The 3C’s of Teamwork

Your project team must learn the 3C's, they must learn to collaborate, communicate and resolve their own conflicts.

Throughout your career, you will get to work with many people that will be part of your project team. As a project manager, you must learn to deal with different types of people that are assigned to your team. Your team members will have different perspectives or ideas and not always agree with you. It can be really exhilarating to get to work with  new people when joining a new organization or a new project, however, you need to learn to deal with new team members and accept the way they work and behave. 

How do you deal with the different types of personalities of your team members?

Build trust.

There is no other choice for you as a project manager than to build trust and learn about you team’s abilities in order to create a high performing team. You must learn to trust your team. I learned to trust my project teams by giving them responsibilities and making them accountable for their work. Building trust also motivates and gives your team the confidence to think for themselves and help create solutions to problems. For example, I usually ask my team to help to develop the project schedule. Your project team should be able to help you develop the project schedule and identify tasks, resources, dependencies, and durations. I believe that any team needs to be confident that if they follow their own schedule, they will be successful achieving the project objectives.

Your project team needs to tell you how the timelines, costs and resources will be assigned and how it will all collectively resolve issues. As a project manager, you must understand that your team member are your subject matters experts and they should be able to help you forecast the project.

There are several types of personalities that a successful team must possess in order to achieve their objectives.

Leader

These type of team members show leadership qualities within their environment and are seen as facilitators and motivators that keep the team together. Sometimes there might be a clash of personalities with you, the project manager, as the fight for leadership might surface. However, a good leader knows how to recognize leadership qualities in others and utilize them for the good of the project.

Planner

These team members are very detail-oriented when it comes to planning a project and identifying requirements. They know it is important to get the facts straight and understand objectives right from the beginning and know that any late changes during the project could affect the scope, cost or time.

Team Player

These type of team members enjoy working together with their peers. They really enjoy to participate in workshops, working groups and social meetings. 

Whenever there is a task to be completed, they always volunteer to work on it as they are eager to help. 

Communicator

For all team members to be able to do their jobs efficiently and well, it is important that they are all on the same page. It is also important that the progress of the project is communicated to clients/users and other key stakeholders. Ultimately, communication is what makes a project flow smoothly.

Doer

These type of team members are dedicated to hold the lines and work hard. They are workaholics and outperform their peers. They like to be assigned tasks and get right to work. 

Expert

They are consider the  team’s Subject Matter Experts (SME). They are very knowledgeable and usually have seniority and/or authority within the organization or project. They usually explain concepts in very technical details and will always like to contribute their expertise to the project.

Creative

The creative team members like to solve problems and enjoy providing creative solutions. Their expertise and know how can be used to deliver fresh ideas to the project and come up with different approaches to tackle issues. 

For team members to work cohesively, they must learn the 3C’s, they must learn to collaborate, communicate and resolve their own conflicts. For this to happen, you must learn to trust them. 

Collaboration

All team members must work together if they want to achieve the same outcome.As a project manager, you must understand your team's abilities, knowledge and  limitations. For example, I usually let my team work on the project plan.  Working on the project plan as team members allows them to be part of the process and believe on what they are creating. They will come up with timelines, costs and resources required for each task on the project. You need to trust their expertise and give them the opportunity to solve problems on their own.

Communication

All team members must be able to communicate without limitations. They must be able to reach out to other team members and management when an issue comes up. They must be able to share their ideas and information with the entire team. As a project manager, you must 

Conflict Resolution

Conflict will always exists within a team throughout a project. Team members should be able to discuss any misunderstandings or different opinions among them and come to a resolution in order to achieve a successful project outcome.

As a project manager,  I have learned to trust my teams over my career. Even if you know that the team might underperform or not be able to meet the established deadlines, you must learn to trust them. 

Learning to recognize your team’s strengths and abilities will help you build a high performing team that is able to collaborate, communicate and resolve their own conflicts.