Managing project teams can be one of the most complicated and essential parts of managing a project. A project manager must be able to listen and understand the real issues when discussing problems with team members. Unfortunately, because of the diversity of cultures, personalities, and priorities of the individuals involved, misunderstandings and complications often arise.
A skilled project manager will not only help solve problems, but will inspire loyalty and dedication by valuing the uniqueness of each team member and the overall diversity within the team.
Discuss the following topics in your initial post about project team dynamics and the methods of communication best suited to each situation.
- Consider a project that went successfully and a project that did not end successfully. It may be a project you worked on or read about in the news or have knowledge of. Consider the sorts of communication that would be necessary to complete that project.
- Give an example of a situation where an individual or an organization had to communicate bad news, the method of communication used, and your opinion of how they communicated.
- Consider a project team where you are the project manager. You have identified a team member, through personal observation and team member complaints, who has not been completing their fair share of the work; in essence, that person has been slacking. What methods of communication would you use and what message would you have for this individual? What information should be relayed to the rest of the team?
- If communication is not effective or has caused inter-team conflicts, are there any techniques that can be used to repair the damage? How can a team regain trust in each member or the project manager once trust is lost?
- In the module notes, you learn of an employee who has routinely padded his hours on his time sheet and justifies the practice by stating that all projects run over at the end and he is only making sure he is fairly paid.
- How would you handle this situation? What communication methods would you employ? Is this a situation that should be escalated? If so, when would that escalation be required and to whom would the escalation proceed?
Must be 2 pages in length and APA references.