Change with Confidence: Answers to the 50 Biggest Questions that Keep Change Leaders Up at Night

Chapter 20

How Do I Set Up the Project Team for Success?

The beginning, as the proverb says, is half the whole.

—Aristotle

How you set up the project team will set the tone of the project and communicate how you will run it. The kickoff meeting is a golden opportunity to demonstrate your leadership style and establish guidelines for behaviors so that team members work well together, avoid barriers, and manage conflicts.

The first step is to define the work environment you believe will enable your team. Typically, collaborative, committed, hard-working, and fun environments are the most effective. These characteristics need to be portrayed in your kickoff meeting, and by modeling these behaviors, your team members will follow suit.

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