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.
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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.
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Keep positive. When circumstances get tough, even the most loyal team members can be tempted to start blaming 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.
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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.
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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 success.
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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 painting a vision for project completion and hopefully success on some level.
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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 a positive attitude.
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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.
Openly Address Issues that You Cause
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.
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.
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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 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.
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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.
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Resolve the problem coolly and calmly. 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.
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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.
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