Project Leadership, Management and Communications is an interactive course designed to provide a solid foundation in key leadership competencies and to afford you the opportunity for a truly transformational leadership experience. As a participant, you will complete a self-assessment of your leadership skills, then master the basics of these leadership competencies: setting direction, aligning people, motivating and inspiring, leading teams, communicating, building relationships, facilitating ethical conduct, negotiating and leading change.

After you assess your skills, you’ll create and refine a personal leadership vision and work on strengthening your leadership competencies as you develop your personal Leadership Development Plan. You’ll learn how to empower yourself and other team members through more effective negotiation based on an understanding of the differences between competitive and collaborative negotiation approaches—and you’ll gain an appreciation of the importance of a collaborative “win/win” negotiation process. You’ll also gain a clear understanding of why communication is so important—regardless of how a project is organized. And you’ll discover how business and personal ethics can influence your leadership style and personality, and how your individual leadership style and personality can influence the course a project will take.

Working with other professionals and an experienced instructor/facilitator in an interactive classroom environment, you’ll engage in revealing case studies, lively discussion and practical exercises.

Project managers and business professionals who need to increase their leadership skills will find Project Leadership, Management and Communications to be extremely valuable as they master important skills to get the most from their most valuable project management resource—their people!

This course is aligned with version 2.0 of the Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK)™.

Leadership and Management

• What is leadership?
• The difference between leadership and management
• Assessing your leadership competencies and developmental needs
• Articulate your leadership vision, in light of the assessment, and consider the best way(s) to realize it
• Processes for establishing direction, aligning people, and motivating people to follow your vision
• Identifying different leadership styles
• Tasking
• Encouraging
• Steering
• Entrusting

Leading Effective Teams

• What is a team?
• The stages of team development
• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing
• Adjourning
• Leading and maintaining effective, productive teams
• Evaluating team progress and coaching team members as necessary

Building Relationships

• How individual differences affect your ability to lead
• Identifying your motivational patterns using the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI®)
• How to be more influential by understanding motivational patterns
• Using an understanding of individual differences to help you manage conflict more effectively

Ethics and Leadership

• The definition of ethics and the link between ethics and trust
• The role of ethical behavior and leadership
• The difference between personal and organizational ethics
• Discuss the effect of the triple constraint on ethics

Negotiating Conflict

• Major sources of conflict on project teams
• The five modes of handling conflict
• Forcing
• Smoothing
• Withdrawing
• Compromising
• Problem Solving
• The difference between competitive negotiation and collaborative negotiation
• Conflict scenarios and strategies for initiating conflict resolution
• Power bases used in typical organizations
• How to plan and conduct collaborative negotiation

Leading Change

• Your role in a changing organization
• Predictable stages of adjusting to change
• Appropriate leadership strategies for each stage
• Developing a change management plan

“This course is extremely helpful in improving daily interactions and working relations between colleagues. The course helps analyze people and the best method to communicate so that everyone is satisfied and results are available.”


Robert Leach, Global Health Specialist
FDA

“The course was very interesting and useful. The course helped me better understand what my manager and team leader expect me to do in certain circumstances and also how to apply these skills in future assignments.”


Lika Natheladze, Lead Project Services Assistant

BP Georgia

“The material covered could have easily been applied to any occupational position and, further, in your general life and relationships. I was expecting certain material to be covered, but what I didn't expect was to have fun and be excited about the materials along the way, and I certainly was.”

Angela Mitchell, Senior B&P Specialist

FATS Inc.

"I was very nervous about working with an online group that I did not know. My worries were groundless - it was a great experience, facilitated by a good instructor."

Kay Crull, Chief Manufacturing Officer
American Red Cross