Project Management

Project Leadership Learning Journey

This program has been designed to help develop and enhance the skill set and mindset of experienced project managers who are ready to move into the oversight level.

The primary focus is leadership that is centered on a basis of trust; thinking, and acting strategically; engaging in critical thinking; and using effective communication to foster innovation and facilitate organizational change, risk management, proactive planning and root cause analysis.

This program is highly collaborative with a goal to enhance reflection, communication and collaboration across project management staff, and will cover topics such as the oversight role, coaching, process reviews and interpersonal skills.

Program Design

A blended learning approach has been used to design the program, providing the participants with an opportunity to apply new knowledge and skills learned to advance current initiatives, and receive feedback as part of this process.

A DiSC behavioral assessment tool is used at the beginning of the program, prior to the kickoff session. This will provide valuable insight which will form a basis for individual development as well as a shared language to discuss and analyze leadership interactions when communicating with team members, peers, and senior management.

The program is designed to be spread over a 10-week period composed of virtual classroom and self-paced on-demand content. The program ends on weeks 9 and 10 with a “capstone,” which is two half-day virtual sessions that will in part involve each participant making a brief business presentation on key learning gained throughout the program, together with goals achieved that have advanced organizational projects or initiatives.

Target Audience

This course is designed for individuals in project leadership and oversight roles.

Course Outline

Kickoff — Weeks 1 & 2 (4-hour sessions)

• Overall program introduction — expectations/goals/objectives
• Strategic leadership mindset — understanding the strategic landscape — developing strategic insight
• Interpreting DiSC — leadership insight
• Identifying strategic initiatives to work on throughout the program — tied to your organization mission and culture statement
• Leadership visioning — communicating purpose and collaboration
• Trust and leadership — a vital connection
• Building and sustaining trust with integrity and respect for others and communities outside of your organization
• Being a change agent — modeling behaviors and championing a change strategy that challenges the status quo in purposeful and meaning ways
• Leading to innovate and motivate to achieve a strong work ethic linked to continuous improvement
• Proactive and action planning
• Risk management
• Root cause analysis
• Establishing peer coaching partnerships

Weeks 3 & 4 (1.5-hour sessions)

• Your Oversight Footprint — how you show up as a strategic leader
  • Define emotional intelligence
• Compare how emotional intelligence shows up in men versus women
• Discuss the four components of emotional intelligence
• Examine why emotional intelligence matters
• Identify what you can do to increase your emotional intelligence
• Build a strong foundation of skills that will bring out, define, and enhance your inner leader
  • Get results through your direct reports and peers
  • Continue to evolve yourself and others as the business changes
  • Plan and organize with efficiency
  • Drive results from yourself, your direct reports, and your peers
  • Remaining flexible and adaptable
  • Assume accountability for your actions
  • Communicate with impact
  • Influence rather than command
  • Self-disruptive leadership (Korn Ferry)

Weeks 5 & 6 (1.5-hour sessions)

• Creating a Strategic Team — creating a team culture focused on results and accountability
  • Evaluate
• How effectively a project team is working
• Identify introverts, extroverts, and ambiverts
• Describe introverts, extroverts, and ambiverts in a non-judgmental manner
• Describe value introverts, extroverts, and ambiverts to project teams
  • Diagnose
• Obstacles hindering introverts, extroverts, and ambiverts from doing their best work
• Obstacles hindering introverts, extroverts, and ambiverts from working effectively together
  • Design
• Interventions and procedures to improve introverts’, extroverts’, and ambiverts’ ability to work together
• Team meetings to be more productive for introverts, extroverts, and ambiverts
  • Coach
• Interventions and procedures to improve introverts’, extroverts’, and ambiverts’ ability to work together
• Team meetings to be more productive for introverts, extroverts, and ambiverts

Weeks 7 & 8 — Organization (1.5-hour sessions)

• Impacting Organizational Success — working to embrace diversity and create positive change within the organization
  • Understand the neuroscience behind human dynamics
  • Make use of the emotional intelligence model and associated competencies
  • Understand the core principles of change and how to make it stick
  • Explore attributes of a resilient leader leading change
  • Increase your knowledge of the business case for diversity and inclusion
  • Increase your ability to communicate more effectively with a diverse workforce and client base
  • Expand your understanding of skills, tips, and techniques to create, manage, and sustain a more inclusive work environment that supports all dimensions of diversity
  • Develop a stronger awareness and understanding of unconscious bias and skills to manage more effectively

Learning Checkpoints

• Instructor-led, virtual classroom sessions
• Review and feedback on activities during previous two weeks
• Problem solving on participants “sticking points”
• Set up for focus on the next two weeks

Capstone Session — Weeks 9 & 10 (3.5-hour sessions)

• Instructor-led sessions
• Review of key elements of the program — impact to your-team/organization
• Tie back to the mission statement and culture statement
• Participant presentation on personal key learning and development along with organization impact and achievements
• Continuous development planning — peer coaching partners
• Identifying future development opportunities
• Award of certificate

Learner’s Portal

All content for the program will be housed in an online portal, accessible 24/7 by participants. All activities and curated content for weeks 1-10 will be delivered via the portal.

MDV1485a Course Code