PMBOK - Chapter 2 - 2.2 TEAM PERFORMANCE DOMAIN (2/2)

2.2.4 LEADERSHIP SKILLS 

Leadership skills are useful for all project team members whether the project team is operating in an environment with a centralized authority or a shared leadership environment. The following sections describe some of the traits and activities associated with leadership. 

2.2.4.1 Establishing and Maintaining Vision

Every project has a purpose. Understanding that purpose is critical for people to commit their time and energy in the right direction toward achieving the project purpose. The project vision summarizes the project’s purpose clearly and succinctly. It describes a realistic, attractive view of the future project outcomes. 

In addition to briefly describing the desired future state, the vision is a powerful motivational tool. It is a way to create passion and meaning for a project’s envisioned goal. A common vision helps keep people pulling in the same direction. When immersed in the details of everyday work, a clear understanding of the end goal can help guide local decisions toward the desired project outcome. 

A vision developed collaboratively between project team members and key stakeholders should answer these questions: 

▶ What is the project purpose? 

▶ What defines successful project work? 

▶ How will the future be better when the project outcomes are delivered? 

▶ How will the project team know that it is drifting from the vision? 

A good vision is clear, concise, and actionable. It does the following: 

▶ Summarizes the project with a powerful phrase or short description, 

▶ Describes the best achievable outcome, 

▶ Creates a common, cohesive picture in project team members’ minds, and 

▶ Inspires passion for the outcome.

2.2.4.2 Critical Thinking 

Throughout the various project performance domains, there is a need to recognize bias, identify the root cause of problems, and consider challenging issues, such as ambiguity, complexity, and so forth. Critical thinking helps to accomplish these activities. Critical thinking includes disciplined, rational, logical, evidence-based thinking. It requires an open mind and the ability to analyze objectively. Critical thinking, especially when applied to discovery, can include conceptual imagination, insight, and intuition. It can also include reflective thinking and metacognition (thinking about thinking and being aware of one’s awareness). 

Project team members apply critical thinking to: 

▶ Research and gather unbiased, well-balanced information; 

▶ Recognize, analyze, and resolve problems; 

▶ Identify bias, unstated assumptions, and values; 

▶ Discern the use of language and the influence on oneself and others; 

▶ Analyze data and evidence to evaluate arguments and perspectives; 

▶ Observe events to identify patterns and relationships; 

▶ Apply inductive, deductive, and abductive reasoning appropriately; and 

▶ Identify and articulate false premises, false analogy, emotional appeals, and other faulty logic.

2.2.4.3 Motivation 

Motivating project team members has two aspects: the first is understanding what motivates project team members to perform, and the second is working with project team members in such a way that they remain committed to the project and its outcomes. 

Motivation to perform can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation comes from inside the individual or is associated with the work. It is associated with finding pleasure in the work itself rather than focusing on rewards. Extrinsic motivation is performing work because of an external reward such as a bonus. Much of the work done on projects is aligned with intrinsic motivation.

Examples of intrinsic motivation factors include: 

▶ Achievement, 

▶ Challenge, 

▶ Belief in the work, 

▶ Making a difference, 

▶ Self-direction and autonomy, 

▶ Responsibility, 

▶ Personal growth, 

▶ Relatedness, and 

▶ Being part of a project team.

People are not motivated by just one thing; however, most people have a dominant motivator. To effectively motivate project team members, it is helpful to know each member’s dominant motivator. For example, a project team member who is motivated by challenge will respond well to stretch goals and problems to solve. A project team member who is motivated by relatedness will respond to being part of a dynamic working group. Project team members who thrive on autonomy will perform better if they can establish their own ways of working and even their own work hours and cadence. Therefore, tailoring motivation methods based on individual preferences helps to elicit the best individual and project team performance. 

2.2.4.4 Interpersonal Skills 

Interpersonal skills that are used frequently in projects include emotional intelligence, decision making, and conflict resolution among others.

▶ Emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize our own emotions and those of others. This information is used to guide thinking and behavior. Recognition of personal feelings, empathy for the feelings of others, and the ability to act appropriately are the cornerstones for effective communication, collaboration, and leadership.

Since projects are undertaken by people and for people, emotional intelligence—the ability to understand one’s self and effectively sustain working relationships with others—is critical in project team environments. There are multiple models for defining and explaining emotional intelligence. They converge on four key areas: 

• Self-awareness. Self-awareness is the ability to conduct a realistic self-assessment. It includes understanding our own emotions, goals, motivations, strengths, and weaknesses. 
• Self-management. Self-management, also known as self-regulation, is the ability to control and redirect disruptive feelings and impulses. It is the ability to think before acting, suspending snap judgments and impulsive decisions. 
•  Social awareness. Social awareness is about empathy and understanding and considering other people’s feelings. This includes the ability to read nonverbal cues and body language. 
• Social skill. Social skill is the culmination of the other dimensions of emotional intelligence. It is concerned with managing groups of people, such as project teams, building social networks, finding common ground with various stakeholders, and building rapport.

Self-awareness and self-management are required to remain calm and productive during difficult project circumstances. Social awareness and social skills allow for better bonds with project team members and project stakeholders. Emotional intelligence is a basis of all forms of leadership. 

Figure 2-5 shows the key points for each of the four aspects of emotional intelligence and how they relate. The aspects having to do with oneself are on the top, and the social aspects are on the bottom. Awareness is on the left side, and management and skill are on the right side.

