Addressing Team Members’ Questions and Anxieties
Generally speaking, you can reduce or eliminate many of these
anxieties by having a conversation with your team. Specifically,
consider conducting a team meetingas early as possible to
cover the following openly and honestly:
- Review the project objectives (the true need) and justifica-
tion for doing the project (benefit to the organization). - Review the project proposal (the solution) and why that
represents the preferred approach - Bring up any problems or constraints they may encounter
as a team. - Clearly define the role of all team members in terms of
their functional contribution. (Consider using the organiza-
tional breakdown structure.) - Try to honestly characterize your leadership style (free
and open, trusting, exacting, etc.). - Describe your expectations regarding project logistics (fre-
quency and timing of team meetings, for example). - Describe your expectations in terms of behaviors, such as
team meeting conduct or preferred methods of communi-
cation.
In addition, you may want to meet individually with each
member of your team, to discuss the following aspects of their
involvement on the project: - The reason why they were selected
- Any unique expectations you may have of them
- Any problems or constraints they may encounter
- What effects successful performance may have on them
(Watch out!This one may be tricky.)
How Teams Evolve and Develop over Time
There are various models that describe how teams evolve
throughout the life of a project. One of the more popular ones
suggests that teams pass through four distinct “stages.”
Forming: In this stage, people are gathering information about
Building and Maintaining an Effective Team 85T
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Team-Fly®