion themselves.
 
If you are a rebel yourself, you might find your own resistance and lack of self-control difficult. Set yourself clear challenges and try out the rocking chair exercise. Imagine you are eighty years old and sitting on the porch in your rocking chair, looking into a peaceful garden. In that state imagine that you spent your entire life rebelling and didn’t achieve the things you really wanted. Take time to feel how awful that would feel. So challenge yourself to make your dreams come true!
 
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​Project kick offs are often talked about as a single event – or meeting – where the project manager introduces the team to the project, walks them through the project background and ensures that everyone is on the same page regarding expectations, deliverables and responsibilities. But that’s a very limited way of thinking about kick-offs.

Unless the project is very small, the kick off could consist of a series of one-2-one meetings and group workshops, which address the “harder” as well as the “softer” aspects of the project. The harder aspects – what we’re supposed to deliver and by when – are what most project managers focus on. Not many put emphasis on team building and on giving the team members an opportunity to define how they would like to work together.
 
Defining the project vs. defining the team
When we define the project we look at the purpose of the project, its background and what it’s ultimately trying to achieve. We examine who the sponsors and clients are and what success looks like to them. We also seek to understand what the high level requirements and constraints are in terms of quality expectations, timeframes, budget and desired solutions. These aspects are normally captured in the project charter or the definition document and should involve the team as much as possible.
 
We all know that defining the project is an essential starting point for running a successful project. It's simply not possible to plan, manage and deliver something, which we don’t know enough about. We also know that the project definition should be created with the team members for maximum buy-in as opposed to just presenting it to them. But there is more to it. We need to bring in the softer aspects too. Individuals are complex beings who have different ways of approaching situations and different ways of dealing with problems. It takes time for team members to get to know each other and to build up the kind of trust that’s needed for them to gel and deliver a great project. When project members don't invest time in each other, there is a risk that they will  act like individuals in a group more than a cohesive team. That can lead to dysfunction, missed deadlines, misunderstandings and poor quality.
 
To create the best possible kick off and the best conditions for the team to deliver, the project manager needs to assist the team in finding its feet and agreeing how its members will work together. That’s a process which will take time, and which needs to be initiated right at the beginning when the team is formed. The project manager can kick-start the process in a few different ways:
 
Icebreakers – Icebreakers are great for making team members loosen up and get to know each other better. E.g. tell us something surprising about yourself. What would you say is a hidden talent of yours? What would make you go to work even if you didn’t get a salary for it?
 
Share a story – Ask each team member to share a story of a good or bad team experience they have had, and why that was. On that basis you can get a conversation going about the kind of team experience they would like to have on this project and what it would take.
 
Ground rules – Bring a stack of post-it notes and ask each team member to write down anything that’s important to them - one item per post-it note. One person might write that it’s important for team members to show respect and listen to each other when a comment, concern or question is raised. Another person might write that team members should socialize outside of work at least once every month. All of these items (or post-its) are potential ground rules that the team agrees to work to. Ground rules should not be set by the project manager but collectively by the team.
 
Team charter – During a project, tough decisions will need to be made and difficult situations overcome. For that to happen the team must build the habit of speaking openly to each other and expressing their concerns, hopes and fears. A great way to practice that is to ask it to produce a team charter.  The charter clarifies the make-up and direction of the team and establishes boundaries. It is developed with contributions from all team members and should answer the following questions:

• What is our purpose? Why does the team exist?
• Which decisions and activities are inside the scope of our team?
• What are the measurable outcomes that we will be held accountable to?
• How will we treat each other? Which ground rules are important to us?
• How will we make decisions, resolve conflict and communicate?
• Which strengths and skills do we have?
• What are our weaknesses?
• What is each team member’s role? How will they contribute?
• How will we celebrate our successes?
• How can we summarize our ethos and purpose in a sentence or phrase?

You can download a team charter template, from my Resources page.
 
Personality profiling – If you’re working with team members who are relatively open minded and mature, you can make use of personality profiling tools to increase self-awareness and knowledge about the team’s strengths and weaknesses. There are several tools on the market, including StrengthsFinder, DISC and Insights. It’s best to get a qualified coach to help you run these tools and explain the outcomes. The awareness generated by these tools has the potential to take the team to a completely new level. But the results can also be a real eye opener to people, so it’s important that an experienced coach is available to help them clarify any doubts or uncertainties.
 
Conclusion
Kicking off a project isn’t just a one-off meeting where the team is briefed about objectives, deliverables and timelines that have been set by the PM or Sponsor. Good kick-offs engage the team and draw it into the definition and planning process. Not least should team members be given the time and space to define their values and how they will approach decisions, communicate with each other and resolve conflict. The project manager can kick off this process by use of icebreakers, ground rules, team charters and personality profiling tools.


