How2 Motivate A Team

How do you motivate the team?
Someone recently asked me for information about information for motivating team members. So, here is a post with some links.

But, first my thoughts:

• Be a leader: be a pacesetter and show them by example
• Relate to the people you work with
• Let people know you care about them
• Build trust
• Make your goals clear
• Let people know that their work matters
  

Here are the links:

• Here is a TED talk by Daniel Pink (author of "Driven") on Motivation http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html
• Here is a set of links from the Harvard Business Review on Motivation http://www.businessweek.com/managing/team/motivation/
• Wikipedia "Theory X and Y of management" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_theory_Y
• McKinsey "Motivating people: Getting beyond money " http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Motivating_people_Getting_beyond_money_2460
• Wikipedia "Maslow's hierarchy of needs" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy
• John Maxwell's blog on leadership has many thoughts on motivation. He has several books related to this subject, i.e. "Everyone Communicates, Few Connect: What the Most Effective People Do Differently" http://johnmaxwellonleadership.com/

My contact info: My Blog: http://henrywill4.com
My external PM Group: PMlessonsLearned.com
twitter: @henrywill and @pmlessons

How to Decide When to Delegate

As Project Managers and operational managers, we often wonder when it is best to delegate work.

Sometimes there are benefits and drawbacks that lie below the surface when making decisions to delegate.

The main points to consider are:
1. The trade off of training, managing, and validating the other persons work Vs. doing it yourself
2. The Trust factors: Your trust of the person and their perception of how you trust them
3. Cross-training: Is there value in someone else knowing how to do this?
4. Management visibility: How visible is the result of this activity to upper management (or the client)

Perhaps answering these questions may help you to know when to delegate:

• Will it take you longer to explain it to the person and train them so they can do it than for you to just do the work?
• Do you have a trust issue? Do you feel that the worker is not trustworthy? Maybe there is a larger issue requiring discussion?
• Do you have an issue with trusting someone else to do this work?
• Is this person the type that needs lots of interaction? Will they require you to be involved heavily?
• Would this task take lots of time for you (or someone) to validate it was done correctly?
• How will the results reflect on your performance? If this is a highly visible activity, perhaps you want to do it yourself?
• Or, perhaps would delegating it to show your ability to delegate?
• Will delegating the task to someone show your trust in them? Will it generate a positive response in your person because they see you trusting them?
• Will the training yield other benefits? Will they learn more about your group?
• Are there cross-training benefits to them learning?
• Will this allow them to cover for you if you're not available?
• What are the implications if the task/activity is done correctly? Really well? Or, not correctly?
  
• How long would it take for me to do the work compared to how long it would take for me to train the new person and then for that person to do this work (and for me to check the end product)?
• Is this work something that will have to be done again? I.e. is it repeatable/repetitious?

I hope this helps. I would like to hear your input/comments on questions you ask yourself and ways you determine when it's best to delegate.

Sometimes we Need to Create Some Urgency (and How to Deal With Impossible Deadlines)

What does preparing for a vacation have anything to do with project management? Read on and you'll see...

Some friends of ours had plans to drive to Florida from here in New Jersey on the Monday after Christmas. Christmas came on Saturday this year and a blizzard snow storm was predicted for the day after Christmas (on Sunday).

On Christmas day, my friend and I exchanged some Christmas greetings via text messages. He mentioned that maybe they would have to leave earlier for their trip to get past the impending storm.

Later Christmas day I texted him, after hearing the forecast, and said that he may have to seriously consider leaving early. Just after midnight, they texted me and said they were leaving right then.

Well, they had some slow going as they ran right into the snow storm through the night, but they made it through safely and passed into the warmer south where it was rain. I talked to them on the phone and mentioned it must have been a flurry (no pun intended) of activity at his house late on Christmas day as they had to pack so quickly and get driving. He said that not only did they need to pack, but they also had to prepare for the coming blizzard. They took down the nativity and Christmas lights because of the predicted high winds. All the children were busy working so they could leave.

I mentioned how my dad would use the days just prior to vacations to get us children working. He'd say we could go if some project got done. I remember how he once got us all excited about the battle recreations that would be held at Gettysburg PA around Independence day. We were so excited about it as the time drew near. Then came the back porch project. Dad said we needed to get the old concrete patio broken up before we could go to Gettysburg. Well, that was all the motivation we needed! My brother and I would go straight to the sledgehammers every day after school to get that old porch all broken up before Independence day came around. We worked long and hard in anticipation of the mock battles we would soon see. Every pound of the sledgehammer probably brought anticipation of hearing a cannon blast or a musket firing. We got the project done on time and went on a memorable vacation!

Back to my friend driving to Florida and him relating how fast and hard they worked to leave early before the storm came... Since we both work in project environments, he mentioned how sometimes a sense of urgency needs to be provided when things are stalled. He related a story of how one of the "higher ups" at his place added a sense of urgency to get a project out of its stalled state. I started wondering if this isn't the reason why executives sometimes set the unrealistic deadlines that us project managers find so frustrating, especially when they are artificial deadlines not based on any real need.

It was a good point my friend was making, sometimes as project managers we do need to set deadlines to create a sense of urgency. I'm reminded of a quote I've heard before: if it weren't for deadlines, nothing would get done around here.

I have a colleague that lead a team that just completed a major deadline after having gone through a few years of impossible business deadlines. The team morale is one of total burn out and has been for quite some time. At this point, they are so numb that many of them can't believe they actually completed something that went into production! You would think they are going through the Kübler-Ross model of the 5 stages of grief!

here are a few good articles if you're going through some impossible or tight deadlines

• What to do when impossible project deadlines are common procedure - http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1049773.html
• 10 tips for meeting IT project deadlines - http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=264
• Project Deadlines and Target Dates:
  5 Guidelines for Avoiding Disaster - http://www.idinews.com/deadline.html - This article makes a good point of distinguishing between deadlines" (which represent an end date that, if missed, would cause the project to no longer be viable) and target dates.

I hope some of this helps you in the projects you manage whether it be at work or at home.
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