How To Build An Effective Project Team? 10 Essential Tips For Project Success

The art behind how to build an effective project team goes far beyond a data-driven recruitment policy. Essential things like thorough understanding, strategies, leadership skills, and use of software can help establish effective team management and make your team members work better together and become more than the sum of the parts. However, that won't stop us from trying to cover them all in this article. 

So, if you're at a loose end or simply looking for ways to refine your project management team or create a completely new project-based team structure, turn off your distractions and pay close attention.  

1. Identify clear project goals and and familiarize your project team members with them

Of the keys to creating a successful project plan, laying out well-defined goals and project vision is surely the most ubiquitous of them all. The project manager should explain goals in detail to the project team members as a whole and explain why they are important to your clients and to you as an organization.

Goals help you measure success as a project manager, and checking them off is a great motivator for your team members. For the best results, bear in mind the SMART methodology from the outset. Your project goals should be:

• Specific — easy to understand and not too broad to manage

• Measurable — time or scope-constrained, with metrics to indicate good performance and measure project progress

• Attainable — within the capabilities of your individuals as well as project resources

• Relevant — each goal should contribute to the overall successful outcome

• Timely — set deadlines for project tasks to incentivize your teams and keep your work on course

Clear project objectives are a core element for building an effective project team as they help everybody understand not just what they're doing throughout the project lifecycle but also why. Many managers and project leaders increase the likelihood of a successful project by working on goals in collaboration with their team. This gives each individual a sense of ownership about what they're doing, which is ideal for engagement.

2. Recognize diversity as a far-reaching advantage of any project team structure

We've touched on how project objectives can help bring team members together, but what kind of team do you want in the first place?  

A hiring strategy to build an effective project team should always focus on diversity. We're talking both in terms of background and working style.

Ideally, you'll build a project team that represents a vast range of perspectives and specialized skills — that's what drives your creativity. If you pack your team full of people who think like you and draw their inspiration from the same places, you can't expect to bring about innovative solutions.

Having said that, a diverse project team won't all want to work in the same way, and team leaders need to be prepared for that. Therefore, your project team structure should include different working styles. For example, in-person or video meetings favor talkative personalities, while other team members who are more methodical workers might need to go away and give issues some deep thought before coming up with the goods.

When considering project team structure, you need to focus on hiring and giving each individual the opportunity to express themselves. However, the project scope and the project sponsor's opinion should be taken into consideration.

3. Promote a healthy working culture

While the advantages of a diverse project team are clear for all to see, if everybody is singing from a different sheet, your projects will barely get off the ground. Therefore, to build an effective project team, you need to set some common ground rules so you can channel each individual's creativity in a productive way. 

This is all about creating a positive atmosphere that people are happy to be a part of. Classic traits of these cultures include encouragement from everybody, including the senior management, and allowing people to speak up with new or left-field ideas. 

We'd advise you to create a set of expectations for your project management team. Far from micromanaging, you can write them in collaboration with your team and cover areas that are beneficial for all. Areas you can cover include:

• Behavior — supporting each other while rejecting aggression and toxicity

• Working practices — using the same tools and strategies to collaborate and communicate

• Responsibility — individuals being accountable for praise and criticism

• Conflict resolution — clear expectations and a fair, unbiased inquiry system

4. Define clear project team roles and responsibilities and ensure accountability

Now you've got your project team, you should think carefully about how you deploy them during a project life cycle. It's rare that project managers have to work with a dream team that aligns perfectly with each task, so there will inevitably be cross-functional teams. However, by matching individuals with their specialty as much as possible, you'll have a far more efficient and motivated team's work. 

Aside from the practical functions, the project manager can also offer different responsibility roles for each task to team members. This helps to create an environment of accountability to help your project team structure and get each task over the line. As we'll see in the following section, the project management office can include these task-specific accountability levels as you build an effective project team in your management software. Levels include:

• Responsible person — the one ultimately in charge of the task who chases up missing work and solves any problems that arise.

• Creator — for easy accountability when looking for anyone who created the task in the first place.

• Participants — these people will do the legwork and stay up to date on any changes or requests.

• Observers — usually senior profiles, observers are those who have responsibilities like monitoring progress but won't actively participate.

Assigning clear roles is essential for success and meeting the project's requirements as it reduces questions of who should do what. Even more than that, the sense of accountability goes a long way to stopping tricky elements falling through the cracks.

5. Enhance your strategy with smart resource management software

There are endless ways that software can help build an effective project team, but at the core, it is powerful team project management software. With the best tools, project managers and their team members have one dashboard to visualize all your goals, tasks, responsible people, deadlines, instructions, project manager reports…, and you get the picture. 

We'd recommend working with your team to explore different formats, such as Kanban boards and Gantt charts, to see what works best for everybody. Then, you can get on with scheduling your future projects and assigning tasks and project team roles.

Supercharge your project management software with automations. Some of the best automation for project management include automating your workflows so tasks for the entire team are assigned when they are ready with zero input from a project manager.

Many functional managers get slightly anxious when relinquishing responsibility to the algorithms. However, the best project team software will come with analytics and reporting where you can keep an eye on tasks approaching their deadlines, performance metrics, project documentation, and updates on each task.

