(42b) How People Styles Affect How They Manage Projects

Project management involves dealing with many different individuals, frequently from different countries and cultures. Project management also involves indirect management of people and resources. These two factors exaggerates the challenge of people interactions and motivation.

Project managers must realize that people are different deep down in their DNA. People have strong preferences in how they relate to others, how they problem solve, and the intensity and speed in which they act. These characteristics can be measured with different types of psychological assessment tools which measure how people relate, communicate, and focus; how they react to stress, and how they solve problems. All of these aspects are important in project management. Two assessment instruments will be described that can be used to improve the understanding and functioning of people in a team setting. The first is the classical Myers Briggs social style instrument. The second is the Kirton KAI(TM) problem solving style assessment. Individuals and organizations are frequently familiar with social style assessments, but rarely the measurement of problem solving style. Research in the social style area has also taught us that it is possible to predict a person's changed behavior in a stressful situation. Since problem solving and stress are a normal part of project management, the knowledge of these other characteristics can contribute greatly to increasing project team performance in addition to improving the general working relationship within the team. Several examples of project management team situations will be presented along with team response as a function of social and problem solving styles.