As a project manager, there are a lot of critical decisions and responsibilities that fall on your shoulders. One of these is choosing the right team for your next project. After all, your project’s outcome is only going to be as successful as the people working on it. But how do you make sure you have the right team working on your project? Read on to discover more.
Shutterstock Licensed Photo – By Tetiana Yurchenko
The qualities that are needed
The first thing you need to do is define what qualities you are going to require when looking for members for your team. Every person is going to bring different skills and knowledge to the table. You are not only going to need to look for certain skills, but you need to look for specific characteristics because you need to make sure that all team members are going to have the ability to work effectively with one and other. After all, you could have all of the right skills but if your team does not have the right chemistry and cannot work well together, you are going to have problems. If you have managed numerous projects at the business in question before, you can use this to your advantage by determining who worked well together.
Outsourcing
Nowadays, an entire project is very rarely handled in-house. There are usually cases whereby certain elements of a project are outsourced. For example, if you are creating a TV show for a company, you may decide to outsource elements like video captioning. It’s important to consider all of this when you are picking your team because you can identify areas whereby the team is not strong so you can consider your outsourcing options to determine whether all of this is viable.
Communication
One of the most critical elements of any project is communication. Without effective communication, you are going to struggle to work well together and meet the objectives that are in place. When you are choosing team members to work with, you need to take this into account. You also need to think about the communication and collaboration platforms you are going to use to ensure members are competent.
Meet with other managers
Another helpful step that can enable you to choose the right team members for your project is to meet with other managers at the company you work for. This is important because you will gain a wholesome view of the personnel you are considering hiring for the project. You can ask the managers to provide you with ratings in regards to the individuals’ teamwork abilities, technical skills, and their competencies. This will ensure you are armed with the right information in order to make the best decisions.
Attendance
It is also a good idea to take a look at the holiday calendar you have. This is especially the case if you are working on a project with a relatively short turnaround time. After all, if you need to deliver the project over the next month and an employee you’re considering is on holiday during that period, you may want to look for someone else. Moreover, it is not just about making sure key team members are available in general, but ensuring that they are there for the major project milestones. This is something a lot of project managers overlook, and they live to regret it.
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Project management training
If you are still feeling unconfident regarding choosing the right members for your team, have you thought about project management training? There are many project management training courses available today and you will learn about all of the different tactics and techniques that can help you to put the best team together.
As you can see, there are a number of different important steps that need to be taken when choosing a team for your next project. If you consider all of the factors that have been mentioned above, you should have no trouble putting together the right team for your project. A team that not only possesses the skills that are required, but can also work together effectively as well.
