When working on complex projects, the people who make up the heart of your project teams aren’t always pure project management experts. Some of them have come from technical specialist roles where they added project management to their skills as part of their personal development. They might be engineers, who wanted better oversight of the work schedules and timelines. They might be from a procurement background where they learned what it takes to source the right materials and resources.
When margins are tight and pressure is high, it’s tempting to look outside of your company for solutions. You might look at recruiting someone who’s qualified in project management. But often, the value you’re looking for is already sitting inside your project team, quietly underused. The challenge isn’t a lack of talent. It’s that the way people are communicated with, deployed, and supported limits what they can offer. With clearer communication, better resource allocation, and stronger project navigation, you can unlock value that’s already there.
A costly assumption: “They’re only good at…”
One of the most common and expensive blind spots in business is a fixed view of your project team’s capability. When you’ve worked with someone for a long time, it’s easy to put them in a box:
- “They’re good at planning, but not great with clients.”
- “She’s a solid engineer, but not commercially minded.”
- “He’s reliable, but not leadership material.”
These judgements often aren’t wrong, but they’re incomplete. People grow. Skills develop. Confidence builds. However, if no one notices, or creates space for that growth, capability stays hidden and blind spots creep in. You may not be aware of how much more someone could contribute because the system around them hasn’t changed. The project is hectic, meetings are transactional. Roles are narrowly defined. Decisions are made at the top, and the team is expected to execute, not think. The result? You get what you expect. And nothing more.
Financial pressure makes project team performance matter more
Right now, financial conditions for SMEs in the engineering and construction sectors are unforgiving. When teams are under pressure, companies often default to adding headcount, but recruitment is expensive, slow, and potentially risky. Onboarding takes time. Making better use of the people you already have isn’t a “nice to have”; it’s a commercial necessity. If you have a look around your business and your project teams, you might consider another lever: increasing the value per person. Improvement in your project team performance could come from:
- Clearer communication and better leadership.
- Re-organisation of roles to achieve smarter allocation of effort.
- Better visibility of how resources link to commercial outcomes.
- Seeking commercial opportunities with existing project clients.
- Navigating change and deliverables with confidence.
- Giving people scope to develop and grow beyond their job title.
Small shifts in how a project teams operate can unlock immediate and significant gains. When you look at the costs of the project management team, might it be time to try a new approach?
For more information, see our insights on how much hiring a project manager costs for each option: recruit a permanent staff member, hire a contractor, engage a consultancy https://coronprojects.co.uk/project-manager-cost/
Communication: from information to alignment
Most project teams communicate constantly, but not always effectively. Status updates, dashboards, and reports tell you what is happening. They rarely help people understand why the information matters. When communication improves, teams:
- Understand how their work affects cost, risk, and opportunity.
- Spot issues earlier because they know what to look for.
- Solve problems faster and speak up with ideas instead of waiting for instructions.
This isn’t about more meetings. It’s about better conversations. When people are aligned on intent, not just tasks, they start to contribute more thoughtfully. Engineers notice commercial implications. Designers flag risks earlier. Project managers connect dots that were previously invisible.
Resource allocation: stretching skills beyond availability
In projects , resources are allocated based on availability and their current capability.
Who’s free? Who can pick this up quickly? Who’s done something similar before?
That approach keeps things moving but it doesn’t always maximise value or enable the team to expand their skillset. Over time, the same people get overstretched, while others are underused or stuck doing work that doesn’t energise them. Efficient resource allocation means understanding:
- Where people add the most value, not just where they’re comfortable.
- Who is ready to grow into more responsibility.
- How to balance short-term delivery with long-term capability building.
When people are placed where their strengths and potential are better used, productivity increases without adding headcount. This may take some effort, but can have a dramatic impact on your project team performance. The alternative quick fix is to bring in project consultants, like Coron. This can bring its own challenges, which we openly highlight here: 7 challenges of working with a project management consultancy https://coronprojects.co.uk/7-challenges-of-working-with-project-management-consultancies/
Navigation: helping people widen their view of the project
One reason capability stays hidden is that many team members only see their slice of the project with a very narrow focus. Navigation is about helping people understand where the project is going, what’s coming next, and how decisions ripple through cost, risk, and delivery. When navigation is clear, their perspective widens:
- Teams anticipate problems instead of reacting to them.
- Dependencies are managed collaboratively, not defensively.
- Individuals start thinking like project leaders, not task owners.
This clarity gives people confidence to contribute ideas, challenge assumptions, and take ownership beyond their immediate role. Opportunities don’t announce themselves neatly in a project review. They emerge in design discussions, site conversations, coordination meetings, and problem-solving sessions. That’s why commercial awareness can’t sit with one person alone. Engineers, designers, and project staff are often the first to see:
- Scope changes creeping in.
- Risks turning into potential delays.
- Innovative solutions that reduce cost or time.
But they’ll only surface those opportunities if:
- They understand what’s commercially significant.
- They feel safe raising ideas.
- They believe someone will listen.
When commercial thinking is shared, the whole project office becomes an early warning system and an opportunity engine.
Collaboration is where value multiplies
The most effective project teams aren’t hierarchical silos. They’re collaborative environments where different disciplines work together to solve complex problems. It might sound cheesy, but great teamwork is the foundation for creating more value. As leaders, you may want to nurture a supportive culture where people feel safe to fail fast and learn together.
This kind of collaboration doesn’t happen by accident. It requires leadership attention, coaching, the right structures, and a willingness to challenge old assumptions about who contributes what. An experienced third-party perspective could offer coaching and provide that support, if you’re too busy. Before you recruit to resolve the next crisis, ask a different question:
What value are we not yet getting from the people we already have?
Often, the answer is far more than you expect. The hidden value in your project team only stays hidden because the system doesn’t allow it to surface. Yet.
A coaching and development programme like Base Camp can help you get greater value from your existing people, with the knock on benefit of improving your whole team’s confidence, communication, organisation and proactivity. Talk to us about the first step towards better project team performance.