If you’re leading a project that has gone off the rails, you’re not alone. According to TeamStage, 70% of all projects fail. The probability that you, as a leader, are going to face failure when leading a project is significant.
When a project is faltering, the pressure on a leader can be immense. It can cause some to resort to more control and top-down management. These controls can backfire on a high-performing team seeking greater autonomy and creative freedom.
There are some key steps that you can take to ensure a project, and more importantly your high-performing team, gets back on track.
Why projects fail
According to TeamStage, project failure happens most frequently when there is a lack of clarity around goals and objectives. A lack of clear goals is the most common factor, leading to 37% of project failures.
It’s not likely that your team doesn’t have goals. You’ve probably explained to your team what you’re trying to achieve. It’s when leaders start losing confidence that they attempt to bring a project back into alignment through top-down controls. They often add more:
- Guardrails and stringent requirements
- Meetings and stand ups to ensure everyone is on track
- Line items in the project management system
- Deliverables to show that the team is active
- Requirements for reporting
While these activities might allay a leader’s fears about the project outcomes, there can be negative consequences for a high performing team when a leader adds additional controls. These negative outcomes include:
- Shifted focus away from project outcomes and goals. Team members can feel that the daily check-ins and reporting to management are more important than the actual goals of the project.
- Wasted time on reporting rather than doing. Reporting on daily tasks can take time away from accomplishing goals that matter.
- Interrupted focus time for stand up meetings. Often these meetings repeat the same information daily, wasting everyone’s time.
- Lack of trust. Team members can feel that their leaders don’t trust them to achieve their goals when there are too many controls over how they do their work.
- Attrition of high performers. No high performer wants to be on a team that is failing. If high performers feel that the work they’re doing doesn’t matter, that leadership doesn’t trust them, or that a project’s success is beyond them, they’ll “vote with their feet” and look for a team where they can achieve and perform at their best.
When leaders try too hard to control a project, their efforts backfire. Worse, they tend to destroy high-trust environments where high performers thrive.
It’s not just your project that’s at risk: it’s your entire team.
Assess and strategize
It’s time to take a step back and reassess.
- What are your project’s goals?
- Are the goals still achievable?
- Do you need to reallocate resources?
- Is the timeline realistic?
- Where do we need to adapt?
It’s important to start asking questions of your team. Where do they see the project, and what problems are they experiencing?
Your high performers are more than willing to tell you where there are issues. They’re passionate and committed to your project’s success, and they’re committed to their individual success as a part of your team. The more passionate, the more honest they will be. Some questions you can ask include:
- How do you think this project is going?
- Do you see any blockers to success?
- What would you do to make things better?
- Have our initial assumptions changed?
- How is the rest of the team feeling, is morale ok?
- What’s the one thing you would do to get this project back on track?
Of course, knowing your team’s Motivational Dimensions is going to help you communicate more effectively.
Signs of low morale
If your team isn’t being forthright, there will be signs. Low morale can be an indicator of a project in trouble. Here’s how to tell if a high performer is off their game:
- Achiever: Low morale in an Achiever might show up as a noticeable decrease in productivity and a lack of enthusiasm for setting or pursuing ambitious goals.
- Driver: A Driver experiencing low morale may become indecisive, less assertive, and show a diminished drive to overcome challenges or push projects forward.
- Influencer: Influencers with low morale might withdraw from social interactions, showing less interest in networking or leveraging their influence to motivate others.
- Learner: A Learner facing low morale could exhibit a lack of curiosity, pass up learning opportunities, or express disinterest in exploring new ideas and skills.
- Optimizer: Optimizers experiencing low morale may show signs of frustration with inefficiencies but lack the usual initiative to seek out or implement improvements.
- Orchestrator: An Orchestrator with low morale might become disengaged in planning and coordination, showing reluctance to take the lead on projects or contribute to strategic discussions.
- Relator: Relators facing low morale often retreat from team activities, display a decrease in collaborative efforts, and may struggle to maintain their usual supportive relationships at work.
- Visionary: A Visionary experiencing low morale may lose their forward-thinking perspective, expressing cynicism about future prospects and showing little interest in innovation or creative problem-solving.
Implement a recovery plan
With a clear assessment and a reinvigorated team, the next step is to implement a recovery plan. This plan should include short-term goals that are achievable and can quickly show progress.
Leveraging your team members’ unique Motivational Dimensions in the recovery plan can reinvigorate team members based on their own motivations as well as reinvigorate the project.
Resilience and adaptation
With 70% of projects failing, it’s up to leadership to plan for resilience and adaptation. A project might fail, but what’s worse is the impact it can have on your team. Ensure that your team recovers from failures and adapts to changing circumstances quickly.
After all, projects come and go. Some will succeed, some will be learning experiences.
But keeping your high-performing team members is foundational to the success of your organization. Leading through challenging times and failing projects, offers you as a leader an opportunity to create greater resilience.
Motivation Code can help. If you’re looking to learn more about your team to help guide them through a challenging project, we can help. See how Motivation Code can transform your organization and your team.
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