Choosing Project Team Leaders

The right team leaders can help make your project a success. Here are sound strategies for assigning team leaders to your project. 

Add strength to your project leadership. Look for people who compliment and expand your skills. Be realistic about your own skills and how others can augment them. Tell your team leaders how their strengths can support you and the project. 

Increase visibility. Team leaders with visibility to critical stakeholders can help you promote your project in addition to providing critical skills. Shrewd project managers leverage relationships between team leaders and key stakeholders to review potential project priorities and directions. Team leaders can also obtain early opinions and impressions on project deliverables as they are being produced.

Instil confidence. People who are widely trusted add value as team leaders, because the organization is likely to follow their lead regarding changes or decisions. These confidence-building team leads might act as part-time deliverable reviewers. Their reviewer role provides a valuable quality check and can also boost stakeholder confidence. 

A Reality check – team leaders are often chosen for you. Managers often assign team leaders to your project. Therefore, it is important to develop good relationships with the managers who provide resources. Use the tips provided here as rationale when negotiating to get the best people assigned to your project. If your preferred resources aren’t made available, seek to have them assigned on “stand by” for risk mitigation purposes in the event you run into project issues. 

For more about resource management, check out Chris Croft’s Managing Resources Across Project Teams course.

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