How to motivate a team

A project manager asked me: “As newly promoted software manager, I want to know how to motivate my team since I agree with you that my success depends on how well my team performs” Following are my advices:

Congratulation on your promotion, there are many ways that you can improve your team performance. Following are some things that I have used and I hope they can help you.

You need to know that your team members only perform well if they understand what they need to do and why. For this reason, I suggest that at the beginning of the project, you get your team together to discuss the project vision, objectives, team assignments and schedules. Make sure that your team understands them well and how the project is critical to the success of the company. I am sure some members may have questions about the schedule or their roles. You need to explain to them about your expectations and willing to work with them on their assignments; you will gain their trusts and their commitments.

After the team meeting, arrange an individual meeting with each team member so you can discuss their individual assignment, what do you need from them to help you in the project. Make sure they have a clear “Job Description” and they know how you are going to measure their performance in the project. Ask them how they like to be managed, what motivates them and how you can support them in their roles. This is really about building relationship with them, as each member may have different goals and career objectives. You need to know them well so you can support them.

Software projects always have pressures especially with schedule. However, you need to give them time to work to the best of their abilities. If the pressure increases, you need to give them more time than less because it is your job to protect them. I know it is hard to do this, but if you put pressure on them, their performance will reduce, rather than improve and your project will be in trouble. Of course, you need to measure their performance regularly. As manager, you must meet with them individually every week to discuss their achievements, what the issues are and how they can improve. You need to speak to them openly, casually and keeping constructive at all times. NEVER show your anger or accuse anybody, it never works under any situation. As a manager, you need to be positive, reassuring and supporting them at all times, even if the project is delayed. The golden rule is: “Your success depends on their performance, your job is to support and NOT to add burden to their works”.

Because software project always have problems with changes so you must build a “Buffer” in your schedule to protect the team. As manager you must learn how to negotiate with senior manager or customers on the time allowed. Assume that you estimate the project needs ten months then you will need to add about 20% buffer into the project so you negotiate a 12 months time to allow uncertain changes or in case of employee turnover or need more time for knowledge and skills training. This is really a risk mitigation that project manager must know.

Many manager are so busy and always under significant pressure that they forgot to praise the team's successes. Every time the team deliver a quality product, finish a difficult task on time, you must congratulate them. You must do it as a team, not individual so you build the team spirit as everybody must work as a team. You should reward the team by get your team together for a dinner, a show, a party and allow them to socializing so that new friendships can be formed. The stronger the bond your team have with each other, the more likely they will work together as a single cohesive unit and achieve the objectives you have set. Of course, there are few people who are working hard and deserve additional rewards but you do NOT want to create a “competitive atmosphere” among team members. I reward my team by giving them time off. For example, if a person work hard, I let them have Friday off so they can have long weekend to rest, this will improve their motivation and increase their efficiency. This kind of reward is positive and do not create adversarial among team members because everybody understand that when you work hard, you deserve some time off to rest. As team member always support each others, they do not see any threatening on this kind of reward. NEVER discuss salary raises or bonus with the team, it will create problems. That is NOT the job of a project manager but of senior managers or the owner of the company.

In typical software company, when a team finishes a project, team members are assigned onto other projects right away. This may break the bonding of the team especially if the team is successful so I recommend that if possible, company must keep the team intact as much as possible. My formula is 70% of the team must be kept together with 30% of team members are new for every new project. In this case, team members can train new members or having chances to build the team accordingly. There must be a break between projects so team member can rest and learn new things. My formula is giving every successful team members 2 to 4 weeks in training class. Without a rest period, team members will carry their stress into the next project and actually you “burn out” the best team that you have. So as project manager, you need to help your team to “start afresh” by give them some time off at the end of the project and reward them by let them improve their skills in training.

I hope that sharing with you some of my experiences; you will be able to improve the performance of your team and your chances of success.

Sources

  • Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University