LEAD 4033 Module 5 Team Leadership and Project Closure Plan Example

Leading the Team to Opening Day and Beyond: Team Leadership and Closure for the Second Clinic

Student Name

American College of Education

LEAD4033: Project Management

Module 5 Assignment

Instructor Name

November 9, 2026

Introduction

The earlier papers for the second clinic set the charter, the schedule, the resources and budget and the controls for risk and change. None of those documents opens a clinic by itself; people do. This final paper addresses the human side of the project and its ending. It describes the two teams I must lead, how I will help the new clinic staff become a working team, how I will motivate people who do not report to me, how the project will communicate with its stakeholders and how the project will be closed, handed over and reviewed so that its lessons improve the next one.

Two Teams, Not One

The project really has two teams. The core project team, made up of the incoming medical director, our senior technician, the front office lead and the site manager from the construction firm, works together from February through opening, and most of its members are on loan from their regular jobs. The second team is the new clinic staff: two veterinarians and six support staff who arrive over the summer, most of them strangers to each other and to our practice. The core team needs coordination and focus; the new staff need to become a team from nothing in about three weeks. A single leadership approach would not suit both.

Adapting My Leadership Style

Research on project managers has found that the leadership competencies associated with project success differ with the type and complexity of the project (Müller & Turner, 2007), a finding that suggests that a project manager should adapt rather than rely on one style. With the core team, who are experienced and know the practice, I will lead mainly by clarifying goals and removing obstacles, and I will avoid managing how each person does their work. With the new staff, especially in their first weeks, I will be more directive about procedures and standards while leaving room for questions. The same person may need a firm checklist on Monday and a free hand by Friday, and reading that shift is part of the job.

Building the New Clinic Team

In a review of small-group studies, Tuckman (1965) traced a path from forming through storming and norming to performing. For the new staff, forming will begin with an orientation day at the original clinic, where each person meets the partners, learns the practice's history and pairs with a buddy in a similar role. Storming is likely during on-site training, when people discover different habits from previous jobs, such as how to restrain a frightened cat or how to word an estimate. I will treat those disagreements as useful and settle them by writing down the practice's standard, with the medical director's input. Norming will be supported by practice runs with volunteer clients and their pets during the week before soft opening, followed by a short debrief each afternoon. By the public opening, the goal is a team that knows its routines, even if it is not yet fully at ease.

Motivating People Who Report to Others

The core team members report to their regular supervisors, and I have no authority over their pay or evaluations. To motivate them, I will rely on clarity, involvement and recognition. Each person will know exactly what is expected of them and by when, through the work breakdown structure and a weekly one-page action list. Each will have real influence over decisions in their area: the lead technician chooses the equipment layout and the medical director approves every clinical purchase. I will report each person's contributions to their supervisor and to the partners in writing, so that project work counts in their evaluations. I will also agree with their supervisors in advance which hours belong to the project, which prevents people from being pulled in two directions.

Communication Plan

Communication follows a set rhythm for each stakeholder group. The sponsor receives a weekly e-mail summary and a meeting every second week; the partners receive the monthly report with schedule, earned value, top risks and pending changes. The core team meets every Monday for thirty minutes, and the contractor holds a weekly site meeting that I attend. Staff at the original clinic receive the monthly milestone summary and a monthly huddle update, since their schedules will change. Clients in the southeast suburbs receive two e-mails and a postcard before opening, and the neighbors in the retail center receive a letter explaining construction hours. When problems arise, the rule is to inform the sponsor within one business day, with a recommendation attached.

Closing the Project

Closure begins before opening day. Each deliverable has acceptance criteria from the WBS dictionary, and the medical director and I will sign off each one: the building through a final walk-through and punch list, the equipment through testing and calibration records and the staff through completed training checklists. After opening, the contractor completes the punch list within thirty days, vendor contracts are closed, warranties and manuals are filed and final invoices are paid. The unused contingency returns to the practice. Ninety days after opening, the project formally hands the clinic to its medical director and lead technician, and the project team is released, with a thank-you lunch and a letter to each member's file.

Reviewing Benefits

The charter defined success to include benefits beyond time and cost: client satisfaction at the new clinic matching the original clinic within six months, and wait times for a new client's wellness appointment below ten days across both clinics within a year. Because those measures come after the project closes, the closeout report assigns the medical director to report them six months after opening and again at one year, alongside the clinic's financial results against the owners' projection. This keeps the project accountable for the reason it was started, not only for the date it finished.

Making Lessons Learned Useful

Many organizations hold lessons-learned meetings, write reports and then never use them. Williams (2008) found that although organizations commonly try to learn from projects, the lessons are often not effectively captured or passed on, and that learning depends on social processes as well as documents. Our review will therefore have three parts. First, a facilitated two-hour session with the core team in October, built around three prompts: keep, drop and change next time. Second, a short written summary organized by WBS branch, stored with the project files and the templates we created, so the next project can start from them. Third, a commitment that whoever leads the next clinic or major renovation meets with me and the medical director before writing their charter, so that lessons travel with people as well as on paper.

Conclusion

This plan leads two different teams with two different approaches, builds the new clinic staff through deliberate stages, motivates borrowed team members through clarity, involvement and recognition and keeps every stakeholder informed on a predictable rhythm. It closes the project with signed acceptance, a clean handover, a benefits review and a lessons-learned process built to be used. Across five modules, the plan has carried one project from an idea to an open clinic, with each document resting on the one before it.

References

Müller, R., & Turner, J. R. (2007). Matching the project manager's leadership style to project type. International Journal of Project Management, 25(1), 21-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.04.003

Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384-399. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0022100

Williams, T. (2008). How do organizations learn lessons from projects, and do they? IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 55(2), 248-266. https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2007.912920