According to PMI, Resource management is the process of pre-planning, scheduling, and allocating your resources to maximize efficiency.
If you are a leader or a manager your goal is to meet your organizations objectives by maximizing your resources efficiency
Especially if you are a first time manager, you need to plan well and there is going to be tons of communication within the team to ensure the team is stable and able to achieve the set targets.
Now lets look into some of the top issues or concerns you might encounter while managing resources
Imagine, as a manager you shall wear multiple hats taking care of People, Processes, budgets, collaborating with different cross functional teams, process improvements, coaching & mentoring, giving directions, hiring… the list goes on and on and on…..
But usually you will not do all these tasks alone, if you are, you are in serious trouble. Ideally you must delegate it within your teams like the SME’s, Team leaders, Assistant Managers and the rest to successfully balance the operations or the project you lead. To Be a Great Leader, You Have to Learn How to Delegate Well (hbr.org)
here is a quick snapshot of the Project Resource Management Overview from PMBOK where it explains the Inputs, tools, techniques and Outputs (shortly ITTO’s)
before getting to managing teams, you will start with planning, estimations, hiring or called acquiring, develop teams and managing teams, finally you will set controlling to efficiently manage.
So what are some of the hiccups you face while managing teams?
While its always easy to say rather than done, team management is definitely an art as you must collectively unite your unique set of individuals together and formalize their understanding and achieve results.
Now what are some of the top concerns usually we go through while managing:
- Communication GAP : collaboration is the most important tool as part of team development. Without effective communication in terms of sharing daily performance status the team will be unsure where they are heading. So holding regular one 2 one communications and governance meetings not just with your management including every team member this will make them feel part of the team and contribute. (Proactively share the updates from your leadership for your team members buy-in and to know the importance)
- Working in Silos : this is one of the common challenge across all the organizations and a reality if the team members are working as Individual contributors.
- for example: there might be 2 different teams within the same project but people may not be comfortable sharing the information or knowledge though it will improve the overall work scope. (as manager review the team members understanding and bring them on together by arranging – if you are not working from home then catch up for a coffee or lunch together don’t just rely on the meeting rooms online and offline- people wont open up) this definitely works based on my experience managing large BPM operations
- Not sharing information : While we feel we do the best work, it is also important to coach our team members so they can learn and improve themselves, hence Delegation is the magic word here, it helps you to assign the responsibility to your team members based on their workload and availability. By doing this, increases your teams awareness and understanding towards your project and the value you provide to your customers. Note: do ensure to manage the workload appropriately to avoid over utilization or complaints
In order overcome the above situation you must
- maintain good communication and rapport
- build trust within teams
- avoid giving unrealistic targets
- delegate job which means to your team and make them feel they learn something new
- connect with your teams more often than ever.
Due to COVID situation except few countries, the rest of the workforce are still operating from home and this has already been considered as the new normal, easy to say but it is definitely hard times to manage teams via these collaboration platforms like (WebEx, Microsoft teams or Zoom) not knowing what is going on unless what you hear. 13 Tips For Leading And Managing Remote Teams (forbes.com)
Holding strong positive relationship with your team members will help always and during crisis like these by being honest and Friendly, no need to show your weight around.
Listen to this story – Who Is The King of the Jungle? | Isha Sadhguru
For SME’s/team leaders who are aspiring to become a PMP or an existing manager facing hurdles, my personal recommendation is to study for PMP Certification this course provides you the foundation on
- People – soft skills required to run the projects smoothly
- Process – technical aspects
- Business environment – connection between projects and organizational strategy
personally, this course helped me to improve my operations and my understanding towards the above foundations better.
Conclusion
The core purpose of management is to lead people towards success, so its not just about delegating and get the work done. it’s all about mutual respect and trust.
What are the challenges you faced while managing your team, please leave your comments below.