23 May 2008

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On Leadership
For Better Project Results, Help Team Members Develop Talents 

Guillaume K. Saouli

Guillaume K. Saouli realized eight years ago that a project manager must also be a talent manager and, in some cases, a talent developer. This was in Rome, Italy, after he took charge of installing an operations and business support system for a telecommunications company.

Mr. Saouli is a program director who specializes in information technology. In an interview with the Community Post, he said the Rome job he’d inherited was a remediation effort that was past deadline and short on resources.

He told prospective team members that, if they’d help him deliver the job, he would commit to maximizing the experience for them.

“About half of them went on to become senior team members and managers whereas when they started they had no leadership ambitions,” he recalled. “I helped them identify their talents and move on to bigger projects.”

Mr. Saouli, a Swiss national, has worked for more than 15 years with global telecommunications operators and financial institutions. His employers provide IT and information systems architectures through IT-related business consulting services that include service management, business planning, and program and project management. 

Experience has taught Mr. Saouli that a talent manager can also be a talent developer and, depending on his/her level of involvement, a mentor. “A talent manager matches a person’s technical skills to certain project objectives,” he noted, whereas a talent developer or mentor will take a long look at people on the job “and show them what they’re good at and how to take advantage of their skills.” 

Mr. Saouli offered a series of tips on talent management and development that might be especially useful to project managers working for companies with resources scattered widely around the globe:

• Take the time to know and establish a relationship with your staff. Common sense dictates that a project manager should work directly with team members and share information with them that might boost their enthusiasm for the project.

• Make sure team members know the importance of the project. “Often, the project doesn’t provide a sense of actualization for staff members,” Mr. Saouli said. “They’re making the wheel spin but can’t actually see the wheel.”

• Assess talents and potential. This involves not only matching skills to project jobs but also observing how team members respond in certain environments.
  
  “So many factors come into play to identify skills,” Mr. Saouli said. “You can’t do it with a resume or on a first interview.”

• Show team members where they can strive. In part, this means asking them about their aspirations. What sort of work do they want in the short and long term? You need to establish open, candid communications.
  
  Mr. Saouli used the example of a young professional woman was doing low-level project office work – looking at project documentation alignment. ”I showed her how to look at her potential and maximize it,” he said. “She became a project manager and service management consultant.”

• Provide the proper platform for skills development.  If someone needs a course and training in some skill, provide that. The team member’s motivation will increase and your project yield will be greater. Spending money can mean saving money.

• Be fair and open with all when conducting talent management exercises. The idea is that project managers who demand a lot of team members should be willing to provide them something extra in return.

“I will look [potential team members] in their eyes and tell them I can’t promise the job will be easy, but that if we work together I’ll be as committed to you as you are to me,” Mr. Saouli said.

He added, “I will show them what they’re good at and how to take advantage of their skills. And for me this is very important.”