Staffing Strategy: Appreciation & Recognition

Kyungae Won

Arizona State University

OGL 321: Project Leadership

Dr. Christine Mann

November 1, 2020

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 TAKE AWAY:

• The Importance of Team Morale: Cause and Effect

• Proactive vs Reactive This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC

• Building Human Relations

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC
 This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

THE IMPORTANCE OF TEAM MORALE: CAUSE AND EFFECT OF A FAILED PROJECT

Simulation B relied heavily on the energy and morale of the team. As the stress level was elevated due to loss of team member partly
through the project, these were the measures that created the project to fail.
CAUSE EFFECT
LOSS OF TEAM MEMBER CREATED ADDED STRESS IMPACTING PRODUCTIVITY
OUTSOURCED VENDORS TENSION DUE TO DISCONNECT 3

POOR BUDGET PLANNING EXCEEDING THE ALLOTTED BUDGET

LACK OF LEADERSHIP FAILED TO DELIVER THE PRODUCT
 THE IMPORTANCE OF TEAM MORALE: CAUSE AND EFFECT OF
A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT

Recognizing the impact team morale was on the overall performance of

not just the team but the project manager, it was crucial to approach
with one thing in the forefront, how to ensure team satisfaction. These
are the adjustments made to deliver the project scope.

CAUSE EFFECT

MINDFUL APPROACH TO HIRING SUPPORTIVE TEAM MEMBERS

CLEAR COMMUNICATION CONFIDENCE AND TRUST

IS BUILT

CHECK-INS, SUPPORT CADENCE MOTIVATED AND DRIVEN TEAM

SATISFIED TEAM MEMBERS DELIVERED UPGRADED

PRODUCT

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PROACTIVE VS REACTIVE

Interesting to consider the emotions resulting in a situation can have on a project. It’s certainly easier to manage a project than a

person and more so when there’s a certain degree of separation between you and that person. As a successful leader, project

manager or in everyday life, intentional planning can be the difference between success and failure. Proactive means, “ as acting

in advance to deal with unexpected difficulty”, (Kerzner, 2010) whereas according to the dictionary, reactive means, “acting in

response to a situation rather than creating or controlling it”. In today’s world, project managers often get tapped to manage

several engagement at once (Kerzner, 2010) so for this reason alone, clear prioritizing and planning is vital. Too often, when we

get caught off guard, we make careless mistakes often could have been avoided.

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LET’S LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCE WHEN WE APPROACH THE SITUATION IN THE FOLLOWING:

PROACTIVE

• MITIGATE RISKS AND CONTINGENCIES TO MINIMIZE IMPACT

• ABLE TO SEE THE BIG PICTURE

• ANALYZE THE SITUATION AND DELIVER THOUGHTFUL RESULTS

• EMOTIONS ARE ABSENT

REACTIVE

• THE IMPACT IS TOO GREAT BY THE TIME THE PROBLEM IS SURFACED

• ONLY ABLE TO FOCUS THE IMMEDIATE NEED

• DECISION OFTEN LED TO FAILURE OR NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCE

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
• DRIVEN BY EMOTION

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BUILDING HUMAN RELATIONS

Projects shouldn’t be just transactional and only thing that matters is the result. Of course the ability to deliver the project is

important but how you got there plays just as an important role. I’ve often been reminded; I lead a team of partners and

the responsibility is for me to provide them with all the tools and resources to ensure they succeed while feeling supported.

If I can accomplish this, the rest will follow.

Robert Hershock said, “the trust, respect and especially communications are very, very important” (Kerzner, 2010) as this

is a foundation of any successful relationship. When this is created and you have a strong foundation to build on, then

reinforce the desired behavior by being a role model for how you want them to behave with one another (Bondale, 2020).

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IN SUMMARY
This module dove into the impact our decision making will have on our team members, thus either successfully delivering the
project or not. There can be many variables or risks that we need to consider but “are the risks we are aware of likely to happen
or outliers?”. I would have to agree when it comes to the morale of the team, the risk is real as it can derail a project
instantaneously as it did for me in the simulation b. The risk was completely avoidable if I would have paid closer attention to the
project description and prepared for the loss of team size, instead, I reacted resulting in very stressed team members who failed
to deliver the product.

Being in retail, I've faced loss of team members and like the simulation, it put a tremendous amount of stress on my partners.
This caused me to work almost 60 hours a week and customer connection score to drop which effected the number of returning
customers. It took me some time to get the level of team and my morale back on track. From this experience, I devised a plan to
have regular team assessment which included having 1:1 connects for development conversations as well as to know who may
be at risk but most importantly, hiring for talent rather than to fill a position from desperation.

My current team is very strong, and we are like a family. Through the pandemic, we had regular team check-ins and the care and
concern for each other was moving and very heartfelt. I had one partner share; the weekly check-in was his only connection to
other humans as he was very afraid to go outside of his home. His vulnerability gave others to open up and share their fears and
thoughts. My team may not always deliver a successful project, 100 on customer connection score, but the relationship they've 8

built gives them the enthusiasm and drive to come back and try it again together.

I enjoyed and appreciated the reading this week because it allowed us to acknowledge the human side of project management
REFERENCES

Bondale, k., (2020, november,1). Don’t blame corporate culture for not cultivating psychological safety within your teams!.

Retrieved from https://kbondale.Wordpress.Com/

Brown, c., (2020, august, 28). Retrospective topic: are we managing risk?. Retrieved from

Http://www.Betterprojects.Net/2020/08/retrospective-topic-are-we-managing-risk.Html

Kerzer, h., (2010). Project management: best practices-achieving global excellence (2nd edition). Retrieved from

http://site.Ebrary.Com/id/10366591?Ppg=417

Name of the authors of photos unknown, powered by bing.