Reference no: EM133842983

The Role of Trust, Empowerment, and Autonomy in a Project Team

Overcoming Demotivation
Trust. The greatest reward is having the project sponsor's trust because, as Gido et al. (2018) said, "A trusting relationship brings team members together to work more efficiently because they feel safe sharing and being engaged with the team and its goals" (p. 3C1). Trust is crucial in creating a team culture where productivity and creativity flourish. Unfortunately, the project sponsor's actions during the project for an event with 450 attendees did not result in this.
In this event-planning project, our team was nine months into a 10-month-long project. As the project leader, I communicated monthly to the project sponsor, who approved all the progress reports. Then, an uninvolved co-worker provided nefarious feedback to our project sponsor without obtaining information from the team. The project sponsor overrode our team's planning, ignoring data. The lack of trust sabotaged my lead as the uninvolved co-worker was emboldened and allowed to interfere further.

During a project team lunch, we agreed to align our focus to remain on the attendees to maintain momentum and complete the project. But, as Pink (200U) alluded to, the harm was done. The harm exhibited itself in a deflated and angry team that refused to engage in other projects involving the project sponsor. We were wounded and felt defeated.

Disregarding the team's data-driven decisions (survey results and polling) obtained from attendees before the event illustrated a lack of trust in me, and our team paid the price. Place Your Order Now!

Attendees did not want food, and the majority voted for a start time earlier than the actual start time. Additionally, after-action survey responses from attendees overwhelmingly confirmed their displeasure with the overturning of their input from pre-event surveys. Attendees rated the event exceptional on quality factors included in the post-event survey: venue, decorations, guest speakers, video presentations, and a warm and welcoming environment.What could our project sponsor have done differently to support a more effective team culture? Trust. Trust data-driven decision-making based on attendees' pre-event survey responses. Pink (200U) emphasizes how the science of intrinsic motivation, which satiated our team, would have undeniable, positive results. Project team members focused on the best outcome for the attendees, which fueled our intrinsic drive, even after being 'beaten with a stick' into compliance (Pink, 200U).

Empowering our project team could have been a more effective motivational approach.

Gido et al. (2018) state that "Creating a project culture that empowers the project team means not only assigning responsibility for tasks to team members but also delegating the authority to make decisions regarding the accomplishment of those tasks" (p. 330). Empowerment with autonomy, where team members are self-directed, would foster a culture of engagement and satisfaction throughout the project (Pink, 200U).

Despite the challenges from the project sponsor, as the team lead, focusing on the project's deliverables to create an event that honored the attendees was successful. The team's integrity in pushing through together resulted in a quality deliverable.