Why Leading Project Teams Is Tough
 
Projects are too common. Because of this we take them for
granted, seeing them as part of everyday work, but we don’t
approach them properly. We usually gather the team together and
then dive straight into the details of the project, without really
applying a professional approach. We certainly don’t apply as much
planning expertise to the task as we should, as we wade straight
into the mechanics of the execution. Why is that?   Poor
leadership and lack of skills make for dangerous dance partners, as
the team launches forth rocking and rolling with no strategy and
little expertise.
 
Often, there is no existing documented planning process in
place. This can be rather ironic because often the projects are
repeated or very similar projects are undertaken. Templates and
structure are missing so everyone just wings it, making it up as
they go along, re-inventing the wheel.
 
The goals of the project are often vague. This is a lack of
direction from the top leadership to those tasked with doing the
work. The project leader has to push back and manage upwards,
seeking clear reasons for the WHY of the project and then make sure
everyone involved in the team understands the WHY.
 
Project scope creep is like a cancer that can kill the project,
denying it success. The project begins with vague boundaries around
what is to be done. In quick order, either external parties or the
team themselves, become like Emus and are attracted by bright shiny
objects. Very quickly the additional tasks multiply but the time
frame and the resources committed to the project do not change.
This never ends well.
 
The implementation strategy regarding roles, budgets, timelines
and follow-up is weak or non-existent. Well, when you are having
fun and winging it, you are super busy getting on with the actual
work, so no strategy needed. Later things go wrong because
timelines were not clear nor properly planned. The resources do not
turn up at the required timing or the sequencing of the work is
found to be skewwhiff, so there are delays you cannot easily cover
or resolve.
 
You quickly find that people, rather than logistics, are the
trickiest part of project leadership. You may not have been able to
match the project team resource with the skill sets required and
you have to make do with what you have. There may be incompatible
working styles in the team and you are now chief psychologist, in
addition to team project leader, spending a lot of time and energy
dealing with staff or division conflicts.
 
The start of the project may be exciting, but over time other
tasks start to impede on this project and compete for your people’s
time. Their motivation starts to slide. You have to rally them
constantly to be enthusiastic and committed to the successful
completion of the project. This is when you discover your
communication and persuasion skills are rubbish and you are getting
nowhere with them. This becomes magnified when there are critical
issues of internal and external cooperation required.
People not completing their tasks on time unleashes issues
around trust and reliability. Their excuses are never in short
supply, but this is not especially helpful, because your boss won’t
be accepting any from you, as project leader.
 
Because you have never been trained on how to delegate properly,
you either don’t do it at all or you give it a shot, it fails and
you wind up doing most of the work. This would be fine if you had
nothing else to do and could devote your time to just this one
project. Strangely enough the organization has bigger plans for you
and they involve a whole slather of other work to be done as
well.
 
The answer is fairly simple. Train people properly on how to
lead projects. Projects are always going to occur and we should
have our own organisation’s way of doing them. This would be
developed through long periods of hands on experience and
constantly updated to reflect best practice discoveries made along