People Management for
Project Management
A competitive
topic in today's throat-cut competition is “Managing the People”. We all
perhaps, know the three corner of triangle which is used in CMMI presentation
slides. They are Process, Technology and People. While talking about this in
CMMI Presentation we mainly focus on “Process” part of it, which is, no doubt,
necessary. But as we know all of these vertices are inter-dependent and
inter-related. We can not move our focus from people and technology.
A successful
project manager is the one who can manage the following five aspect of the
project:
Resources include
people, equipment and material. Today I am going to talk about one of this
resource and that is people. Why people, because they are related with emotions
as compare to other two form of resources.
Many of the
companies have burnt their finger and have learnt great lessons that it is not
only the selection of technology for the project but the people who are associated
with that project. As good project manager one must have good people management
ability some of these are managing team diversity, motivating employee,
performance management, empowerment and conflict resolution.
In software we
generally see that the person who technically performs well is promoted as
project leader and eventually becomes project manager. They may be technically
genius but may not be able to manage the project. I am not saying that such
genius can not become good project manager but then we need to train them
towards this. Project Management is not easy task as it looks to developer. It
requires understanding of the people behaviour, good communication,
demonstration of gestures, respect, trust etc. It is responsibility of manager
to provide better work environment to his people with the help of other stakeholders coordination.
For empowering
your employees and making them to take decisions, PM need to have trust on
them. PM must have respect for his people. PM has to be proactive in
understanding the gesture of his employee to judge their mood and acceptance
for the task assigned to them. PM has to have good communication to direct his
people for what he wants from them.
According to me
communication plays major role in the success of project. Chart the plan for
communication to be effective. Lack of proper communication damage the trust of
employee on PM.
Motivation is
another aspect which changes from people to people. For most of the people
money is the key to motivation and for others it could be better job profile,
job designation, challenging task etc. While handling monetary terms we need to
be careful and do cost-benefit analysis. What I mean here is that take into
consideration the increment asked by the employee and the lost if he leaves the
company. Company invest certain amount of money when they recruit any employee,
and it is manager's job to retain the people in his team. PM needs to
understand that, though he may get resources from outside but it will take cost
and time to put them on the project.
Conflicts needs
to be resolved by project manager for the success of the team and for the
success of the project. For this PM needs to control his emotions and listen to
both the parties and arrive at the solution which is mutually acceptable and
creates WIN-WIN situation.
Lastly as saying goes, “People don't leave their job they leave their boss” and as a good project manager you need to prove this wrong. Treat your project professionally and your people emotionally.