Project Management Skills Training – Understanding Leadership Competencies

Managing projects is not easy, but it is a crucial task in the workplace. Our Project Management training course will present delegates with useful strategies that will assist them with:

  • organising projects
  • improving project management skills
  • managing projects effectively
  • project planning
  • becoming a great project manager

With ever-increasing workloads and deadlines, the ability to manage our time has never been more important. Project management is a crucial factor in work and our project management courses are created to ensure that delegates can make their work based projects as efficient and effective as possible. We do this by supplying a project management training course that is full of tools and tips for improving project planning, time planning, delegation, organisation and management strategies, managing meetings, as well as handling and using time effectively. Our Project Management Course will cover subjects such as goal setting, improving organisation skills and managing time successfully. Our seminars are packed with useful tips and techniques that allow you to become a better project manager instantly.

Understanding Leadership Competencies

The first steps in becoming a great leader, project manager or supervisor is first we must decide what it is we are going to grow, make or process.

All work should begin with the end in mind.

What is it we want to have when all is said and done? This seems relatively obvious and straight forward when the work involved is farming or manufacturing. Where it often gets murky is when you are dealing with knowledge and service work. Most workers seem to lose sight of the long-term objective when they become overwhelmed with the short-term tasks they are performing.

Once the decisions have been made, the work must then get done. The field must be planted, the product made or the information processed.

Once the work is done, it must be delivered. This may be to an external or an internal recipient. At that point, the work either meets the recipient’s needs – or it doesn’t.

In a manufacturing setting, these three phases are relatively straightforward. Work moves through an assembly process, so that each employee receives ‘input’ in various stages of completion and is responsible for adding or changing it in some way, then passing it on. Decisions about changing the process were once the exclusive responsibility of management or supervisors. The Total

Quality Management movement did much to alter the way this work was done, but it did not alter the fundamental processes.

Modern day work has the same basic anatomy of deciding, doing, delivering, but at each step there are more complex issues:

Deciding

Project managers have a key role to play in the initial process of decision making and planning. They must be able to develop effective strategies, focusing on the end result and working their way back to the present day. This plan must form part of the team’s vision and be presented as the goals and objectives of the team and its individuals.

Quite simply, project managers whose communication skills predominate in this part of the work process can be defined as ‘What Project managers’. They may be great planners, strategists and tellers but may lack the interpersonal and motivational skills; and the process and operation skills needed to ensure delivery of the work or project.

Doing

Once a decision has been made, the process of completing the task is also more complicated. Modern day workers typically have to transform the work, not just value-add to it. We now recognise that all work is part of a system and that work takes place in the context of a process. When things break down, it is typically a process or series of processes, not the people, which are out of control.

‘How Project managers’ understand the power of process and break down the operational plan into ‘realistic’ segments that the team can visualise and add their input. They instinctively realise that decisions must be made in relation to the prioritisation of work and keep a keen eye on ‘quality versus quantity’ issues. This is an important issue of leadership because the leader must be able to communicate complex or difficult issues and make them easy for team members to carry out.

Delivery

Not surprisingly, the delivery phase of work is as complex as the first two phases. It is no longer enough just to finish a report or a project and ‘pass it on’. It simply disappears into a white hole. All workers must take a performance role in the delivery phase. They typically have to take an active role in making sure that the work they have done makes an effective transfer to the appropriate recipient – the customer (whether internal or external).

Leaders need the motivational skills to influence team members towards task completion. ‘Why Project managers’ concentrate their efforts on communicating individual, team and organisational benefits to the team. They are obsessive about individual ‘ownership’ and responsibility which are key elements of effective team building. They also ensure that effective review and evaluation occurs so that results can be constantly improved.

Project Management Skills Training

The course is designed to help delegates organise their workload while planning a project. This is done with the aid of Gantt charts and project management templates, tools and techniques. This course is also a great option if you seek project management for junior staff in the workplace as it will informatively aid staff in planning successful projects.

There are many benefits of being a project manager such as; better task management; increased self esteem; the ability to negotiate more effectively and reduce the stress which results from a lack of effective planning.