performance review

 

In order to successfully meet the needs of a project, it is important to have a high-performing Project Team made up of individuals who are both technically skilled and motivated to contribute to the project’s outcome. One of the many responsibilities of a Project Manager is to enhance the ability of each Project Team member to contribute to the project, while also fostering individual growth and accomplishment. At the same time, each individual must be encouraged to share ideas and work with others toward a common goal.

The Project Manager, then, must be a leader, communicator, negotiator, influencer, and problem solver! The level of skills and competencies to successfully fill these roles helps distinguish good Project Managers from great ones. (see Required characteristics of the project manager)  

To maximize the successful performance of the Project Team, the Project Manager must do the following:

• Ensure that the team has adequate knowledge. Even if there is no formal Team Training Plan the PM should should evaluate the skills of each team member and determine whether he/she met the current and future needs of the project and raise the capacity of the human resources of the organization to manage successfully their task and contribute to the generation of a healthy communication climate within the organization and with external stakeholders. (thereby fulfilling the basic requirement for an employee empowering organization). If new team members have joined the project since the Training Plan was established, the Project Manager must evaluate the skill level of the new members to determine if additional training is needed.  In all cases, training tasks must be added to or removed from both the Training Plan and the Project Schedule, since they will affect the end date of the project.  Identify the need and the scope to raise the capacity of the human resources of the organization to manage successfully their task and contribute to the generation of a healthy communication climate within the organization and with external stakeholders.  (see Learning and Feedback)
• Establish a Positive Team Environment and a Healthy Communication Climate Project Team members must learn to work together to achieve project goals. They must recognize that there is more to teamwork than simply having team members feel good about each other. High-performing Project Teams are disciplined. Team members participate in all required meetings, are willing to suppress their egos for the good of the group, take their assigned tasks seriously, and continuously strive to improve their skills. High-performing Project Teams are either empowered to make decisions or are included in decision-making processes. This is the essence of project ownership. Project Managers must develop sufficient management competencies to be able to create an environment that encourages team members to excel.  (See also  motivate the project team; communication climate).  While there are many process functions in teams, three stand out as particularly important – maximizing participation, managing influence styles, and handling conflict.  All three of these require a core skill --- listening.  Listening includes giving your undivided attention to others as they speak and not thinking about what you will say when it is your turn to talk.  It is also taking the time to check that you agree that what they said is what you heard.  Paraphrasing their comments, asking clarifying questions, and giving individuals credit for the contributions verbally in the group all demonstrate effective listening skill.  (See Building a Climate of Trust;  Encouraging Openness;  Team Conflict Management;  Decision Making in Groups.)
• Work Properly and Ensure Accountability  A basic responsibility of the Project Manager is to assign work to the Project Team and ensure that the work is completed according to the Project Schedule. The Project Manager (or Team Leaders if the project is large) is responsible for allocating tasks to appropriate team members at the appropriate times. A good Project Manager establishes and maintains a Project Schedule that minimizes team member down time. Along with the Team Leaders, the Project Manager must continuously communicate to each member of the team what is required and by when, and then manage the performance of each team member in meeting the requirements. Since the Project Manager is ultimately responsible for the success or failure of a project, he/she must direct Project Team endeavors and encourage team members to be accountable for their work. Accountability should be formally documented and measured through the use of team member Progress Reports. (See Figure 4-4, the New York State Progress Report.) But the Project Manager must also be willing to communicate face-toface with the Project Team. Regular personal communication is one of the most effective ways to gather input on the status of project activities, discuss issues and concerns, recognize good work, encourage and provide support to team members who are struggling, and build relationships. It is also one of the primary ways to discover and take action to resolve team member. (see  performance issues. (see Middle Management Capabilities, Empowerment and Accountability)  

Getting work done in teams requires managing both the task (what we do) and the process (how we do it).  Some of the task related functions include fair work distribution.  This is important because team members would like to think the work is fairly shared.  Because effective teams also share in the rewards, unfair allocation of work will affect the team in a negative way.

Attention: do not confuse reviewing employee performance with project performance!

When monitoring and reporting the employee performance  you are comparing

·         what the individual employee has achieved and

·         what the individual was supposed to achieve (on the basis of the agreed employee performance objectives.

When monitoring and reporting the project performance you are comparing:

·         what the team  implementing a project plan has achieved (in terms of reaching the expected milestones and deliver the expected project outputs within the decided schedule and budget definitions) and

·         the expected achievements as stated in the project plan document.

 

See also

 

Guidelines:  

·         How to reach an agreement on the Employee Performance Objectives

·         How to manage motivated and effective teams

·         How to recognize if Team Building is successful

·         How to check the level of togetherness in a team

·         Seven Steps To Building A Team in the meeting

·         Why do organisations need to plan and manage their communication?

·         How team members can improve overall project communication

·         Measures to make teams more performing

·         Required characteristics of the project manager

·         The 10 Project Management Guiding Principles;