Project Management and the Power of Empowerment

A few days ago I took my beagles on a hiking trip. Excited to get them out of their yard and let them experience the real mountains, I packed up all three in a collapsible doghouse and drove two hours out of the city. I wanted to let these confined dogs see secluded expanses filled with wildlife - something they’d never done before.

But, it was a disaster. The dogs, carsick, threw up several times on the drive. Then, as they were hiking, they yelped at the smallest movements and cried about what I assume was the storm rolling in. Though I intended to stay in the mountains overnight, I was so overwhelmed with the mess they made and the way they were acting that I drove back home.

When managing project-based work, dealing with the team can be difficult. For example, some team members are lazy, others unwilling to accomplish their work, and others are downright rude. Such teams are especially hard for the project manager to manage when he or she is excited about a project and its rewards when the team is not. Even when team members are unable to work because of legitimate circumstances, collaborating with that team can be stressful, making project management frustrating. Like it was with my dogs getting sick in the car, when projects naturally encounter problems, you can’t blame the team members. So what do you do?

I think the responsibility for a bad project management setting can often be traced back to a decision made by a figure of authority. In my case, it was me that made a bad decision. My dogs suffered because of my choice to stuff them in a tight compartment and drive through winding mountains. I should have known what was coming and made adjustments.

One of the duties of a project manager is to recognize when the team is becoming overwhelmed and frustrated with a project. When a reliable team member isn’t producing his or her best work and is frequently failing to accomplish tasks, it isn’t likely due to some hidden motive to resist management leadership. It is more likely that the individual is being too confined by that leadership. Or the individual is confined by circumstances. Like my hiking trip where my beagles were frightened with the storm, the team can decrease in performance if the only outcome they see is lightning, rain, and a cold night’s sleep.

On the way back home, I finally found my common sense and letting the dogs get a fresh breath of air from the car window. That was all they needed to keep their stomach stable and happy. In both project management and work management, keeping the team empowered and excited is just as simple. All you have to do is stand back and give people space. Let them do their work the way they want to do it. By doing this, relationships between coworkers improve, the productivity of the team increases, and project managers have very little (if any) mistakes to clean up.