Author. Master Instructor in PMP and PMI-ACP Exam Preparation. Project Management and Business Administration Tutor.
PMP Exam Tip of the Day: Team SME's who Lack Leadership Skill There’s no training course that is greater for learning how to communicate and collaborate with team members than the decision to place someone in a position to lead a task and demonstrate that they can communicate and collaborate with their team in a live environment. SME's with a high level of technical knowledge and a low degree of critical interpersonal skills can exist on teams. This is not an unusual situation. With increased skill and knowledge comes the need to ascend to a level where they can share the knowledge and aid in the development of others. You are typically faced with two options to address this team member: 1. Place them in a leadership role on an important task. 2. Assign them to training on the importance of communication and collaboration. Option two is typically more appealing because we intuitively connect training with filling capability gaps. Yet a lack of critical interpersonal skills is not the same as a lack of technical skills which is easily addressed by acquiring the necessary skill through training. Critical interpersonal skills must be assessed within a live working environment. The team member must be placed in a situation where they can execute and develop the communication and collaboration skills through live interaction with the team and close observation by the project manager. They have to learn how to lead team members. There are courses you can send them to but without being in a position to execute the skills they have been taught by project leadership they won't truly understand their gaps. The gaps are revealed through coaching sessions with the project manager. If a need for training does exist, they will better understand how the training can aid in resolving the gap. Without actively participating as a leader in a live working environment, they would have no known gaps to associate future training to. #PMP #PMPROLEARN
