• As we learned in Week 7, your business sponsor and customer informed you that you have to deliver your project much sooner than anticipated. When you break the news to your team, they are not happy with the decision for they are concerned that the project will now fail. Using the information you learned from readings, what can you do as a leader to ensure your project team that this is the right thing to do? What will you do to motivate them?
• After posting your response, respond to at least one (1) of your classmates on their recommendations.

Respond to:

During the life of a project a team is going to experience disagreements and conflict. They can disagree over priorities, allocation of resources, quality of specific work, solutions to discovered problems, and so forth (Larson & Gray, 2014, pg. 394). During project definition, the most significant sources of conflict are priorities, administrative procedures and schedules (Larson & Gray, 2014, pg. 396). However, it is important to note that sometimes it is not the presence of conflict, but the absence of conflict which can be the issue (Larson & Gray, 2014, pg. 396). Project managers play a major role in establishing team norms and the team will react based on the behavior being displayed by the project manager.

As a leader of the project I set the tone. First and foremost, I need to present the news to my team in a “non-defeatist” manner. I have to present the news to them in a “tone” that assures them that we will be successful. Therefore, I would call a team meeting to address the group and their concerns as a whole. Each person will hear the same message and will have a chance to voice any questions, thoughts or concerns to the group. As a leader I must innovate and maintain stability by putting out fires, restoring order and getting the project back on track (Larson & Gray, 2014, pg. 359). I need to help them see the big picture. Our mission and vision hasn’t changed; just the start date. Therefore, it is my job to help them see the big picture by creating a shared vision and how their contributions to the project fits within the larger strategy of the firm whose needs we are trying to satisfy. Project managers are also motivators. I will encourage individualism but stress the importance of teamwork. This requires fair and consistent treatment of everyone on the team.