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I often come across managers who say that they would like to develop their team members’ skills – but that they struggle to find the time to do so. Ideally they would like to have one-to-one sessions with people, teaching them not only business and management skills, but also presentation skills and increasing their confidence in the process. But in spite of the good intentions nothing tends to happen because the approach is too time intensive. 

So why not try a different method, which is less demanding in terms of your time and that may even produce better results? And no, I’m not talking about an outsourced model where you send your team on a training course. I’m talking about small group development.
 
Let’s say you have a team of three who you’d like to train and mentor. You would like to grow their managerial skills and their ability to analyze and confidently present a topic. Here’s what you do. Instead of spending time with each person individually, set out a development plan for the entire group outlining the topics that will be covered, e.g. planning, negotiating, interviewing, etc. along with specific business themes. Depending on how quickly you want to grow the team’s skills, you could choose a weekly topic or one every fortnight. Monthly development meetings might be too infrequent if you want the idea to gain sufficient traction.  
 
After you have decided on a schedule of topics, ask one of the team members to work on the first one. Let’s say the topic is risk management. Ask her to prepare a short 10 minute presentation on the topic with the aid of three to four slides. Ask her to consider an example of a good risk management approach and one example of a bad approach and to explain her reasoning. As she comes to present the topic some weeks later to yourself and the other two team members, not only will she have learnt a great deal about risk management, she will also get the opportunity to practice her communication and presentation skills in a safe environment.
 
Your role during the presentation is to fully listen, to be supportive and to provide constructive feedback along with the other attendees. It’s important that none of you are overly critical, as that can have a negative impact on people's confidence. First tell the presenter what you really liked (content, presentation, style etc.). Then give her one or two suggestions for improvements. Other attendees do the same. We call this for layered or sandwiched feedback. You can then go into a deeper conversation about the topic and share any additional insights.
 
As the weeks pass, ask the team members to take turn presenting a topic and to use different media to do so. Sometimes the meetings may be face to face, and at other times they may be via a recorded webinar that can be played back and looked at. You might even ask the presenter to publish a short 600-word blog post about their topics afterwards (that's the approximate length of this post). I'm sure that will boost your team member's confidence if you provide them with the support they need.
 
Little by little, your team will come to use this development forum as a safe place to learn and explore and a place where they can practice their presentation and influencing skills. Not only that, the forum will also increase camaraderie and trust between you whist requiring relatively little time from your side. You do of course need to provide the team with your undivided attention during the meetings and to be committed to the programme without cancelling or postponing meetings. But the bulk of the effort remains with the team members, as they are the ones researching the topics whilst benefitting from your knowledge and feedback.
 
What do you think? Are you willing to give it a go?

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Working with geographically dispersed teams is becoming more widespread and is no longer a new phenomenon. Technology allows us to work from wherever it makes the most sense, and economic pressures are forcing corporations to make use of teams that are located in cheaper cost centers.  But although there are good arguments for working with remote teams, it isn’t always straightforward to make them work as effectively as co-located teams – not least when they are subjected to different time zones, cultures or languages. 

Face-to-face is the most effective form of communication
Sandy Pentland from the MIT supports the view that it requires more effort to reach high performance when teams are not able to communicate with each other face-to-face. In his study of 2,500 individual team-members, he set out to investigate why some teams consistently deliver a higher performance than others. What he found was that the most important predictor of a team’s success is its communication patterns, over and above their intelligence and talent. According to the study, high performing teams communicate face-to-face, team members face one another, everyone talks and listens in roughly equal measure and their conversations and gestures are energetic. The study further shows that phone or videoconference is the next most valuable form of communication after face-to-face, but less so as more people participate in the call or conference. The least valuable forms of communication are e-mail and texting.
 
Penland’s study is showing us that we need to compensate for the lack of face-to-face interaction in remote teams by ensuring frequent communication between all members via telephone or videoconference. It’s also important that we encourage team members to carry out back channel or side conversations with each other instead of only communicating with the team leader.  
 
Create a presentation about all the team members
The first time I managed a distributed team was in 2004. I was located in London with a few other team members. The client was in New York and the development team in India. As we were working in a fast-paced environment and the team wasn't too big (about 7 people) I found that the best way to catch up and keep the project on track was to have a daily conference call with all team members at 1pm in London, which was 8am in NYC and 6pm in India.  
 
