Dealing with Difficult Team Members: Practical Strategies for Project Managers

Project managers often feel exhausted dealing with unreasonable client demands and, even more frustratingly, with uncooperative internal teammates, colloquially called “pig teammates.” The article compiles typical problematic behaviors and offers step‑by‑step tactics to neutralize them.

Operation One: Shifting Blame – Team members may claim they cannot solve a problem, push responsibility to developers, or tell the manager to ask another department. The root causes are unclear responsibilities, hidden conflicts of interest, and insufficient communication. Solutions include defining clear roles and deliverables, establishing a shared work plan, and fostering open dialogue to stabilize relationships.

Operation Two: Hard Confrontation – Three types of “stubborn” teammates are identified: the aggressive agitator, the follower who echoes the agitator, and the neutral party who may be stressed or misled. The aggressive type should be removed from the team; the follower should be shown the consequences of unreasonable behavior; the neutral type requires deep communication to resolve underlying issues.

Operation Three: Lax Work – Some members constantly claim they are “almost done” while delivering minimal progress. Their laxity harms project timelines despite sometimes strong abilities. Remedies include tying performance to efficiency metrics, offering clear promotion and salary pathways, and, if necessary, escalating to senior leadership to create a sense of urgency or replace the member.

The article concludes by referencing Louis Kaufman's book *You’ll Die Doing It Alone If You Don’t Know How to Lead*, summarizing one core idea and four guiding principles, and emphasizing that even the most troublesome teammates can contribute to a successful project when managed properly.