Giving Advice to Others

Advising your Project Team

If you are an expert in an area, people like to hear your ideas and opinions, but they often still like to make the ultimate decision of how to move forward on their project. Jennifer was a software engineer with a specialized area of expertise. She was called in to help Randy and Sue who were programming for the web. Jennifer immediately explained how they needed to do their project. The method for doing it was obvious to Jennifer. There were actually several ways the project could have been done. Randy and Sue had not worked with Jennifer before so she did not have a lot of credibility with them. They were both feeling hesitant to follow her lead.

When you are working on a project and you are the “Subject Matter Expert,” it is tempting to tell the rest of the group how something should be done as Jennifer tried to do. However, you may have better success if you “consult” with the group rather than telling them what to do. When you consult, you share all of the options of how to do a task. You tell team-mates the advantages and disadvantages of each option. You explain all the risks for each option. After you have explained all the options and risks you may choose to tell them which option you would recommend and why. Ultimately, you allow the group to make the overall decision. This gives everyone the opportunity to feel a part of the process. If they choose an option that was not your first choice, you accept the choice and help your team to implement it. If things do not go well, the whole team lives with the consequences and deals with them. It the project goes well, everyone can celebrate!

Happy Relationship Building!

Margo Wei