Leadership for Project Managers Workshop
Presented by MIVA
About MIVA:
We represent three dynamic small businesses in Oakland County. Our individual companies (Mind Over Management, LLC, Performance Leadership Consulting Corp, and Shellie & Grim LLC) provide Program/Project Management Services, IT Strategy and Process Development, and Business Strategy Execution. As a group we practice as investment partners in the growth of our companies. We are part of a larger entity founded as an “Alliance” called MIVA. MIVA is based on an entrepreneurial spirit allowing our associates as a team to identify, promote, and invest in both current and future initiatives, including productivity tools and courseware.
Our workshops and course development efforts were born in part, by the current economic conditions in our state of Michigan. We felt that we could diversify our offerings by adding training to our portfolio, backed by the expertise of our companies and our organizational network. At the same time we feel doing our part, even in an ever so small way, to aid in a Michigan recovery would be a worthy effort. Our concentration is to help small and mid-sized firms successfully implement their business strategy through project execution. In many cases, unlike large corporations, these firms do not have a formal Program Office to facilitate their IT and non-IT initiatives from a project leadership and strategic execution perspective.
Building on the philosophy of MIVA, two course workshops are in progress. Our Strategic Business Execution course is under development and is slated to be a two-day workshop. It focuses on strategic initiative execution in the workplace. This course is approximately fifty percent complete. The second course currently being taught is Leadership for Project Managers. This is a one-day workshop. The leadership course is targeted to Project / Program Managers, Technical Leaders, Operations Managers, and anyone charged with responsibility for delivery of their organizations business initiatives.
Unlike many courses with similar titles, our workshop is focused on the soft skills of leadership. This course does not tell you how to create a project schedule, or how to track your budget, rather it’s focus is how to apply the types of behavior which lead to better communication, collaboration, and relationship building to successfully work with your project team and leadership.
As part of our goal to give-back and help those that have been strained by our current economy, we have offered this workshop free to various groups in our area. This approach has been channeled through a number of church organizations which have sponsored community outreach programs or business networking programs to help the unemployed. It is our goal to continue to periodically offer Leadership for Project Managers, as a community service.
Program details
Length: 1 Day
Audience: Project / Program Managers, Technical leaders, Operations Managers, others who would like to improve soft skills
Everyone knows the Soft Skills of leadership are the hardest skills to teach and learn. We also know that it is exactly these skills that separate the most talented leaders and teams from the pack. While there are literally thousands of courses that teach the technical skills required of a project manager there are very few that even attempt to teach how to apply the soft skills.
This is one of those courses. It is taught by experienced Program and Project Managers who have learned things the hard way. Together they have managed 1,000’s of projects, ranging from small teams to very large teams, from $10’s of thousands of budget to over $100 million.
Many project managers today are only managers, not leaders. Managers focus on how the work is done. Leaders focus on what work is done. A Project Leader is today’s Renaissance Man or Woman. This person has the ability to not only build a project schedule and create an entire project plan but also works with the sponsor and senior leadership to ensure the work is the right work. To put the focus on what work is done in addition to how the work is done, will:
- improve the success rate of projects
- have higher team morale
- save time and money
- deliver more value and performance
- get people promoted
This course covers:
Leadership
- Overview of leadership and what it means to those leading project teams. Defines what the Project Manager needs to do to improve the odds of success.
Leadership Behaviors
- Discussion of successful and necessary behaviors to improve the performance of project teams.
Execution Tension Model
- Unique new model that a project manager could use to show senior leaders where environmental factors are impacting project performance.
Leading to SPEC (Startup, Planning, Execution, Close)
- Takes the PM through each phase and details the leadership behaviors and steps that are required to be the true leader of the project team and not simply the administrative manager of the project.
Takeaways:
- What is a project and what makes a project successful
- What is leadership and how is it different from management
- Vision vs. goals
- The Soft Art Behaviors
- Team development and leadership
- Communication, trust, collaboration, and relationship building
- Taking leadership to SPEC
What other ways can this workshop help me:
- Enhance your interviewing approach and improve your resume – many PM courses stress the mechanics and how-to aspects of managing scope, schedule, and cost. These are common criteria used to imply project success. You will find this in every project manager job description on any online job board today.
- Separate yourself as a leader skilled in the soft art behaviors
- Does your current resume tell your true leadership story?
- Subject matter in the course is helpful to those seeking future certification in the field of Project / Program Management
- Those already certified are eligible for PDU credits toward maintenance of their certification
- Classroom participation and sharing broadens the knowledge base for all
- Networking opportunities