This is a scenario with one of my friends who is a PM managing 8-10 projects. Most of her project team members just dis-respect her and whatever she says in a meeting, is just pushed back.
Even if the agenda item that she brings up is valuable to the team, the team just dis-regards that and all the people in the meeting start howling/yelling from all directions and she is not able to control them. When I look at her issues, I see a lot of value in them but somehow her team members just seem to ignore her.
From what she has described me about her team, she told me that her team members want to do things in their way and don’t want to be driven by others. They don’t want to follow any rules or guidance and hence any PM who tries to bring up good issues which can lead to greater productivity (of course now the team will have to follow that pattern to achieve success), the team just dis-regards that. She mentioned to me that she has overheard the team members calling her by names as well.
So how should she handle these situations? What can she do to effectively get her message to the team, even if they don’t like. Note that she has the power to layoff people but she wants to keep that as the last option. She can also forcefully get her message to the team but she wants to see of there are other actions that she can take before taking any strict action. Any comments. BTW, has anyone else faced this kind of situation where people just seem to dis-regard your suggestion and show dis-respect to you as you are trying to bring in some rules and regulations on the project?

网友分析一：

There is a difference between laying someone off and terminating them for lack of performance or insubordination. If this project manager is also the supervisor of those on her team, she should immediately consult with her Human Resource department for the appropriate next steps.

If these team members report to other managers, she needs to meet with the manager and problem-solve how to get the right work effort from that manager’s department (i.e., different resource than the current one).

This is staff management 101. If your friend doesn’t know how to approach dealing with difficult staff, she’s lost control of her project -- and now it’s become her performance and not theirs that will be measured.

作者的补充:

First of all, thanks for the feedback.
To begin with, they are her resources. So she has full control on them. As mentioned earlier, her team is used to work at their pace and they never had anyone who imposed restrictions on them. She is the only one who is trying to bring in these new guidelines/standards. The team usually works 4-5 hours of the day and spend the rest of the time for their personal leisure. Now my friend is pretty new to the company (has been there for approx 6 mths), but the problem is that she is the only one who is trying to improve the project performances, bringing new guidelines, standards (the management expects her to bring those things), but the team is against those changes. They do not want to take orders from anyone and want to work at their own convenience. Because of this attitude of the team, several projects have went over budget and of course, the quality is horrible. So what my friend is doing is trying to correct them.
So how should she handle the team. As you mentioned, now its her performance that is at stake, as she is in minority and the team is all united. However, I would say that she has not lost control over the project. Management does listen to her but doesn’t want to openly criticize the team (you know how they are). They tell her that her steps are perfectly OK and she should move ahead with it. So she becomes the bad guy for the team as the team says that when the management is not complaining, so why do you want to implement those ideas.
So again, how should she gain the respect of the team without compromising on the quality of the project.

网友分析二

This is a complex issue, many personalities and agendas. It looks like she needs management support. Without that she will have a very difficult battle.

I would suggest a few things.

To get management?s attention she may need to detail the difference between her way and the way things are in terms of business performance. Trying to quantify poor quality can be a challenge, but it would be helpful in building a business case. Over budget is relatively easy to show the savings. Make a business case for doing it her way! Numbers talk when it comes to upper management.

Now if she can do that she can ?control? the team and demand performance. She does need that in her back pocket if push comes to shove. She may ultimately be held responsible for project performance even if she has ?alerted management?. She needs to CYA. Again to be kept in her back pocket.

My preference is to have the team want to follow. Even with management support that could be tough. Perhaps she can work something with management to get incentives for reaching performance and quality goals? She needs to understand the team?s drivers. It does not sound like they are very motivated.

I would prefer that than stating repercussions for not reaching performance. Perhaps there is deadwood that needs to go? But perhaps it is culture. That is hard and slow to change.

Last resort. Get authority from management to lay down the law perform or get out! It may come down to her or the team.

A lot of this depends on the details and personalities. She needs to find champions in management and within the team. She?s in a tough spot to be sure!

网友分析三

Having been in the shoes of your friend I understand her frustration.

First of all, when the inmates run the asylum it is time to lock things down.
She cannot do this in a group situation. As their supervisor its time to do a little ?Return to Jesus? one-on-one counseling.

I would do the following at once.

1 Conduct performance reviews with each direct report. If they are insubordinate then write them up and put them on probation ? 90 days to clean up their act or OUT.

2 Develop performance criteria for each team member. This criteria must consist of a current baseline measure and an improvement goal. It should contain hard deliverables and soft skills. Make this part of their compensation and advancement process. For example these performance goals might consist of the following

2.1 Delivery of assignments on time and on budget ? 50%
2.2 Demonstration of contribution to continuous improvement of moral ? 20%
2.3 Demonstration of improvement in attitude towards management ? 15%
2.4 Demonstration of professional conduct at meetings ? 15%

3 Begin recruiting for new staff, external to the company. She is bound to have some turn-over once the team members realize the game is over

4 Look inward and determine what leadership skills she is missing and get help fast.

5 Assess the impact on the projects if there was a 20% turnover in staffing. Develop a recovery scenario.

6 Bring her boss into the picture but only after she has a recovery plan in place. Boss?s hate cry babies and complainers. Best case scenario is her Boss addresses the teams and lays down the law.

