I have been tasked with developing and leading a PMO in a company I just joined in October. The company has been acquired and is now acquiring others, thus leaving me in the wonderful position of being a newbie without knowing who knows how to do what, who is part of the legacy company and who pi$$ed in the company cornflakes every morning. This being said, I have no direct reports which is great but I am leading a software migration project that touches every part of the company so there are many hands. Some hands all but refuse to do the work (and they’re the only ones that know how to do it and of course it’s not documented how it gets done), some don’t have a clue what needs to be done (and they’re the decision-makers or breakers in many discussions) and others who would be integral members of the team, don’t show up to the meetings, don’t return emails and don’t answer the phone. It’s a cluster of inefficiency with my project and position on the line at the end of it all.
So my question is….how does a PM motivate project team members to get to the meetings, get their work done and do it well? It’s one thing to be able to discipline poor performance but how do I avoid being a whiner while escalating non-performance to a whiner’s superior?