Introduction

Leadership in project management is a journey of discovery. It begins with finding the best of who you are and continues with developing and nurturing your ideal leadership identity in order to develop skills that will make projects more successful. This course will reinforce your own personal leadership identity to become sustainable with every action you take, or decision you make in all your projects.

In the context of managing projects, the more people abilities you have, the better you are able to get the job done. Accordingly, this course pays special attention to enhancing your ability to leverage personal skills in order to positively influence others. It presents the skills and methods needed to gracefully and assertively influence others in a project over which you do not have direct control.

The course covers different leadership traits, characteristics, behaviors, and styles. It examines interpersonal styles and skills as they affect project leadership, motivation, team dynamics, trust, and employee empowerment. The integration between concepts is covered with the view to create more opportunities for your project to succeed while maintaining your integrity.

Finally, the course focuses on getting what a project needs through negotiation. It demonstrates how influence tactics, personal power, and organizational politics can all be used while involved in various aspects of project negotiating.

Course Objective of Personal Effectiveness & Influencing Skills

Works through resistance; Conveys personal conviction; persuades others, gaining their support and commitment; addresses concerns of others.

• Links ideas to others’ concerns, interests, and needs.
• Provides logical arguments with a sound rationale for ideas.
• Conveys personal conviction and enthusiasm for ideas.
• Demonstrates how own views address the unit’s or plant’s needs.
• Works through resistance and objections.
• Gains support and commitment from others.

Seminar attendees will:

• Learn practical techniques to enhance their project leadership skills
• Exercise a wide range of concepts to enhance their power and ability to influence others
• Manage corporate politics at the project level as well as the senior management level
• Master forms of power and evaluate strategies to increase their total power to make a project succeed
• Identify principles, guidelines and common methods of negotiation on projects
• Develop negotiating strategies that focus on interests and common goals of projects instead of positions

Course Process of Personal Effectiveness & Influencing Skills

This five-day course is highly interactive and practical. It enables participants to develop effective project leadership, influence, and negotiation skills for immediate application. Using various case studies, diagnostic self-assessment questionnaires, role-playing activities and group exercises to consolidate learning, participants will have the opportunity to assess the relative impact of each and every aspect of course materials as they affect the human factors implicit in project management.

Course Benefits of Personal Effectiveness & Influencing Skills

Attendees will gain by participation in this program as a result of:

• Discovering their own unique leadership identity and learning how to project a more dynamic image
• Learning how to nurture and continue developing their leadership identity
• Becoming more politically astute while maintaining their integrity and ethics
• Fully understanding the range of skills and competencies required to influence and negotiate project needs more effectively
• Applying lessons learned to refine their skills in gaining and using influence positively
• Increasing levels of confidence in negotiating with project stakeholders
• Learning how to protect themselves against the pitfalls of intra-organizational politics

Course Results of Personal Effectiveness & Influencing Skills

The organization will benefit by:

• Having highly competent employees with greater skills in working in the role of project leader
• Developing and refining skills for project leaders which in turn raise their own capabilities and morale
• Empowering project personnel to focus on practicing results-based leadership
• Having equipped project team members to tackle negotiations in a more effective manner
• Increasing the ability to motivate, influence and empower others to meet project objectives
• Better understanding and management of organizational and project politics as a corporate fact of life

Course Outlines of Personal Effectiveness & Influencing Skills

Day One

The Nature of Project Environment and Organisational Politics

• Challenges in the Project Environment
• Politics: Project Management Fact-of-life
• Project Management: A Political Art
• Organizational Politics and the Project Lifecycle
• Organisational Culture and Its Impact on Project Management
• Project Politics and Self-Awareness
• The Role and Influence of Project Stakeholders
• Factors that Contribute to Organisational and Project Politics
• Political Behaviours for Project Team Members
• Guidelines for Developing Political Skills Necessary for Project Team Members
• The Need in a Project Environment for Result-based Leadership

Day Two

Project Leadership

• Traits of Effective Project Leadership
• Project Leadership Attitudes
• The Three Building Blocks of Project Leadership
• Project Leadership Styles
• How Personality and Self-Awareness Assists in Project Leadership
• The Concepts of IQ vs. EQ in Project Leadership
• Project Team Leadership: Communication and Coaching
• Behaviors that Develop Exceptional Project Leaders
• Project Leaders in Action

Day Three

The Use of Power and Influence in Project Leadership

• How Power and Leadership can Create Excellence in Project Leadership
• The Necessity of Power in Projects
• Sources of Power
• Project Leadership and Powerful vs. Powerless Talk
• Building a Sense of Personal Project Leadership Power
• Empowerment Models and Practices
• Influence Tactics for Project Leaders
• Key to Successful Influence in Project Leadership
• Attitudes and Behaviours of Project Stakeholders
• Developing Dimensions of Credibility in Projects
• Project Leadership Trust-Building
• Why The Communication / Trust /Agreement Relationship is Necessary for Project Leadership
• Project Leaders in Action

Day Four

Negotiation for Maximizing Project Results

• Why Projects have The Need to Negotiate
• The Project Leader as Negotiator
• Preparing for Project Related Negotiations
• Active Listening and Negotiation with Project Stakeholders
• Emotions and Conflict in Project Related Negotiations
• Principle-based Project Related Negotiations
• Common Negotiating Errors
• Negotiation Tactics Necessary for Project Leaders
• How Persuasion and Delegation can be used for Success in Projects

Day Five

Project Leadership Development

• Self-Awareness’ and Self-Discipline Skills for Project Leaders
• Project Leadership Learning and Mentoring
• Leadership Transitions in a Project Environment
• Devising a Political Strategy for Project Team Members
• Creating a Positive Project Culture
• Dealing with Project Stakeholders in a Multi Relationships Management
• Be the Whole Project Leader Package