(^142) 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know
It’s the People, Stupid
It’s the People, Stupid
Adrian Wible
New York, New York, U.S.
nEvER loSE SIghT oF ThE FACT that the members of your project team are
human beings, with aspirations, strengths, constraints, and weaknesses. Your
project’s success hinges more on team members’ attitudes and aptitudes than
it does on your Gantt chart wizardry and project tracking prowess. Feel free to
manage the project, but don’t forget to lead the team.
Many of us manage projects in a matrix environment with team members
reporting both to us and to a department manager. We do not have human
resources (HR) hiring/firing/evaluation responsibility for them. However,
don’t abdicate responsibility for the care and feeding of the people on the team
to managers in the HR or functional hierarchy.
Many of those managers get promoted based on technical knowledge of
human resources or their departments, not on their ability to inspire people.
Your project’s success depends on your ability to lead. There are many books
available on leadership. Read voraciously.
Everyone on your team wants to contribute, learn, and achieve. It may be chal-
lenging at times to dig deeply enough to find this desire in some team mem-
bers, but it’s what makes software project management challenging and fun.
Hold one-on-one conversations with your team members regularly. Deter-
mine what their issues are, ask them for ideas, and give them a voice in the
project. Take their input seriously and act on it.
Ask your team members what they want to be when they grow up. Seriously.
We all have career aspirations. Be the one mentor who cares about their
careers. You’ll be amazed at how powerful this can be.