Clear communication to and between team members and consultants also contributes to keeping the team working on task and to keeping consultants working with the team, because it fosters the discipline necessary for any complex project. Project managers can strengthen the cohesiveness exhibited by great teams if they establish clear lines of communication; clearly define roles and responsibilities of all team components; set unfaltering project objectives; and act as dependable, solid project leaders. Project teams generally embrace the discipline that a good project manager will impose on a project.
Discipline gives everyone around the table a defined purpose and goal for which to strive. Occasionally, a team component will not respond at all, or will respond poorly to the discipline necessary to achieve the goals of the team. In a case such as this, the project manager must make every effort to impose the discipline required by framing his or her intentions in a manner that will motivate that particular consultant.
It would be easy for the project manager to remove the uncooperative entity from the team, but a true manager will circumvent the discipline problem by communicating project objectives in a way so that everyone will respond. A by-product of this approach will be the increased respect of all of the other team members, who will recognize the manager as a flexible and capable leader.