Six Sigma implementations have now become quite common and most of them basically lay stress on improving quality, reducing wastage by curtailing the defect rate, and augmenting overall efficiency. By implementing Six Sigma, businesses can now easily hope to achieve near-perfection, i.e. a defect rate that does not exceed 3.4 per million opportunities at any given point of time.

Implementing Six Sigma is no doubt quite beneficial - but since the implementations are easier said than done, it becomes necessary that businesses take proactive steps for ensuring the success of Six Sigma project implementations.

The export of jobs overseas has become a hot-button issue in newspapers, political debates, and business management. Strong feelings exist on both sides and many people simply cringe when they consider the possibility of outsourced accounting services.

One of the most important resources behind the success of any projects is people who are involved in it, namely the project team. While it is the job of the Project Manager to deliver the final goods in a project, it is also his or her job to make sure the project team stay on course of the project and completes it. Therefore, the mainstay would require a continuous motivation. Although motivation skill is sometimes missed out as one of the selection criteria for a Project Manager position, many have now come to regard it as one of the most important and intangible factors that a Project Manager must possess, which is essential to develop and maintain the stamina of the project team throughout the project. After all, it is people who accomplishes all tasks thus the project. Clearly, it requires skill to motive people and it cannot be achieved overnight. Broad and relational-based experiences, soft skills, interpersonal and observation skill, management support, team building program, reward budget and a degree of latitude in a project are some of the important key factors in determining the strength of a Project Manager in team motivation. A Project Manager needs to use these factors constantly to control the motivation gear of his or her project team in order to manage the level of the team’s morale and sentiments. Suffice to say, a Project Manager needs to know all types of motivation and carry the motivation toolkit along with him or her in all circumstances. Motivation comes in many forms; Encouragement, inspiration, constructive correction, tangible rewards, feedback report all of which demands the versatility of a Project Manager. The result of motivation can then be measured also in various forms; a positive change in working attitude, a high level of proactiveness, an increased quality of output, a high team throughput, cohesiveness in team work and so forth, all of which must fall within a Project Manager’s radar for him or her to take further action if required. So now the grand question - What does a Project Manager needs to have to be an effective motivator to the project team? I would like to point out five pivotal factors. 1. Communication In managing a project, a Project Manager spends about 90% of the time in communication. As clear as the day, it is not difficult to recognize the essential need of communication alone will determine how far a team is motivated. A Project Manager is analogous to the rudder of a ship. It is his motivation know-how that will help steer his people to the right direction in accomplishing the objective of the project. A project team cannot afford to disperse in different directions, and miss out the finishing line. Motivation is like an inner compass that a Project Manager needs to have to direct and guide his or her project team. The effect of motivation is to keep the team intact, integrated and moving. Communication clearly stands out as an important factor to the success of motivation. Establishing clear objectives, delineating responsibilities, governance structure, issue handling, giving team project directives and requirement specifications all require a fine level of communication that can mitigate or prevent confusion amongst team members. When confusion hits the project team, the signs that accompany it are usually clear cut ; rework, extra working hours or overlapping of roles. These are like air pockets and can cause motivation level of to fluctuate. Hence, it is important to communicate with the team as early as possible. For example during project kick off meeting. Setting project objectives, aligning team and individual’s expectation to proper perspective is encourage to develop an initial confidence and gear the team up to move forward with the right thrust. When team members have acquired clear and palatable information, they become more focus and coherent in knowing what to accomplish and what to expect after that. This is important as goal-oriented individuals need to get a sense of personal expectation and target fulfillment in a project. On the other hand, an absence of clear and detail information could bring about a sense of “lethargy” and lead to unnecessary extra work that could bring down the morale of the project team altogether. 