Now you have the team on board. You have established joint tasks. Everything should be fine, right? Wrong. There are many operational problems that can be encountered. Let’s start with the day-to-day operations. You should gather status from the team members in person. Don’t use e-mail. That just masks what is really going on. If the team member is remote, then you should use the telephone. Use voice mail where you can pick up their tone of voice.

How do you really determine what is going on? Do not ask for status. Instead, ask how things are going. Look at their facial expressions and listen to their voice. That will tell a lot about what is really true. Then ask about what problems they are having. Ask what else they are working on. Express sympathy for them being split between their other work and that of the project. These steps will help to draw the team member out. Probe then for detail. Discuss the detail for some time. This will give you a better understanding of what they are doing as well as showing sympathy for their work. Then start to probe issues. What is getting in their way? What do they need?

Now you can zoom in on this issue and see what you can do to ease the problem. Give them a day off. Have them work at home for three days