Team Performance Domain

The Team Performance Domain addresses all activities associated with the people who produce the project's deliverables. A high-performing project team requires more than skills — it requires shared ownership, psychological safety, clear roles, and adaptable leadership.

PMBOK 8 frames the project manager's role as a balance: servant leadership (removing obstacles, enabling the team) combined with the situational use of authority where needed (setting expectations, holding to account). Any team member can demonstrate leadership behaviours regardless of their position.

Key elements include team culture, team development (Tuckman's forming-storming-norming-performing-adjourning), motivation theory (Maslow, Herzberg, McGregor), conflict management (Thomas-Kilmann), emotional intelligence, and creating conditions for psychological safety where members will speak up, challenge, and admit mistakes.

Desired outcomes: shared ownership, a high-performing team, and applicable leadership and other interpersonal skills demonstrated by all members.

Key Points

• Servant leadership and situational authority are both needed — adapt to context
• Any team member can demonstrate leadership, not just the PM
• Psychological safety is the foundation of high-performing teams
• Tuckman: Forming → Storming → Norming → Performing → Adjourning
• Conflict styles (Thomas-Kilmann): Competing, Collaborating, Compromising, Avoiding, Accommodating
• Emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skill
• Motivation: Maslow's hierarchy, Herzberg's hygiene vs motivators, McGregor's Theory X/Y
• Distributed teams need extra investment in trust, communication norms, and tooling
• Diversity of perspective improves team decision quality when inclusion is genuine

Key Terms & Definitions

Servant Leadership

A leadership philosophy where the leader's primary role is to serve the team — removing impediments, providing resources, and enabling performance.

Psychological Safety

The shared belief that team members can speak up, take interpersonal risks, raise concerns, and admit mistakes without fear of punishment or humiliation.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

The ability to recognise and manage one's own emotions and the emotions of others in interpersonal interactions.

Tuckman's Stages

Five stages of team development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning.

Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Modes

Five conflict-handling modes based on assertiveness and cooperativeness: Competing, Collaborating, Compromising, Avoiding, Accommodating.