Four Tips to Help You Be a Better Team Player
For all the time that we spend as part of a team, project managers often have a tough time doing team work. I mean, think about it - on the average project, there are multiple stakeholders, and at least a handful of people analyzing, designing, building, and delivering the solution...but more often than not, there's just one project manager. Sometimes it feels like a lonely role, and sometimes (though we don't admit it), we're grateful for the solitude...we're control freaks by nature; list-driven, detail-oriented task masters who like to have a very good grasp of the big picture as well as the details. We like to do the work, and we like to do it our way. So when we find ourselves in a situation where we have "team work" to do, or some sort of deliverable that requires collaboration and effort as a group, our first instinct is to mutter "I'd rather just do it myself" under our breath before reluctantly embarking on the collaborative effort.
Regardless of whether you hold a formal title of project manager, or your just one of those people who winds up leading initiatives time after time, here are some things to think about that might just make team work a little easier...
1. Communicate more.
Being part of a collaborative effort - doing good old fashioned team work - means knowing that not everyone else thinks about things exactly the way you do. Assuming everyone knows what you know, or that everyone will approach things the way you would, or that everyone can guess what's going on inside your head is a surefire way to miss the main advantage of teamwork!
Just this past week, I missed a communication opportunity, and created a moment of stress that was entirely unnecessary. I was meeting up with some colleagues (and I hope they don't mind my sharing that we're all project managers) for an event we were working on together, and we didn't communicate well about something as simple as which door to use when arriving at our expected meeting place. The building where we were to meet has security restrictions, and guests must be escorted to meeting rooms by an onsite employee. For our prior meetings in that same facility, I arrived at the front door and called for an escort to take me to the meeting room. For this particular meeting, I assumed I'd just follow the same process I had been using (calling for an escort), so it wouldn't matter which door I used. Likewise one of the other team members assumed I'd just follow the same process I had been using (arriving at the front door), so he decided to wait for me by the door, instead of making me call for an escort.
At our appointed meeting time, I used a different door (because it was more convenient for the covered parking ramp I had chosen due to the rain that day), and called for an escort, totally missing the fact that my very helpful colleague was waiting for me at the door I had used for prior meetings.
We lost about 5 minutes of time trying to get connected, and in the end, it was no big deal, but if we had just taken time to communicate our assumptions better, we wouldn't have lost those few minutes or caused that little bit of stress. If he had said, "I'll meet you at the front door," then I would have gone to the front door. And if I had said, "if it rains I'll be use the side door," then he would have waited for me at the side door. We both made assumptions based on our experiences, and didn't communicate what we were thinking.
To be a better team player, be sure to share your assumptions and communicate your expectations. When others follow suit, you'll find you have great ideas about different ways to approach different situations.
2. Accept your weaknesses.
As project managers, we're often expected to be "the best" - we're supposed to be good at planning, organizing, communicating, integrating, problem-solving, good with numbers, good with schedules, good with money and budgets, and certainly good with people. And due to the nature of the work we do, that expectation isn't unreasonable. But the truth of the matter is we're not all equally good at all those things.
Each of us has particular strengths we bring to any situation that are a little bit different from the strengths others bring. And, by extension, we each have our fair share of weaknesses that impact us as well. And so, when we work together, if we allow ourselves to acknowledge our weaknesses, we might very well discover that others have strengths to offset where we fall a little short.
One of the valuable ways I learned this lesson was when I wound up being in charge of the dessert at a social gathering of a group of friends. None of us wanted to admit where our weaknesses were, and we all wanted to come across as great cooks to each other, so when we planned a multi-course meal, I didn't say anything when I was asked to take the dessert course. Now truth be told, I wasn't a total loss in the kitchen, and I could create some main dishes and side dishes that were all pretty good, but my dessert repertoire at the time was limited to Jello-cake and bake-from-the-box brownies. If I had just opened up and said, "Um, Ladies, I'm probably not the best choice for the dessert course, but I make a mean lobster bisque..." we might not have ended our evening with a disaster of a chocolate soufflé (not a good idea for beginners, incidentally!)
3. Offer, don't wait to be asked.
The flip side of acknowledging where're you're a little weaker is also offering to pull your own fair share (or more!) in the areas where you are strong. If I'm an Excel whiz, then I should offer to handle the Excel task list. If you're an expert at giving presentations, then step up and offer to be the one who leads the presentation portion of the deliverable. Don't wait until someone asks you to do the work - offer to do the stuff you're good at - the stuff where you add value - right away. Or if you have something that will help the team deliver a better end product - offer it (not in a pushy or forceful way), but in a gentle, genuine offer to help.
Not long ago, I worked with a team of people trying to create a web site for an event we were organizing. We each had different roles to play, and the work that needed to be done included writing the content, finding the graphics to accompany the content, creating easy-to-use downloads, and spreading the word about the website. Each of us had some control freak tendencies, and we were each trying to be extra sensitive not to dominate the conversation, so we were painstakingly doing everything together, little by little.
We moved at a snail's pace, and the work was miserable for all of us, until one of us said "it looks like we're having trouble moving through this work together, I feel like I'm pretty good at assigning and tracking work, how about if I help figure out how to divide and conquer the work, and we go from there?" From there, the natural writer among us was inspired to say, "I'd be happy to take a first pass at writing the content"; the one with a keen eye for visual appeal and an ability to make quick (and good!) decisions volunteered to find the graphics; and our social butterfly volunteered to start spreading the word. Our forward progress from there came in leaps and bounds, and the end product (plus our enjoyment of the work itself) was greater because of it.
4. Let go a little.
Did you know that perfection is not always required? When you're working with a group of people (or in any situation involving human beings for that matter) things will not be perfect; something will happen that's not exactly the way it was expected or hoped. But if we hold on too tightly to the controlling, dominating perfectionism that often characterizes us as project managers, we run the risk of alienating our peers and ruining what could have been much better.
Honestly, I'm still struggling with this one. I'm generally reluctant to volunteer for "group" work, because more often than not, I know I'd rather just do it myself or do it my way. I get a picture in my head about how things should go, and what the end result should look like, and I'm afraid my tendency is to try to hold on too tight to exactly how things should be done. I'm learning, though, because when I hold on too tight, I find that those around me sometimes let go, and their work falls on my shoulders.
Think of a time when you were working with someone on something and they just wouldn't back down; they wouldn't budge about how something was supposed to be done. What did you do? If you're like many of us, you either shrugged your shoulders and decided they didn't need you anyway, or you dug in your heels for a bit of a fight. Neither of those are particularly productive for getting stuff done!
On the other hand, if you've got strengths in a particular area, or you're familiar with best practices in a given discipline, choosing to defer completely to someone with significantly less expertise or a solution that is in opposition to proven best practices might result in the team having to do things the hard way.
The trick, I think, is to let go a little...not let go completely...but let go a little, hold just a little less tightly.
What do you think? How can you be a better team player?
Sinikka Waugh, Your Clear Next Step www.yourclearnextstep.com
