As with any new role, there can be difficulties in getting up to speed. This is especially true for project management, where your problem-solving and communication skills are put in the spotlight.

Managing your team well is an important fundamental aspect of project management. Getting a team of professionals to work well together is harder than it looks and can determine how well a project goes. But with diligence and dedication to the role and your team, your chances of a project performing well will significantly increase.

Promote cooperation

When embarking on any project, close collaboration is required between individuals with different strengths and skill sets to produce a well-rounded product. By encouraging team members to cooperate, you may find ideation and troubleshooting much easier due to the number of experienced opinions and anecdotes that can benefit team bonding and project progress.

Provide constructive feedback

It can be second nature to simply highlight undesirable traits and tendencies of team members in a bid to efficiently troubleshoot. However, this can affect team morale and compromise the quality of the project.

Mix up both criticism and praise to put a more positive spin on your feedback. Only focusing on negative feedback can cause team members to feel unrecognised for their strengths and contributions.

Delegate tasks accordingly

Regarding most projects, you are likely to have assigned roles and responsibilities to individual members of your team. Keep things disciplined and consistent by only delegating tasks corresponding to each member’s particular role and specialisation. In doing so, you can ensure that any part of the project gets done by the team members most suited for the task.

This also guarantees that all deliverables are completed with the expertise they need and shows good resource allocation on your part.

Stay flexible and communicative

As with any project manager who takes an interest in closely supervising the team, you can sometimes cause your team to feel “boxed in”. Check in with your team often to get an update on the situation. Take cues on whether or not to offer your support or be more “hands-off” as the project progresses.

By trying to strike a balance between suffocating or becoming too distant from your team, you are well on your way to providing the perfect environment for ideation and innovative problem-solving.

Conclusion

For those still not yet confident in taking up the mantle to become a successful project manager, many invaluable resources are tailored to help get you up to speed, including guides on essential leadership qualities project managers should have.

The time-strapped and passionate can consider BridgingMind’s PMP virtual training. Specifically designed for Project Management Professionals, this virtual training course provides a comprehensive look at the many aspects of project management. Topics covered include team building, resource and budget management and many more.

BridgingMinds also offers many other courses for IT professionals looking to upskill. Available for a subsidy from SkillsFuture SG, one can look to upgrade themselves to stay relevant with courses such as CISSP Certification and CompTIA Security for the various operating systems in the market today.