2. Project Vision and Personal Goals Remember that not every individual who joins a project is looking out for tangible rewards, although invariably most would prefer a salary hike. As I like to put it, money is a byproduct of good performance. There are some individuals who prefer to place personal achievement above other type of rewards. Also, it is quite pointless to have tangible rewards when individual are not personally satisfied over what was actually accomplished by them. In fact, when people get on board, most of them are looking for a vision they can fulfilled first. When a vision of a project is also a vision of individuals, this will create the right motivation framework to ensure every individual has a crucial role to play. Remember each project team members also need their personal vision to fit into the larger vision of a project. Understanding and fitting their vision is equally important. This type of motivation will do good in engaging individuals to the purpose of the project in a meaningful way. As such a macro vision needs to be personalized for individual to take ownership. Project Manager needs to know how to align his or her project team to the rail of the higher vision. Hence, a Project Manager needs to spend time setting out expectation with different individuals. This will ensure they are on the right track fulfilling project objective as well as their personal vision. By doing this a Project Manager will not run the risk of leaving any team member out in the overall delivery of the project. In short, all of them need to be recognized. It is, therefore, the job of a Project Manager to attribute project success to each individual’s hard work and dedicated effort to give them an inner fulfillment which money and title position cannot offer. This is the apex of motivation that is most fulfilling. 3. Reward and Recognition This is perhaps the most common type of motivation factor. Salary, bonus, promotion and position titles are among the most used traditional method to motivate a project team. Many other type of rewards have joined the bandwagon since such as project trips, family benefits, types of medical coverage, work from home, are all assortments of motivation factors. According to Maslow theory, because these are part of the hierarchy human needs, it is not possible to exclude them from any project. However, this requires sensitivity from the part of a Project Manager in knowing how to distribute and apportion rewards correctly and justly without setting off dispute and jealousy among team individuals. A good foresight Project Manager would prepare a reward system ahead of time. A reward budget can be determined before the official start of the project. A Project Manager can work out the “end” to determine the size of the “carrot”. In determining an estimate profit at the beginning of a project, a Project Manager should be able to work out a reward structure with the Senior Management. In doing so, team motivation can, therefore, be set out as early as possible in a project. And once again, a clear communication is needed to set the right expectation on what individual team members can receive when their jobs are accomplished well. Because this Expectancy Theory is nothing new, it is almost always the first thing every team member would seek to want to know. I find that it is important to have the reward system in two folds – at individual and group level. The rationality is quite simple. Individual reward motivates personal drive to achieve self-fulfillment whereas group reward motives individuals to work with another to achieve corporate fulfillment. The whole idea is for one to become a cog to another that makes up the whole movement to complete the project. While individual team members are reward seekers, let us not forget the smaller things a Project Manager needs to know about motivation based on observation and feedback. Do not despise small things even though it may appear insignificant. An example, a pat on the back for a job well done sometimes goes a long way. People are made up of feelings, so their work and performance need to be followed up on a regular basis. A Project Manager needs to be aware that every member will usually start off with a fire of enthusiasm and just as fast, it can also reduce to just embers when stress, tension and criticism all come colliding and fizzle out the team. So, an observant and effective Project Manager does more than just follow up on the status of the project, he or she needs to also follow up on individual well being and performance as well. This of course needs to be accompanied by correct and all round feedback from other participants in the project. Finding creative ways to get and release feedback on individual’s performance can stoke sufficient motivation while adding mileage to their energy and drive level. A Project Manager must nonetheless discern the right circumstances and be ready to give honest feedback. Negative feedback needs to be reconstructed to present from a positive perspective. Whatever the report feedback is, a Project Manager should not hold them back. The price of sparing feedbacks could later come in a painful form of poor morale or attrition. In the same tone, a team as a whole must not be neglected as well. A Project Manager should recognize the power of integrated motivation that comes through welding the team members together rather than just focusing on individualism. No individual should be left aloof as this is an instant killer to individual motivation. Likewise a team’s day to day performance should not be taken for granted. A corporate recognition is also required. A good way to do so is for the Project Manager to find occasions to celebrate as a group. This could be done at the end of a project phase or when a major deliverables have completed and accepted. And not forgetting to hold a grand celebration with the customer at the climax of a project completion. It is indeed an art of team integration for a Project Manager to intertwine people of different skills, cultural background and expectation to form a cohesive and highly motivated workforce. Administering holistic motivation is essential to determine the health of a workforce, the speed of delivery, initiative level, and proactive attitude in a project team. Needless to say, one of the most challenging tasks in a Project Manager’s portfolio is to not just move selective individuals but the whole herd to the right direction of the project. 