Team Building and Leadership

As the newly appointed division lead for the project management firm I work within, it is my duty to assemble high-performing teams that can accomplish the tasks assigned while using professionalism and subject-matter expertise. The first assignment under my tenure was to assemble a team that can complete a construction management project in the local area of building a community playground and dog park.

Upon taking the position, I learned that I have employ six personnel that have an array of skills that I could possible use to establish my project team. Alice is a highly skilled and motivated worker that knows her job and skillset and is also motivated to come in every day to handle the tasks at hand. Bill will do anything that he is asked to do and is also highly motivated. However, he lacks some skills need to do some of the task by himself. Chris is another that lacks certain skills and from what I have seen so far, he also is not very motivated to accomplish anything. I will need to monitor Chris’ behaviors and output to determine if there is even a place on my staff for him. Doug is very eager to work everyday from what I have gathered; however, lacks some of the skills required to be given a leadership role. I have been told that Erica has shown in the past to have high-performance skill but lately she has been preoccupied and not performing to her full capacity. I will have a talk with Erica to see if there are personal issues that are hindering her from accomplishing her normal level of performance. Lastly, Lisa is very motivated and highly skilled according to her annual reports. I look forward to utilizing her skills and motivation to enhance the team dynamics for this project.

I completed a skills-motivation matrix on each of my subordinates to clarify and rank where they may fit as far as skills and motivation. Here are my findings:

Alice 3 High Skill & High Motivation

Lisa 3 High Skill & High Motivation

Bill 4 Low Skill & High Motivation

Doug 4 Low Skill & High Motivation

Chris 2 Low Skill & Low Motivation

Erica 1 High Skill & Low Motivation

My plan for each individual is customized based off using the skills-motivation matrix and will help me determine how to utilize each worker in the best manner. Alice and Lisa are my two highly skilled and highly motivated workers. My plan is to interview both of them to see who would make the best team lead for this upcoming project. My idea is to break this two up into two different teams, each of them leading the others on different upcoming projects. Next is Bill and Doug who are both highly motivated; however, lack the skills necessary to lead the team. I will split these guys up as well, assigning one to both Alice and Lisa as their helpers. Finally, Chris and Erica are my two workers that need more engagement from me as their supervisor. My plan is to speak with each of them one-on-one to find out why they are lacking motivation and or the ability to attain the needed skills to be part of my team. More to come on this development with Chris and Erica.

Upon having a meeting with all my workers, it has been determined that Lisa will be my team lead on the playground project and second to her command will be Doug. I spoke with both of them and they seem to have complimentary personality characteristics which I believe will enhance the overall project quality. Alice and Bill will make up what I am calling Team 2. Alice will be in charge of Team 2 with Bill as her helper for the next project to come to our division. After speaking with Erica, it was determined that she was having some personal issues going on in her life recently as I suspected. Her grandfather passed away and they were very close. Erica needs some more time to deal with the sensitive issues and I granted here a one week leave of absence so she can process things and be with family. I assured her from my own personal experiences that the time off will help, and when she returns, things will most likely improve with her performance. Chris on the other hand, is a completely different issue. Chris informed me during our meeting that he has never been given many opportunities to excel in this work center. His communication skills are lacking and this led the previous division lead to avoid training him and or including him on other projects. These things, he says are what have taken the motivation away from him as he thought he was very close to being fired. My plan with Chris is to put him with Lisa and Doug on Team 1. They are the most highly skilled and motivated team and this project may help Chris develop the skills to be a vital part of any team. I plan to monitor the performance of all the team members as a facilitator if they need guidance as well as offer some coaching to Chris to ensure the team’s success. I will provide mentorship to Lisa to ensure that she knows she can come to me for guidance during the project, but more importantly, dealing with her team which is a new experience for her and the members of her team.

In developing team competencies, certain areas should be addressed by using shared leadership. Shared leadership is where I can offer mentorship to those in leadership roles so that are able to get used to their new role as a team lead. Some of the areas that I feel I would insert shared leadership are; building trust, setting clear, and measurable goals for the team. And managing conflict. By sharing my experience with Lisa in these areas will ensure she is able to lead her team to success while retaining high performance.

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