But how do we encourage team members to communicate more with each other outside of the main conference calls if they have never even met in person? One of the things I did with great success was to create a PowerPoint presentation that included a picture and a short description of each team member and what they liked to do in their spare time. On one project the presentation had pictures and descriptions of over 30 people across two locations in Europe, three locations in India and one location in the US. The presentation generated a lot of excitement, not just across the project team, but also for the client. As a result there was a much better sense of connection and camaraderie between everyone and the communication levels improved significantly.
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Show that remote team members matter to you
Let’s hear what other project leaders have to say about remote teams. Paul Chapman is an experienced programme director in financial services. He says: “If you work with a remote team, try to visit them in person. This is not always easy but nothing beats face-to-face interaction. Also identify a local leader that you can rely on to help you with issues and build a strong relationship with them. Occasionally I like to run a meeting with a remote team that is in a significantly different time zone at a time that is convenient for them and inconvenient for me. (Note that I make sure very carefully to only inconvenience myself and not other members of my team.) For example, if working with a team in Singapore, I might occasionally hold a 6am meeting with them rather than asking them to stay back to 7pm. You don’t have to do this very often to send out a powerful message that they matter to you and you acknowledge the sacrifices they make to work in a global team.”
 
What’s different about running project teams remotely?
Peter Taylor, the author of the Lazy Project manager and head of a global PMO also has a view on how remote project teams are different. Peter says: “In a virtual situation a lot of the power issues that otherwise arise during the ‘storming’ phase can be hidden, so as the leader you almost have to force the matter. If at all possible, make the investment in a “hothouse” face-to-face meeting. By this I mean an intensive, almost 24/7 5-day team experience. Make the business case that this is an investment that will pay off. And by 24/7 I mean not just work but social activities as well, dinners with the team members, activities that bring people together and that are fun and visits to local sights and events. At dinners why not let the team organize the evening plans, what food to get and where to go? Let them work together and learn in simple ways. Based in the individual’s personal ambitions and likes you can bond the group by agreeing goals for each team member that the group can follow, maybe train for a sporting event, visit somewhere special, or write an article for a magazine – it doesn’t matter what it is just that the team have some insight in to each other’s lives. If this is financially impossible, then you may just have to accept that the ‘storming’ phase will be longer than usual.
 
Once the team is up and running, what do you do to maintain the virtual team spirit when you can’t just head off to the pub for a beer or two? One technique I have used is to rotate the team calls. Don’t take the lead each time yourself, hand it over to a team member to take some time to share what they have personally been doing in the past week. There is nothing worse than a conference call that is just a one way piece of communication and you wonder if anyone is actually listening. By allowing the team members to regularly lead the call their interest and interaction should increase significantly. Each week on the team calls, you can also get one or two to share hobbies or something unusual that they do outside of work hours. Making new connections with common hobbies help bond a team.”


​Paul Chapman and Peter Taylor are part of 25 project leaders who have contributed to Susanne's book, The Power of Project Leadership. 
 

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Many project managers find that they have to chase people to get work done - something which is time consuming and frustrating. They rely on people from different departments and locations, who don’t report to them, to move the project forward. They don’t have the authority to tell these team members what to do and find it challenging to work with experts who are more senior than themselves. 

Build trust by taking an interest in people
If you find yourself in that situation, my advice would be to look at strengthening your influencing skills and to build trust between you and the people you are managing. When you constantly have to chase someone to get work done it’s a sign that they feel more obliged to attend to someone else’s work or that they find other work more rewarding and interesting. To up your task on the priority list you need to strengthen trust and commitment and ensure that the work you give them is as interesting as possible for them. 

How might you begin to do that? First of all you need to accept that your relationship with your team shouldn’t just be a transactional one. If you want to increase your influencing skills, you have to take a greater interest in the person you are asking to do work for you. Find out what he or she likes the most or the least about their job and see how you can use that to strengthen the bond between you and make the assignments you give them more interesting. Create a conversation and get to know people – even if they don’t report to you directly or if they work remotely. Trust is built and earned over time by listening, sharing, asking questions and by being honest and fair.

Involve people in the planning process
You can also build trust and strengthen commitment to the project’s goals by involving people in the planning process. When people are involved in defining and planning the project they understand why the project is important and what their role is in making it happen. How would you normally kick off a project and go about planning it? Do you tend to do it from behind your desk and by talking to people individually? Why not have a planning meeting where everyone participates – either in person or via video conference? Spend the meeting brainstorming everything that needs to get done on posted notes and create a milestone plan in collaboration. Discuss who owns each milestone and what the target dates are. This approach creates more transparency across the project and strengthens buy-in from all parties. Everyone likes clarity, and as a project manager you are in an ideal position to provide that. 

Give people autonomy to do their work
Another thought I’d like to leave you with is that most people don’t want to be tightly managed or told what to do. They want to feel appreciated and have the autonomy to decide how to do their work. You won’t be able to provide people with ultimate autonomy, but you can avoid micro managing them by focusing on the objectives and outcomes of the work you give them. Agree with people what a good outcome looks like rather than defining how to do it – i.e. how will you be measuring that the task has been properly completed and how will you be measuring progress along the way? When you agree these parameters up front you make people feel part of the process and you strengthen buy-in to the project.