The project manager can even generate individual team members reports. Take stock of your progress at regular intervals and address any issues before they grow into project-threatening problems for a smooth-running project management team.

6. Create a clear, free-flowing communication strategy

Poor communication is an ever-present threat to projects. Whether it's because of personal differences or poorly planned strategies, when communication breaks down, it leads to unfinished tasks, disturbed project timelines, and confusion. You should already have detailed your communication strategy in the working culture section, but here is where we'll explore the technicalities for most project teams. 

When you build an effective project team, you need to set the standards from the outset and keep everybody on board. One key example is to channel all task-related communication through your project management tool.

Project managers can't expect people to trawl through their inboxes and instant messaging systems whenever they need to find instructions. By containing it in one place, you seriously reduce time wasted and keep everybody on the same page. 

For the best chances of meeting the project's requirements, you should consider which communication tools you use for every situation. For example, project managers could use video conferences for introductory meetings and updates at regular intervals.

Email works well for announcements but shouldn't be overloaded with communication. Instant messenger is great for quick questions and social chat that holds teams together, but remember that important updates can easily get lost in private messages.

7. Be sure to recruit adaptable profiles

Being adaptable at work is becoming more and more important across industries in response to a rapidly changing business landscape as well as technological advances. Even without these elements, no matter how well you plan your projects, you can't predict the future. When project managers need to change direction, they need the backing of team members. 

In real terms, this means you need people who are willing and able to wear different hats through the project. You might need your finance team to play a bigger role in planning your overall goals or a communications specialist turning their hand to sales.

As we mentioned before, try to match people to jobs that require their skill set as much as possible, but be extra encouraging of those who are really stepping out of the box.

Similarly, you need your team to be aligned on the business tools they use. For security, efficiency, and clarity throughout your project, working with individuals who are happy to learn new software is essential to successful project management.

Even the best performers can hold the project schedule back if they can't adapt to being a team player. Therefore, as you build an effective project team, consider each individual's flexibility and commitment to the bigger picture. 

8. Structure your project team building efforts

Like creating a healthy working culture, project team building is one of those soft strategies that can make small teams outperform their more well-funded competitors.

Especially when it comes to remote work and distributed teams, creating a group that gels together is a key part of making everybody feel valued and united. If you're located in the same area, project managers can launch social events to break down the barriers that can be hard to overcome in the office. If you're working as a virtual team, video conferencing activities, such as quizzes or competitions, are a great way of connecting people.

The practical effects of having a strong project team are clear in how people communicate with each other. There is a level of trust and comfortability that means asking for a favor is no big deal, and individuals are more likely to pull their weight and cover for each other

9. Create repeatable processes and templates

Some of the most important work in building an effective project team takes place behind the scenes. Specifically, we're talking about the workflows that you can launch at the click of a button and tweak and improve to streamline your project team even further next time. 

Workflows are an integral part of project management: Every project has processes that are identical in terms of tasks, albeit different in content. Take the following lead generation steps for example:

• First contact

• Lead qualification

• Follow up 

• Final pitch

Once you find a system that works, create a repeatable template and launch it for every project. Not only will project managers save time in planning but everybody will be used to it and therefore work more effectively. Throughout the project, you should be on the constant lookout for ways to improve your processes and make your team even more efficient in the future.

10. Build an effective project team through leadership

If you're experienced as a project manager, you'll already know that being a team leader goes far beyond assigning tasks and taking home the biggest pay packet. You are ultimately responsible for your team cohesion — motivating them, resolving conflicts, and supporting them when the going gets tough.

Some of the more practical aspects of being a project manager include scheduling catch-ups on an individual and team level (but not letting them take up valuable working time) in order ot collect and provide constructive feedback. Remember to be private with your constructive criticism but public with your praise, whether it's in person or on your company intranet for remote teams. You should also lead the end-of-project review and reflection — an ideal opportunity to plant the seeds of improvement for upcoming projects. 

Finally, your leadership style can be a driver of motivation and growth among your team. Experiment with delegating tasks to those who have proved themselves to take on the responsibility, and offer training opportunities if someone expresses a desire to broaden their skillset.

The Best Project Management Software

Now you've got a clear idea of how to create teams in project management, as well as how to keep them performing and motivated. However, it won't have escaped your awareness that by using the right technology in your team, you can all work much more efficiently and pull in the same direction.

That's why Bitrix24 goes far beyond an already impressive project management tool. Natively integrated on the cloud with communication channels, collaborative docs, recruitment tools, and so much more, it sets the groundwork so you and your team can focus on what they do best. 

So if you're looking to build an effective project team, Bitrix24 is the place to begin. Sign up for free today and start managing your teams like a pro. 

FAQs

What makes a project team effective?

There are myriad elements that can make a project team effective, such as:

• Clear, logical goals

• Hiring a diverse set of complementary perspectives

• Strong professional and personal connections

• Smart use of technology

• Competent leadership skills

• Healthy work culture

What are the 2 most important traits of a good project team?

Zooming out from the intricate details of a good project team, the two underlying traits are talented individuals and effective collaboration.

What are 4 of the key elements for teams to be effective?

The top four key elements behind the effectiveness of teams are:

• Clear goals and a roadmap to achieve them

• Well-defined roles with the right talent assigned to them

• A positive team spirit with people willing to help each other

• Data-driven processes that you consistently improve