♪ Hey ♪
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- Hey, thanks for taking a few minutes
to check out coffee with Brett.
My name is Brett Harned and I'm the director of education.
In my job, I get to share my 20 plus years of experience
in project management.
This video series is actually
just one of my projects.
I'm creating content at teamgantt.com
for YouTube, for social, doing the live classes.
There's so much.
I'm really have fun with my job, but I gotta say,
this one is probably my favorite project.
Also a little bit of a fun fact about this project,
I manage it.
I don't just create the content,
I actually manage the project.
And I do have to say that we've missed one deadline so far.
Shh. Don't say anything.
All right.
So today I've got motivation on my mind
and that motivation's coming through this cup of coffee.
But, you know, I get a lot of emails from project managers
on a fairly often basis and people ask for advice
or they ask questions and one of the most asked questions
that I actually get is how do I motivate my team?
And I get it, you know, it can be really tough
to motivate a team, especially because motivation
is really a personal thing.
I mean, what motivates me to do a good job
or even to do a thing at all,
would probably be very different
from what would motivate you as a human
or anyone else on your team, right?
The thing is, we're talking about project work here.
So there should be no motivation to, I don't know,
keep your job, but keeping the team number employed
isn't your job as a project manager, either.
In fact, chances are, you're not even part
of your team's career management plans,
their reviews or anything else that has to do
with managing them.
Yet, somehow it's your job to motivate your team.
Yep. I said it.
It's your job and it's not easy to do,
but if you want to deliver the best possible project
on time and within budget,
it means that you need to fight for productivity.
And part of doing that is gonna mean
that you'll do everything you can
to keep your team motivated to deliver.
And I'll say it again, this one's not easy to do,
especially if you come into some difficult times
with your projects.
I know it's happened to me.
I'm sure it's happened to you too.
I've worked on some projects
that take a turn for the worse
or projects that just blow up
and the team just wants to walk away,
but they can't because we're under a contract
or a strict deadline and we have to stay committed.
And honestly, the best thing I've been able to do
as a project manager is to just empathize
with the sentiment and muster up just enough positivity
to put out the project fires, clear the path for the team
and really just do as good a job as possible.
I guess what I'm saying here is that
motivation starts with you.
What, what I'm kind of mean by that is that
you can model positive, productive behavior.
You can stay on top of your projects, goals, tasks,
constraints, and you can practice
consistent, calm communication and if you do that,
you'll show your team that you're not only committed
to being productive, just like they should be,
but it builds trust and eventually,
it builds common behavior and routines.
So it kind of sounds like another mind trick
or like some lame example of like child psychology,
but I promise you, it's not.
It's just hard work, empathy and commitment.
And honestly it works.
Now, of course, it's not going to work for everyone.
People are people after all and we all
have our own personal behaviors and beliefs,
and you're not in your role to change anyone out right.
That is never, ever, ever the intent.
In fact, embracing a diverse team with diverse skills,
backgrounds, opinions, and beliefs
will actually make you a better PM,
but you do have to cultivate
common team practices and culture.
So we're gonna talk through some really simple ways
that you can kind of motivate your team,
get the most out of them and feel good about that culture.
So here are some tips to first
kind of like help motivate your teams.
First, you have to show that you as a PM
have empathy for your team.
As a project manager, you won't be the one
to sit down and create and deliver something
aside from your project plan, but that means
that maybe you don't know how it feels
to be under the pressure to deliver.
I mean, all the time I think about designers
I've worked with and the amount of work and pressure,
that the amount of work that they have
and the pressure that's put on them to deliver something
that's good and good can be so subjective.
So I think, you know, you just have to do your best
to understand the task and the person,
and be a realistic about the time and attention
that folks need to get work done.
Because when you show a level of support,
those people will be motivated to help you
to impress you and really to do a good job
by the rest of the team.
Now, second, I think you have to read the room
and by that, I mean, you should always be aware
of what's happening.
If there are back channel conversations happening
or openly negative comments or behaviors flying around,
you need to sniff them out
because the more that you can get ahead of those issues
and work to address them, the more you'll show
your commitment to the well-being of not just the project,
but to the team as well.