In conclusion, the way to avoid chasing people to get work done is to focus on developing trust through collaboration, inclusion and showing empathy.

 
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The Self-Determination Theory (SDT) developed by psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan further supports this view. The Self-Determination Theory focuses primarily on internal sources of motivation such as a need to gain knowledge or independence, which is known as intrinsic motivation.

According to SDT, people are intrinsically motivated, and become self-determined, when they experience a high degree of competence, connection and autonomy. Competence reflects the need to gain mastery of tasks and learn different skills. Connection (or relatedness) is about feeling a sense of belonging and attachment to other people, and autonomy is about being in control of our own behaviors and goals. When these needs are thwarted, people’s performance and wellbeing suffer as a result.

According to Deci, giving people extrinsic rewards (such as money, prizes, and acclaim) for already intrinsically motivated behavior can undermine performance. The reason is that the behavior starts to become controlled by an external reward, meaning that people begin to feel less ownership and control of their actions. Deci also suggests that offering unexpected positive encouragement and feedback on a person's performance can increase the level of intrinsic motivation. Why? Because feedback helps people to feel more competent, which is one of the key needs for personal growth.


Reflection: How good are you at catering for people’s emotional needs?

Take a moment to consider how good you are at identifying and helping fulfill each of your team member’s personal needs. This is not about bending over backwards and giving in to everyone’s desires, but about understanding people’s deeply rooted emotional drivers and removing the concerns which otherwise will prevent them from fully performing within the team.

In Part I we looked at your role as a motivator and in Part II we discussed what you can do to tune in to each team member and motivate them at a personal level. 

Below, I offer 10 tips which you can implement at a team level to further create a highly motivated team. 

1. Create a high-trust environment
People perform best in high-trust environments where they feel safe, secure and respected by you and other people around them. So prioritize your team members and show them that their welfare is important to you. The worst thing you can do is to ignore your team, mistrust it or criticize its members. 

2. Praise people for a job well done
People respond well to praise, encouragement, recognition and being  thanked. When you let others know that they are appreciated, they will want to give you their best. Be generous with praise for a job well done, and say thank you when someone helps you or does something for the team. 
 
3. Act as a mentor rather than a micromanager
Encourage and empower team members to research problems and make decisions on their own. Mentor them and lead them on the way rather than telling them what to do. Adjust your level of direction depending on how capable each person is to work independently. When you give away some of your power your team will take on more responsibility and will be motivated to grow and learn.

4. Encourage a culture of communication and contribution
Every person has ideas and opinions they want to share. Set up forums and initiate activities to give your team members a chance to share their knowledge and contribute to the project. Welcome feedback at all levels and show appreciation of good ideas by taking action and implementing them.

5. Hold regular team meetings
Hold regular team meetings where you share the outcome of board meetings and major decisions that affect the project’s direction, goals and vision. Remember, that every interaction with the team is an opportunity to listen and to strengthen your working relationship. It is also a great opportunity to motivate and inspire people, so make sure you speak with passion and confidence. 

6. Pick your battles, and forgive small mistakes
We all make mistakes, whether we see it or not. No one is perfect. Depending on the nature of a mistake made by a team member, consider letting it go with just a small comment or no comment at all. If someone has ever let you off after you made a small error, you know how motivating it can be to have another opportunity to justify that person’s faith in you. 

7. Hold people accountable for serious mistakes 
Be brave and confident enough to hold a team member accountable for bigger mistakes or behavior that is detrimental to the project. Provide feedback to the team member as soon as practical and base it on facts. Be as specific about the problem as you can and give concrete examples of why you are concerned. The more specific you are, the more likely it is that the team member will receive your feedback as it is intended. 

8. Establish clear performance standards and expectations
Make sure that every team member has clear and attainable goals and that everyone knows exactly what needs to be accomplished. Make the goals SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely), and strive to align them with the team members’ personal aspirations. A goal will only be truly motivating and engaging if it is linked to the individual’s aims and purposes. 

9. Provide good tools and facilities
Do your best to make sure that team members have an optimal working environment and that the tools and information they need are available. Put yourself in their shoes. Which tools, facilities and information would you need if you were doing what they do? Ask the team for feedback. What is working and what is not? What would help them work more effectively?

10. Give team members training and education
Projectsoften require people to work in domains they do not know much about. Organize training and knowledge-sharing programs for your team. Ask the end users or business owners to talk about their jobs and the business. These presentations will increase the team’s knowledge, improve motivation and contribute to successful delivery of the project.

Reflection: On a scale from 1-10, how would you score yourself on each of the ten motivational tips above? What can you do to improve the way you motivate your  team?

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