How do you go about assessing your team members' strengths and delegating work to each member of your project team?

"I have taken coursework in team management, which has been very helpful over the years as a healthcare project manager. Everyone is put through the same benchmarks to ensure fairness and clarity in my decisions. When assessing a team members' strengths and then delegating the work to them, I have a series of questions that I go through. First, I ask what knowledge, skills, and attitude the person brings to the job? Next, how independent is the person on a scale of 1-10? I also ask if the person can take on more work and if delegating new tasks will mean reshuffling other responsibilities and workloads. I believe it's critical to assess all of these facets before making delegation decisions."

"While obtaining my PM degree, I took courses such as Society & The Workplace, Critical Thinking, and Group Productivity. This coursework helped me develop a strong knowledge base when managing teams and playing to their strengths. To delegate successfully, I will first clearly articulate the desired outcome. I believe it helps to think about the desired results and then think of who could deliver those results. It's also essential that I include my people in the delegation process so they can chime in on which tasks are within their wheelhouse. I should also match the responsibility with the amount of authority the person currently has. Delegating away too much authority would put the project at risk. I would be sure to always establish and maintain control as the project manager."

You want to avoid saying that you do not have steps in place to assess your team members' strengths and assign members based on the project needs. If you do not understand what each member is capable of, you may assign the wrong team member for the job. If a team member is assigned to a task they are not comfortable with; the project will not run as smoothly as it could.