Duration

2 days

Suitable for Project Managers, and Professionals leading/managing a team.

Course Overview

This course is intended for managers and executives who need to acquire a working knowledge in People Management Techniques also known as essential soft skills in project management.

The course covers key techniques and functional skills required to operate, observe and learn how to manage project stakeholders, involve or engage them, create project buy-in or ownership, and build relationships that contributes to project success. Every participant will undergo a quick self-assessment of his/her leadership skills, then master the basics of these leadership competencies: setting direction, aligning people, motivating and inspiring, leading teams, communicating, building relationships, negotiating and leading change.

Upon completing the course, participants will have increased confidence and improved skills. They will feel more at ease and have greater control in managing for results and leading people, and ever more ready to engage and influence project stakeholders.

A high level of participation and team involvement is required. Their participation through presentation, case studies, role-plays and discussion helps to facilitate an immediate transfer of such competency to workplace. Maximum opportunities will be given to participants to inject their own examples and issues into the course and continually relate the material to their company’s strategy and organizational culture.

Objectives

Know the delicate task of leading visionary project teams including other project stakeholders.
Know and apply skills in leading a project team, creating stakeholder ownership, pacing the team through team development and motivating them.

At the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Learn the ways of handling conflicts and leading change.
Develop good communication skills.
Understand stakeholder influences and manage stakeholders in a project.

Detailed Course Content (course content timings are approximate)

The sessions will start at 9.00 am and end at 5.00 pm, or at client’s timing preference; with two 15-minute tea breaks and a 1-hour lunch.

Day 1

Leadership and Management (4 hours)

What is leadership?
The difference between leadership and management
Challenges of leading project teams
Establish direction, align and motivate people to follow your project vision
Identify and utilising different leadership styles, at different situations and team makeup
Tasking, Steering, Encouraging, and Entrusting styles
Power bases
Formal, Reward, Expert, Referent, and Penalty power

Leading Effective Teams (1.5 hours)

Assembling and empowering a team
Develop team ownership of a project
Characteristics of effective teams
Challenges of teams
Constructive team roles
Destructive team roles
The stages of team development
Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning
Co-location and geographic dispersion
Evaluate team progress
Coach team members
Reasons for communicating
Communication model
Communication channel, message encode and decode, acknowledgement, and communication blockers
Effective communication and action steps
Selecting the appropriate communication media, informal and formal, written, verbal or visual basing on the communication situation

Building Relationships (1.5 hours)

Objectives of building relationships with project stakeholders
Behaviour and motivation theories
Team behaviour
Setting positive and negative behavioural targets
Enforcing behavioural patterns
Team member’s motivational needs
Motivational patterns and deployment strategies
Relating styles
Values, Borrowed, and Masked

Day 2

Negotiating Conflict (3.5 hours)

Stages of conflict
Negotiating conflict
Major sources of conflict on project teams
Conflict negotiation strategies
Problem-Solving, Compromising, Collaborating, Smoothing, Withdrawal, and Forcing
How to plan and conduct collaborative negotiation
Dimensions of behaviour during conflict
Competitive modes of handling conflict
Collaborative modes of handling conflict
Applying conflict management styles
Preparing to negotiate
Competitive negotiation
Collaborative negotiation
Stages of collaborative negotiation
Rapport Setting, Exploration, Agreement, and Closure

Leading Change (3.5 hours)

What is Change?
Role in a changing organization
Implementing change
Predictable stages of adjusting to change
Appropriate leadership strategies for each stage
Developing a change management plan using the ADKAR model

Project Case Studies

Real Cases (Stories) on Challenges: System deployment and change management, change of user groups and effect on project, a new project manager facing difficulties to get team support and loyalty, project managers being treated like project administrators by the CEO, and many others

Exercises and Cases

Real case studies
Scenario case role-play and group exercises

Training Approach

The training uses practical exercises that take individuals outside their comfort zones. By giving the participants help and guidance during the process, confidence and skills are strengthened. We make the sessions challenging and practical through the use of role-play, experiential learning and group exercises. Participants will quickly discover their strengths and weaknesses in communicating with others. Moreover, this interaction makes classes enjoyable and motivational.

The tempo of the training is light-hearted and fast-paced. Our experience suggests that this makes people actually look forward to attending our training sessions and reinforces the motivational effects. Peer group pressure, structure and relaxed atmosphere are the key elements to the success of our courses.

Methodology

Presentation, group exercises, discussions, and case studies.

Programme scope, delivery arrangements and suitability are confirmed during enquiry.