And don?t fall prey to the ?indispensability of key staff ? lie. Better to bite the bullet and invest in long-term success than to promote eventual failure.
Good Luck

网友分析四

Here’s a radical idea. Maybe she should task the group with the performance improvements, instead of trying to dictate them.
There are basically two ways to get people to change - the carrot or the stick.
The stick approach only works when you’re willing to take the consequences (lost staff in this case). The carrot works and the results last longer. It seems like your friend is used to using the stick method. I suggest using the carrot method and see what happens. If your friend has control of the budget, we can put up a reward. If the team can increase productivity by, say 10%, they all get a monetary bonus. Of course, this can be more effective if the two methods are combined. Increase productivity/quality for a bonus or risk a financial penalty (no raises or reduced raises).
It seems your friend has to prove herself and gain the respect of the team. It may be best to set small, very short term objectives and keep her word on the outcome. In the end, she needs the cooperation of the team to achieve any objective, so it is best to let the team have a say in what the objectives are and how to met them.

网友分析五

Some good points being made in this discussion. Here’s my $0.02:

1. This situation sounds like a classic IT cultural issue. This manager’s resources have not been managed at all in the past - they have been left to do what they want to do, when they want to do it, and how they want to do it. Now they are being managed - and they (predictably) don’t like it. I have watched managers try to start actively manage such technical IT people, and there is always a big emotional push-back ("how dare you manage me!").
2. In case anybody hadn’t noticed, there is a recession on. My evidence, although anecdotal, suggests that those folks who leave or lose a job at present are taking 6-9 months to find another one. Any of those insubordinate team members may want to consider that issue, or have it gently brought to their attention...
3. The folks who whine and threaten to leave are always the last to leave. Period. Some of the folks on the first project I managed for my current employer are still there - 3 years after they were vocally threatening to leave if anybody made them do anything different. Sometimes it is true that empty vessels make the most noise.
Having said all that, I agree that this manager needs to start soliciting her management’s support, making a business value-based case for change upwards, and managing the team as a set of individuals, rather than falling into the "it
’s me against them" mindset. Typically in this sort of situation, there are one or two leaders and a number of followers. The followers can often be detached from the leaders over time, leaving those leaders with limited options (quit, whine and lose credibility, or change).
Another syndrome that you need to guard against is the tendency for the team members to try to "end run" the manager by taking their concerns to upper management. This project manager needs to keep an eye out for this to occur. Typically this will happen after she starts turning up the heat on the reluctant team members...
Factors not mentioned in this discussion are the time factor for change, and the probability that the team is in denial about the issues and the need to change. I have discovered that sometimes it takes 18-24 months before meaningful change to occur. Often the team members are in denial about the nature of the problems, so the entire change cycle (Denial onwards) must be worked through.
This manager needs to develop a Change plan which is supported by upper management (so that when the team members try to end-run they will be rebuffed) and which focusses on individual performance and contribution expectations. The team members need to be given every opportunity to change - but the consequences of failure to change need to be spelled out, with HR backing if necessary. This will give some of the less intransigent team members pause for thought (some of the more entrenched members may not want to play, but they’ll change their minds when they find that they have no captive audience any more). I agree with the poster who commented that nobody is indispensable. If anybody threatens to resign, it’s time to push the paper and pen across the table, and invite them to follow through....
This is a difficult nut to crack. I wish this person well. I’ve been there, and things can get ugly.

网友分析六

This looks like a classic case of an over hyped management inclined discussion. All the "posts" have been looking at only the PM angle and "management", how do we get work from the resources.

It has been explicitly mentioned by "The Anonymous" that the team anyway works for about 5+hours a day. Which is pretty productive. It is just that they need to be stretched for an hour+ more and also the main point as the discussion goes is "get them stick to conforming the processes?. First things first, Does the PM has the required skills to manage the project. I am sure her intensions are good to get the project on track but if she hangs loose on her subject, bang there she goes DEAD. The thing is she’ll never get respect (Which is exactly the point in this discussion), secondly to cover up her role she might be pushing things down the line to the team, who however would feel the pressure. I mean if were in her position, I would have studied the resources perfectly well before embarking onto the project in that role. I would have estimated the project accordingly, taking their skills sets and time consideration into count (All this if I have "confidence" signed off from all the stakeholders). If after estimation, I get to see that the project is not meeting the deadline as per the estimates and existing resources, I would change the team totally. Simple. Recruit new people, shift and share resources, contract a few or whatever.

I guess the PM in a fit of enthusiasm, definitely did a mistake I guess, of not estimating accurately and not escalating issues upfront because of which the project seems be in a chaos now.

I rather suggest instead of concentrating all efforts on resource management, concentrate all efforts on project management, at the end of the day customer and the company should in no way get affected.

I guess the discussion is more about ?Performance? and ?Conformance? and not about ?Management?.

网友分析七

What approach this PM chooses depends, in some respects, on the long-term goals she has for her involvement with this team. She can certainly use the stick, and beat the team with it until they comply -- that is, threaten layoffs or pay cuts or reassignment or other unpleasant things. That probably would scare the team into compliance and get them to complete the current project according to her wishes. And that’s a valid approach if her goal is simply to get the current project done and there are no longer-term goals. Unfortunately, if she wants to or needs to have a productive working relationship with this team into the future, she’s going to have to find another, more constructive way to motivate her team. Bottom line, don’t forget human nature: people are more likely to respect those who respect them first. If the team’s been on the job for any length of time, then they know the ropes. They’re howling, I would guess, not just because someone is trying to dictate to them, but because they recognize that the directives they’re getting are in some way incompatible with what they know the job requires. I’d bet that if this PM pulled the team into a meeting and before saying anything else said: "I know you guys have the best ideas for how to complete this project because you’re the ones with the hands on experience. I want to hear your ideas" there’d be a big change in the attitude of her team toward their work and toward her. Not everyone will buy into that, but enough of them will that she can begin to work in partnership with her team instead of at odds with them. The people "in the trenches" know what works and what doesn’t work; management needs to give them a voice and really listen to what they say. If she starts doing that with her team, I predict a lot of the current problem will go away and, if she can maintain this approach, her working relationship with her team will be much better going forward.

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