Project Management Best Practice 6 – A+ Players

Mission critical projects often impact not only large portions of the employee population but the ability of the company to be competitive and to carry out important functions over the long-term. In fact, some projects are so important that board members and company officers literally bet the company’s very existence on the successful outcome of the initiative. With stakes this high, the question becomes: Can company leaders afford to assign anyone other than their most talented personnel to conceive, develop, and implement these initiatives?[wcm_restrict plans=”41110, 25542, 25653″]

Time and again, line managers face the challenge of maintaining current operational throughput while simultaneously supporting one or more major corporate initiatives. In many cases, these managers, whose individual performance is judged on near-term results, are tempted to assign lower performing individuals whose absence will be less impactful on day-to-day operations to the corporate initiative. This tendency, however, is misguided as it secures a relatively small short term gain by forfeiting significant ongoing and long-term benefits. Thus, it is imperative that executives and senior managers not as directly impacted to ensure line managers assign the very best, their A+ players to these kinds of mission critical initiatives.

Who are the A+ players?

When identifying the A+ players to be assigned to critical initiatives, the following core characteristics and competencies should be considered:

  1. Leadership Capability: particularly the ability to understand the initiative’s vision and to translate that vision into the projects various products and ultimately the future activities of the organization
  2. Subject Matter Expertise: beyond that of the organization’s processes and technologies, the individual should also be aware of the best practices and methodologies of other organizations within their industry and those companies from other industries with similar operational circumstances
  3. Adaptability: the flexibility and willingness to move beyond past practices and the status quo to achieve improved results
  4. Organizational Respect: of peers, subordinates, and senior leaders in order to gain acceptance for their project development decisions by those who would ultimately implement and own the product’s deliverables
  5. Sound Communications Skills: to both convey knowledge and insights to team members and project decisions, outcomes, and deliverables to owners and implementers
  6. Teaching/Coaching/Mentoring Skills: to transfer an understanding of how to successfully implement the project’s deliverables to end-users
  7. Basic Technology Skills: to facilitate use project management, communications, and other tools critical to the project’s implementation

Each A+ player need not possess every core competency. However the team as a whole must possess enough of each skill to make the project viable.

Final Thought…

Consideration should also be given to the availability of the A+ player over the course of the project’s lifecycle. Project team members often serve change champions, super users, and go-to knowledgeable resources who help instill the project outputs within the organization particularly through the initial go-live period when performance tends to decline. If project team members are not available to shepherd the initiative through this often challenging acceptance phase the initiative may lose momentum; delaying positive results recognition or resulting in project implementation failure.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”41110, 25542, 25653″]


Hi there! Gain access to this article with a StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription or buy access to the article itself.

Subscribe to the StrategyDriven Insights Library

Sign-up now for your StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription for as low as $15 / month (paid annually).

Not sure? Click here to learn more.

Buy the Article

Don’t need a subscription? Buy access to Project Management Best Practice 6 – A+ Players for just $2!

[/wcm_nonmember]

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *