What I Learned About People Management from a Failing Project

Introduction

As managers, striking the right balance between competence and care is essential for effective leadership. Managers must understand their team members’ emotions and challenges, actively listen to their concerns, offer timely support, and foster a positive and trusting work environment. One of the key responsibilities of a manager is to keep the team motivated and ensure momentum is maintained, regardless of the challenges or uncertainties the project may be facing.

Off-late I got a chance to work on a fixed-price project. While it was technically challenging, but it also turned out to be demanding in terms of unclear and constantly evolving requirements, delays in design sign-offs, lack of technical clarity from the client’s tech team, setting up the entire infrastructure on our own, chasing updates, and managing UAT closure and validations at the client’s end.

This project became a major challenge for everyone involved. As a Project Manager, it was my responsibility to remove roadblocks and manage the project efficiently to meet timelines, while also ensuring that the team did not lose motivation. This was challenging and made me reflect on how I could motivate the team during tough times, ensuring high-quality work, minimizing stress, and, at the same time, meeting project timelines and delivery commitments as much as possible.

To achieve this, I took some simple steps which had a positive impact, helping the team stay motivated and happy to work in the team despite the challenges.

1. Building Trust

Trust building is the most crucial part of team work, especially when you know that things are not going as per the expectations. I realised that people look out for support and stability and not authority. You need to be approachable to your team members and connect with them frequently to understand their mindset. This will not only give them motivation but also encourage them to perform better and introspect themselves on where they are going wrong.

For instance, in my project the client team was not very happy with the designs being presented to them. Despite taking help from seniors and the COE team, the client was not happy about it. So rather than blaming or pressuring the design team, we came up with solutions on how we can differently present our designs to take a buy-in from the client. This strategy actually worked and we were able to close the design phase.

2. Driving the team in Ambiguity

Sometimes when things are not going fine in the team, it is important that you navigate the uncertainty with clarity and purpose. There may be situations where answers are not immediately available, or the workload becomes so heavy that it’s difficult to manage effectively. During these times, it is important that we drive the team with utmost confidence, come up with strategic plans to manage work and team morale.

For instance, due to multiple iterations with the stakeholders in the designs, we faced scope creep, which became imperative for us to incorporate. Considering we were working on a FP project, it became tough to manage it. But we came up with a plan to include other people who had some bandwidth and would be able to help us. This not only gave certainty to the team to move ahead but also instilled the trust of the management in them.

Leading Through Uncertainty

3. Managing Team Energy

Managing team energy is as important as managing velocity in any IT project. In any struggling project, it’s natural for the team to feel demotivated. When things don’t move in the right direction, energy levels tend to drop. It is really important that as a PM, we track this and make sure the team doesn’t feel low on energy. Simple measures can be taken where we can celebrate small team wins, individual efforts, and plan 10-15 mins fun sessions. This not only makes the team feel engaged but also gives them a feeling of collaboration and engagement.

For instance, we were already conducting retrospectives at the end of each sprint. To further boost team morale, we introduced daily call-outs during stand-ups for anyone who had done something noteworthy the previous day – whether it was implementing a complex logic, completing a key functionality, or identifying a critical bug. This small practice significantly improved motivation and made our stand-ups more engaging and enjoyable.

Energize Your team

4. Continuous Engagement

Stand-ups alone are not sufficient to understand the real ground reality of team members – how they are truly feeling, their current mindset, and their expectations. These aspects often don’t surface in formal discussions.

Informal side conversations can be extremely helpful in gaining honest feedback, and the concerns raised are not always project-related. At times, team members may be going through personal challenges but hesitate to share them due to ongoing project pressures.

These “walk-the-talk” sessions proved to be very effective, helping both the team and me, especially when it came to better planning and more empathetic decision-making.

For instance, one day when I was interacting with a team member, he told me that he has some personal stuff going on due to which he would require leaves but was hesitant to share it seeing the situation of the project. We discussed and came up with a plan leading to a win-win situation for both the parties.

5. Identifying Early Warning Signals

It is critical to identify and analyse early warning signals from the very beginning of a project. Slipping milestones in initial deliveries, unchecked scope creep, and delays in decision-making are often early indicators of deeper issues. Similarly, a consistently increasing bug count or frequent extensions of working hours are not isolated events – they are systemic warning signs that something is going wrong in the project.

For instance, in our case, the first client demo was delayed, which then triggered a cascade of delays in subsequent planned demos. This experience reinforced the importance of escalating concerns early and backing those escalations with clear data, even when it feels uncomfortable to do so with the client. Recognising and acting on these signals early helped us acknowledge that the project was at risk and that meeting the original timelines would be challenging.

Conclusion

As a Project Manager, these learnings helped me in creating a more open and supportive environment for my team during a difficult phase. Team members felt confident raising concerns, discussing challenges, and openly sharing when they were uncomfortable with the project’s direction or current state.

The insights gained from this experience can be applied across other projects as well and adopted as best practices to proactively manage risks, improve transparency, and strengthen team morale in challenging situations.