No project manager can be expected to do it all alone on any piece of work. This is why the process of building up a strong team is such a vital part of the role. If you have the right people working for you then you stand a much better chance of being successful.
What are the most important factors that you need to take into account when building your team from scratch? Do their skills count for more than their personalities, for example? While no two projects are the same, there are some general rules that you should look to remember when creating a team as outline in a PRINCE2 course.
Get the Right Blend of Skills
Having a team of highly, experienced, flexible Business Analysts is the dream of every project manager. Yet, this can be pretty much impossible to do for a number of reasons. Your best team members might leave, get promoted or switch to other projects before you really get to see the very best of them.
Therefore, it is entirely possible that you never get to see the sort of multi-skilled team of business analysts that you want. This makes it even more important for you to get the right blend of skills. Since you probably won’t have people who are experts in everything, you will need them to provide a useful mixture of abilities.
No matter what their starting point is, you can help by providing the training that they need over time. By arranging different types of training you can encourage them to develop in different ways for the good of the team. Naturally, you won’t want to neglect your own PRINCE2 Course while you do this.
Choose the Right Sort of Personality
The personalities of your project team members can be just as important as their skills. This sort of work is perfect for some people but not for others. For a start, they need to be open to changes and highly flexible in their approach each day.
New team members coming from a business area background can struggle to get used to the unique demands of project work. If they are comfortable with a set routine and constantly recurring tasks then this can seem like a huge step into the unknown.
The transition to a project environment is made a lot easier if the person in question is open to it. This can be difficult to assess in a job interview. You may need to look at their personal interests and attitude rather than relying simply on their work history to guide you in this.
Do They Deal Well with Other People?
The people skills needed in projects are often under-estimated. While other abilities are certainly needed, this will count for little if the team member is unable or unwilling to build relationships and work with a variety of different groups.
The ideal project team worker will be able to explain their ideas clearly to a junior end user or to a senior manager, as the situation demands. Of course, people skills can be learned to a degree but they still need a good start in terms of personality. Someone who is awkward speaking to others will find this job difficult to carry out to a high level.
You will also need to take into account important issues such as your budget and the space you have available. Might you also need to have workers who are able to work from home or in different locations? All in all, there are numerous different factors that can help you to make smart choices as you build up your team and these are outline on a PRINCE2 course.
