5 Simple Ways to Make Your Project Team Love You

Whether you’re new to your team or you’ve been leading them for months or years, it’s never too early or late to endear yourself.

And finding ways to make your team love you is good not only for you.

If done with integrity and honesty, it can boost morale, build trust, and make work happier for everyone.

5 Great Ways to Make Your Project Team Love You

Endearing yourself to your team doesn’t take a lot of effort.

As a matter of fact, the following suggestions are simply a good way to approach work all time time.

Read on to to see how you can work with everyone’s best interest in mind and make your team love you.

1. Ask how you can help.

Don’t simply give your team a project schedule and then expect that they’ll take it and run with it. It’s expected that you’ll work closely with the team to carry out the tasks you’ve worked together to plan.

But in addition to this, look for ways to help the team meet milestones and goals.

Look for ways to add value by assisting when possible.

Pay attention to potential pain points for clues where you can help.

I was a project manager in an organization that shared developers across multiple projects. We had a project that needed to be delivered within a tight timeframe. The technical lead informed me they had a lot to do and were worried that they couldn’t meet the delivery date.

I proposed that before we tried to shift delivery dates out, I’d like to help wherever possible. I couldn’t write code, but I could create workflows and diagrams to share with the customer as part of the requirements and documentation.

This allowed the developers to keep writing code, and keep moving the project forward enough to meet our due dates.

There are many ways you can offer to support your team. Many times if you just ask, they’ll help you think of ways to support them.

They’ll appreciate the offer, and often you’ll be able to help in ways you hadn’t considered.

2. Communicate and be transparent.

Keep your team in the loop on what’s going on. Don’t let them find out from someone else that the project timeline has been shifted or the scope has changed.

Nobody likes unpleasant surprises.

Keep them updated and informed throughout the project.

3. Give them credit for their work.

Find ways to give team members credit for the work they’ve done.

Even better if you can be specific about team accomplishments and who did them.

If a team member had to do significant research or put forth extra effort to accomplish a difficult task, make sure others know.

If a team member has gone above and beyond to make a customer happy, let others know.

There are multiple ways to do this:

• Let them demo their own work during team demos.
• Point it out during presentations.
• Send an email and copy management.

It’s important for team members to have a chance to feel pride in their work, and this can be amplified when others know, too. And it can be good for team morale and their career.

4. Show appreciation.

Let team members know you appreciate them. After all, success is a team effort, and you all work hard to get the work done.

You can do this in many different ways, both big and small. It doesn’t have to cost a lot to say “thank you.” Here’s a list of 22 Simple Ways to Show Team and Coworker Appreciation.

5. Build in some fun.

All work and no play is the norm in many workplaces. But it doesn’t have to be.

Build in some time for team building or team bonding activities. These can be structured or more informal.

Keep it simple, or get creative.

Take a poll or brainstorm ideas that appeal to the team. Something as simple as going to lunch together once a month, or out to happy hour once a quarter, can build rapport across the team.

Summary

You’ll note that the ways of working listed above aren’t difficult or challenging. It simply requires paying attention and treating co-workers with respect and appreciation. You’ll be known as someone others look forward to working with.

And you may even become the project manager that others specifically request.