Being a new Project Manager, how can you manage a team which are having loyalty and allowed to report directly to the top management?

Great Question!

I have seen my colleague and  personally been in this situation. It will be difficult to accept a new manager, for a team who has been directly reporting to top management. They may seem him as a threat to their existence and may fear that the manager will take credit for the good work done by the team.

The solution is to EARN the trust of the team. A manager should never betray the team.

Team trust can be earned by following some of the following actions.

• Be open and clear in communication.
• Tell team that your job is to ease the additional pressure team has in reporting and they can focus on their core area more.
• Be honest in appreciation and praise in public.
• Tell them their mistake in person and tell them how to correct it.

Of course, for this change to take effect, a bit of help from top management is also required. If required, you can discuss this with top management as soon as you take over as manager and also seek their input.

These are some of the things which I had done to

Well preparations of document circulation from each department of your project will make the full information with you only, so any others report's sent direct to high management well be part of the facts.

Call a meeting, present an organizational chart to include chain of authority and responsibilities, and lay down your ground rules.

Through hard work and the selection of active ingredients in the project and to motivate them and distinguish them in incentives

In the event of continuing group in the same behavior I doby passing false information on the progress of work through them to the Top Director untill he lose confidence in their knowledge and he find the proper way is to get information only from me

Fully Agreed with Mr. Badrinathan Seshadri ...

This is a tough situation. But can be handled smartly. Have open meetings quite often and keep sharing the success report of the project area wise to the team and the top management. This creates a healthy competition within the team. Give freedom and responsibility to the concerned team to execute their plan and if you have an idea or a suggestion always involve atleast one leader of the top management in every mail you right. You can have an open dialogue this way. Appreciate the good things happening in the project and keep the team alive always. Be a good listener and slow to suggest.

I support Badrinathan Seshadri ..............................................

Just introduce a channel slowly of updates, then reports to you. 

work smart, not hard.......... try to own your team so that they own you... once your team owns you, gradually they will talk on you behalf, the more farther you let them go, the more alien you become with you position...

 

These things are almost everywhere.

A new PM will face initial Hick-ups, but he needs to mold to the Situation.

Make the team feel that he's a Part of them and get them to listen. PM needs to listen to them first so that he himself is listened Finally.

Pick the Odd out in Stages, Motivate and Boost the Morale. Make them Feel that they are IMPORTANT.

Several ideas were mentioned in the previous answers may help to overcome the problem, however, to me great part of the problem isn't handled here. In other words, the problem isn't only in the hands of the project team, but rather with the top management who accept such distortion to the project management hierarchy and communication lines. I believe that in the first place as a project manager, you should lay down your rules incorporating the team responsibilities, authorities, communications lines.....Etc. these rules should be communicated to both team members and management. The second thing to look into is to monitor the adherence to these rules as part of your management duties and spot the violations. Once you find the deviation from these rules you should resolve it with the staff and the management. As we all know, the best technique for resolving  problems is " confrontation" which yield a long lasting solution. Of course I don't mean that you have to fight everybody for enforcing the rules, but rather use the appropriate techniques to make others respect and follow the project rules, and here is the challenge for the project manager to convince all stakeholders involved stick to the project rules as part of the project success.

You probably have to look at the effects of such reporting and whether it undermines your role as a project manager or not before you take the appropriate decision. The alternatives here are clear, if it  doesn't affect your roles and responsibilities and has no effects on the project progress or outcomes, your job would be easier and would be depicting the fact that such reporting has no value and may be abandoned by the parties involved. On the other hand, if it undermines your role as a project manager you should adopt the appropriate techniques with your team members and the management and  pose the effects of such deviations and their consequences. Transparency and Confidence are the key issue here and the project manager should be able to build it up early in the project live, if he fails to do so or fails to convince the management that such deviations will affect the project, then he might have to take a tough decision...........