After all, you know, no one wants to work in an environment
where everyone feels like things are wrong or negative,
and you can sometimes turn those things around
or at least address them, right?
At the same time, like I've already said,
it's important to think about how you personally
can model behaviors and encourage the best from your team.
In order to do that, you need to trust them.
They need to be careful about being
heavy handed with check-ins and taking their time
for things like meetings, right?
It's most certainly a balance
that can be difficult to strike in some situations,
but remember, you're all professionals
with a lot going and you're gonna get that work done.
So focus on the work that you need to get done,
trust your team will do the same and motivation will go up.
At the end of the day, I think,
if you're positive and show support, and don't ask your team
to do things that you normally wouldn't do or accept,
you know, like an example of that might be
delivering something in half the time
that it would normally take,
if you don't ask them to do those kinds of things,
they'll inherently feel encouraged by you
to do that their best because you've got their back.
All right so I need to stop myself here
because I'm talking, I can kind of high-level
and I know project managers, I know you want direct tactics.
So here's some really quick ones.
First don't micromanage people.
Zeroing in on what someone's doing at all times
on tasks on projects is a negative behavior
that kills motivation right away.
So take a supporting tone, not a box checking one.
Next, all people need space and time to get work done.
That means avoid useless meetings.
It's a fact that employees waste 3.8 hours a week
in useless meetings.
Imagine what your team could be doing
with that amount of time, back on their hands.
How awesome would it be to make them feel
like they have space and time to get work done
and not wasted sitting on a Zoom call or in a meeting.
You can make that happen for them
because you are the PM and you control the team's calendar
and you know what, saving them time
so that they can get work done is going to motivate them.
All right so the next one is to make space
for collaboration on your project.
So whether that collaboration be an ideation,
in deliverable reviews,
or even just collaborative discussions, it's important.
You know, if you can engage the team in meaningful ways
about the work and get them to collaborate on strategy
or deliverables, people are gonna get excited.
Trust me, whiteboard sessions and brainstorms
go a long way here in getting people motivated
to just work together.
All right, so three more things.
Don't be a finger pointer.
Honestly, if someone makes a mistake, just address it
without making that person feel bad
and move on because you know what we all make mistakes.
Next, be sure that you're setting
clear project goals and expectations
for how each team will help to meet those goals.
You know, sometimes having a goal stated
will make someone motivated to meet that goal.
I mean, I know I'm that way.
Give me a goal. I wanna meet that goal no matter what.
So and I'm that way in and out of work
and maybe your team members are too, maybe you are.
I mean, nobody likes to miss a goal.
So get those goals out in the open,
talk about how you can meet them and celebrate them.
All right. So I wanna round this out.
I wanna go back to my first point about motivation
and how it starts with you.
You know, it's the most important thing here,
but I wanna be sure you know that being genuine is important
with everything that I'm talking about in this video.
The minute that you fake it is the minute
that you lose trust and honestly,
you just the look awful.
So watch what you say and the tone that you use
when you say it.
And when you're feeling it, express positivity.
On screen right now are some simple phrases
you can use to motivate others.
So give it a try sometimes.
Trust me, it's helpful to be genuinely positive,
encouraging to set the tone for your team's success.
It is a true motivator, that language thing.
All right. so all of that said about being genuine
and using language, like some of these things,
like they just won't work, right?
So when all else fails, I say, feed the team.
Or when things, feel down,
just gather the team together.
Do some kind of social activity.
Even if it's a quick lunch during a busy time,
when you can get to connect with people
and see that you're all in a similar position,
you're connected, you tend to be motivated
to help one another.
So maybe gathering around a couple of pizzas could help.
I know my teams have always loved pizza
or even ice cream or coffee.
Try it.
So building on that time kind of team cohesion,
will also build practices that lead to,
you guessed it, motivation and productivity.
And to me, that's PM Nirvana.
All right, folks, that's it for this episode,
I hope you're enjoying the series.
Tell me, what's one thing that you do to motivate teams?
Share it in the comments below, and don't forget,
subscribe to our YouTube channel to get updates
when new episodes and other videos
that we're creating are released.
Cheers!
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo ♪