4. Personal Development Many Project Managers tend to forget that there is a career development roadmap that needs to be identified first before we place individuals on a project race track. Every aspiring individual team member wants sometime valuable they can take away at the completion of a project. Hence, a degree of motivation is required here. A Project Manager must be able to convince his or her team members that the project experience they are working on is a trophy that will add recognized credentials to their CVs and professional value. Individual development plan needs to be seriously considered and worked out. Every completed project must have a good ending that hails success and at the same time realizes the advancement of individual development. Every project should provide a fertile soil for an organic growth for individual career path. It is important then, a Project Manager plays the role of an advisor to different individuals in order to get their early buy-in. A passionate Project Manager is contagious in his or her influence and motivation. He or she can bring to an individual’s understanding on the importance and profitability of the project they are involved in from the perspective of career growth and knowledge advancement. Of course, there are times when a Project Manager can get resistance from different individuals who cannot withstand the heat of the project or who do not see the benefits of the project. A Project Manager therefore also needs to be a good paradigm shifter to cause individuals to look at challenges or negative circumstances from an angle of personal growth and maturity. Finding ways to motivate is so subtle sometimes. But, these are part and parcel of a sought after skill a Project Manager needs to embrace that comes from a wealth of experience in handling and managing people. As a Project Manager, I often find constructive ways to angle my team to look at areas which are so taken for granted, yet are gems of experience if we know how to take good advantage of them. For example, many people would flee or turn off at the sight of pressure or seemingly perennial issues. Yet if we take time to construct them from a positive side, the kind of experience we go through could eventually build the right kind of credentials and capacity so needed in days ahead. So, even with the rising of “opposing” circumstances, a Project Manager can also fully make use of this as a motivation feature to help out individuals. 5. Organization Structure An organization structure will determine the degree of empowerment for a Project Manager. We need to recognize that the type of authority a Project Manager acquires and the type of motivation to be given to a project team is closely associated. Bluntly, this means limited authority means limited say on the type of rewards to be given. So again, a Project Manager must set out to do his or her homework on how to find ways to motivate staff within a confined structure. For an example, in a matrix type of organization, most resources would be on a loan basis from different Functional Departments. Thus the authority of a Project Manager over some resources may be limited. While a structure like this is seen as constraint, it should nonetheless provide a good opportunity for relationship building between the Project Manager and Functional Managers across different departments. So though Project Managers may not have the right empowerment over these resources, the great need here is to work closely with Functional Managers to deliver the right motivation message to the project resources. In the same milieu, individuals should not get confused over who they are reporting to, their scope of work and who will assess their performance. This can be avoided by sharing a balanced empowerment between a Project Manager and Functional Managers, giving the former a good slice of authority to appraise and reward individual resources. With the right amount of authority, this will give an edge to the Project Manager in motivating individuals. In addition, individual team members from different functional departments should not be recalled to work on their functional work and disrupt the progress of the project. This could distract the attention so needed to complete the tasks given to these individuals. If this is not taken care of, sooner or later this could evolve into a demotivation factor as the individuals would prefer to contribute to areas which could either return them with greater rewards or their career growth. Consequently, the whole team could lose focus. So, before a Project Manager starts helming a project, he or she needs to understand the dynamics of the organization makeup, know the relationship among various departments and study the strength and weakness of the project team structure. The key secret to working out a motivation plan is to understand the political environment and the level of influences of key Functional Managers that the Project Manager is going to work with. Negotiating skill and lateral relationship are great assets here to acquire the right kind of authority over project resources. Another good example on how an organization and team structure can determine what type or magnitude of rewards can be granted for different individuals of a project team has to do with the source of the project. For example a pet project that is close to the CEO’s heart would get rapt attention from Senior Management. In essence, this can cut through the thick fog of red tapes and reduce the turn around time to get things done. Motivational rules are much easier to implement. Proposition for reward can get approved faster and time to deliver the “motivation” carrot stick would be much speedier. Positively, this can minimize or prevent the welling up of frustration at the ground level.

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