Make Your Project a Positive Place to Work

You’ve probably heard “the leader sets the tone.” This tone is all about the environment you create for your project team. Here are things you can do – TODAY – to make your project a positive (and attractive) place to work. And that helps you make your project a success.

• Receive news, both good and bad, with a constructive attitude. Managing a project means understanding the news: task completions, delays, stakeholder conversations, new ideas, and conflicts. To understand the news, you need to hear about it. And that happens only if you support your teams. Make it difficult or unpleasant for team members to share news with you (think of the phrase “shooting the messenger”) and you won’t know what’s happening on your project. Thank people who share information, whether it’s good or bad. That way, you can respond proactively to project issues, instead of reacting to the truth bomb a key stakeholder drops in your office because your team didn’t share the issue with you.
• Build a team. Yes, even for a short project. Come up with a team name — not the project business name. (Nobody wants to work on the Amalgamated Velcro Production and Efficiency Management Project…but they might enjoy being on the “Better Rip and Stick” team!) Act as if YOU are part of the team (because you are) and promote teamwork to get tasks done. Share accountability. Celebrate little victories. You’ll get dedicated team members who will want to work with you…now and in the future.
• Make sure team members understand the business relevance of their tasks. Team members will be more engaged when they know how their work packages fit into the big picture. The work is more meaningful and more satisfying to them! Talking about the purpose of tasks can also decrease errors. Team members will raise potential issues more readily when they understand the context of their work. You’ll get better deliverables and more dedication from your team.
• Help team members feel like they belong. A diverse team is good, but that’s only step one. Include all your team members in decision-making and planning your project. Beyond that, take time to understand who they are, what goals they have, and what project experiences will be most meaningful to them. Help them achieve those goals when possible.

What tips do you have for building a positive project environment? What benefits have you gained from offering team members a positive environment to work in?

For more about working with teams, check out Daniel Stanton’s Project Management Foundations: Teams course.

Coming Up

Join Chris Croft and me on August 22, 2023, at 9am MT for our live broadcast “Do You Need Project Management Certifications, and If So, Which Ones?”

One of the most frequent questions Chris Croft and I get is “Do I need project management certification?” quickly followed by “Which certification or certifications should I get?” Everyone’s journey is different, just like Chris and I took very different paths. So, we’re going to explore whether project management certifications are valuable, what else you can do to make yourself stand out, and finally, which certifications to look at if you decide you need them. Bring your questions to this informative and fun session. By the way, this topic is just one that we explore in our new course, How to Launch a Career in Project Management. 

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 45,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

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