ing that their primary role is to direct the day-to-day actions of
team members. This approach is guaranteed to enrage experi-
enced team members. It also overlooks a key aspect of team
leadership. One of your most important responsibilities is inter-
face management. You’re the only person in the organization
responsible for ensuring a healthy working relationship between
and among the members of the project team. And it’s unlikely
that all of the desired interactions will take place without some
help from you. Your role in fostering teamwork and synergism
may require you to devote some energy to “designing and engi-
neering” the interaction between team members.
You should encourage team members to interact whenever
the need arises. Discourage them from waiting until the next
team meeting to address any issues or concerns they may have
with each other. Waiting wastes time and opportunities.
However, you also need to know what’s going on, so make sure
that team members keep you informed whenever they take
important actions or make important decisions.
What About Rewards and Recognition?
This is one of the most difficult aspects of a project manager’s
job. I include this topic under fostering teamwork, which reflects
my personal bias. Although philosophies and approaches to
Building and Maintaining an Effective Team 91Conducting Effective Team Meetings
One of the primary reasons why people dislike team meet-
ings is because they’re conducted very poorly. Here are a
few simple rules:- Publish a meeting notice in advance, with agenda items and antici-
pated time allocations. - Start and finish the meeting on time.
- Don’t repeat everything for latecomers.
- Release everyone as soon as business has been conducted.
- Cancel a meeting if you believe there’s nothing new to discuss.
- Limit the meeting to project management issues; don’t let it be a
forum for a few members to hash out detailed design decisions. - Publish brief meeting notes that emphasize action items; highlight
those due by the next meeting.