To better assign roles and responsibilities to each team member
Prior to assigning roles and responsibilities on projects, assess the skills and knowledge of your project team. This does not have to be a formal assessment process. Consider these simple best practices to assess the skills of your team and assign roles and responsibilities to enable for learning opportunities and ensure you meet the objectives of the project:
- Meet with each team member individually to ask about their strengths and those areas in which they would like to focus in order to further develop their skills. During this time, also ask about special skills/expertise they may have that they are not usually able to use in their roles. Ask team members specifically how they believe they might contribute to the project.
- Review roles and responsibilities team members have held on other projects.
You might send your team members a few questions to consider prior to your meeting with them so that they are prepared for the conversation. The questions may include:
- What do you believe are your strengths in working on project teams?
- If you could develop 1 – 2 skills while working on your next project, what would you want to develop and why?
- If a project has a tight deadline, how can you best contribute?
- What special skills or expertise or knowledge do you bring to project teams (for example – ability to solve problems, great at building relationships, etc.)
This is a great way to get to know the project team members and ensure that you assign roles and responsibilities that take advantage of skills, expertise and knowledge but also enable for learning opportunities (developing new skills and knowledge).
