To steer a new project, it is essential that you trust your team. If this is not the case, how do you change this feeling?
Identify the causes
If you do not have confidence in your team, try to understand where this sentiment comes from. Is it because your team’s members are new? Is it rather because you have worked with them previously and have doubts about their competence? Whatever it is, take the time to fully understand why you have a negative impression.
Name things
“I sincerely believe that the more a manager puts his cards on the table, the less friction there will be in a team and the more the members will trust each other and vice versa,” explains Nicola Godin, production manager at Ubisoft Montreal. He adds that a team that knows what to expect and that understands each member’s strengths and weaknesses will be able to produce, and also to react well at the most difficult times, which will also help your management.
Taking the time to get to know your team
Have you taken the time to get to know the people who make up your team? How can you have trust in your team if you don’t know who they are? Without developing a personal relationship with them you can still take time to get to know them, at work or outside. This will help you see them differently, to know their values, their skills, to understand how they assimilate information.
Nicola Godin proposes doing non-work related activities, to weld the team and give you the opportunity to know them in another context, for example in a sports team, an escape game, doing cooking together, etc. The goal is to get to know them in contexts where members of the group will have to use skills other than those they use every day.
Accept not being the expert
Your expertise, as a project manager, is to bring the project to a successful completion. There may be someone on your team with the same expertise as you, and you do not trust them because you think you have more experience than them. It will be difficult for you to know if they are doing good work or not, hence your distrust. In all cases, being transparent about your fears and questions while remaining professional will make all the difference.