Some models for emotional intelligence include a fifth area for motivation. Motivation in this context is about understanding what drives and inspires people. 

▶ Decision making. Project managers and project teams make many decisions daily. Some decisions may be fairly inconsequential to the project outcome, such as where to go for a team lunch, and others will be very impactful

Decisions can be made unilaterally. This has the advantage of being fast but is prone to error when compared to engaging the wisdom of a diverse set of people. Unilateral decision making can also demotivate people who are impacted by the decision since they may feel their views and concerns were not considered. 

Group-based decision making has the benefit of tapping into the broad knowledge base of a group. Engaging people in the decision-making process also increases buy-in to the outcome, even if the option selected may not have been everyone’s first choice. Generally, inclusion increases commitment to the decision. The downside of group decision making is the time required and interruption to teamwork that can occur when taking people away from their work to be consulted in a decision.

Project team decision making often follows a diverge/converge pattern. This means stakeholders are first engaged to generate a broad set of solution alternatives or approaches. This is often done individually to avoid the effect of senior or charismatic stakeholders unduly influencing other stakeholders. Then, after a broad spectrum of decision alternatives have been generated, the project team converges on a preferred solution. 

The goal is to make decisions quickly while engaging the diverse knowledge of a group in an inclusive and respectful manner. Some decisions may be made in a different direction than some people prefer, but everyone has an opportunity to explain their position. In the end, the deciding authority, whether an individual or a group, makes a decision based on the presented analysis and with consideration for stakeholder expectations. 

Careful selection of which decisions should go for group discussion and voting limits the interruptions and task switching experienced by the project team. Many approaches such as Roman voting, wideband Delphi estimating, and fist of five voting use the diverge/ converge pattern. They aim to engage individual input while voting at the same moment, which minimizes groupthink. 

For those decisions that are beyond the authority of the project team to decide, the project team can investigate alternatives, consider impacts of each alternative, and escalate the decision to someone with the proper authority. This process aligns with the philosophy of “don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions,” while remaining aligned with organizational governance regarding decision-making authority.

▶ Conflict management. Conflict happens on all projects. Projects operate in dynamic environments and face many mutually exclusive constraints including budget, scope, schedule, and quality, which can lead to conflicts. It is not uncommon to want to avoid conflict, but not all conflict is negative. How conflict is handled can either lead to more conflict or to better decision making and stronger solutions. 

Addressing conflict before it escalates beyond useful debate leads to better outcomes. The following approaches can help: 

• Keep communications open and respectful. Because conflict can cause anxiety, it is important to keep a safe environment to explore the source of the conflict. Without a safe environment, people will stop communicating. Make sure words, tone of voice, and body language remain nonthreatening. 
• Focus on the issues, not the people. Conflict is based on people perceiving situations differently. It should not be personal. The focus is on resolving the situation, not casting blame. 
• Focus on the present and future, not the past. Stay focused on the current situation, not past situations. If something similar happened previously, bringing up the past will not resolve the current situation. In fact, it can serve to intensify the current situation even more. 
• Search for alternatives together. Damage incurred from conflict can be repaired by looking for resolutions and alternatives together. It can also create more constructive relationships. This moves the conflict into more of a problem-solving space where people can work together to generate creative alternatives. 

There are several models for addressing and resolving conflict. Some of them are discussed in Section 4.

2.2.5 TAILORING LEADERSHIP STYLES 

As with all aspects of projects, leadership styles are also tailored to meet the needs of the project, the environment, and the stakeholders. Some of the variables that influence tailoring of leadership styles include: 

▶ Experience with the type of project. Organizations and project teams with experience on a specific type of project may be more self-managing and require less leadership. When a project is new to an organization, the tendency is to provide more oversight and to use a more directive leadership style. 

▶ Maturity of the project team members. Project team members who are mature in the technical field may need less oversight and direction than project team members who are new to the organization, the team, or the technical specialty. 

▶ Organizational governance structures. Projects operate within a larger organizational system. There may be the expectation that the organizational leadership style of top management is recognized and reflected in the team’s leadership. The organizational structure influences the degree to which authority and accountability are centralized or distributed. 

▶ Distributed project teams. A global project workforce is more common today than in the past. In spite of the best efforts to connect people virtually, it can be challenging to create the same level of collaboration and relatedness that is achieved when working face to face. To minimize the pitfalls of distributed project teams, technology can be used to increase and improve communication. Examples include: 

• Ensure there are collaboration sites for working together. 
• Have a project team site to keep all relevant project and project team information available. 
• Use audio and video capabilities for meetings.
• Use technology to maintain ongoing contact, such as messaging and texting. 
• Build in time to get to know remote project team members. 
• Have at least one face-to-face meeting to establish relationships.

2.2.6 INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER PERFORMANCE DOMAINS 

The Team Performance Domain emphasizes the skills used by project managers and project team members throughout the project. These skills are woven into all other aspects of the project. Project team members are called on to demonstrate leadership qualities and skills throughout the project. Communicating the project vision and benefits to stakeholders while planning and throughout the life cycle is one example. Another example is employing critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making while engaging in project work. Accountability for outcomes is demonstrated throughout the Planning and Measurement Performance Domains.

2.2.7 CHECKING RESULTS 

Table 2-3 identifies the outcomes from effective application of the Team Performance Domain on the left and ways of checking them on the right. 

Table 2-3. Checking Outcomes—Team Performance Domain