Project Management Skills Training – Project Leadership Competencies

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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.

Project Leadership Competencies

THE PROJECT MANAGER’S ROLE

The Project Manager is ultimately responsible for delivering a specific end result, within agreed quality, cost and time restraints. This requires a disciplined approach to ensure that:

  • The project is established and planned effectively
  • An appropriate project team is selected and established
  • Tasks are planned and scheduled
  • The project plan is implemented, and problems are resolved
  • On completion, results are reviewed, and the project team is disbanded

KEY SKILL SETS OF A PROJECT MANAGER

  • To identify areas of non-routine work suitable for project management methods
  • To set clear specifications and objectives to achieve the highest quality of outcome
  • To design a detailed budget to analyse and effectively predict project resource costs
  • To retain independence of mind and think flexibly during all stages of your project
  • To motivate staff directly or indirectly involved with the completion of your project
  • To recognise and resolve problems, conflicts and differences that arise in projects
  • To negotiate for the resources required by your project at the appropriate time
  • To monitor progress against the budget and schedule you set out for your project
  • To measure project performance against the quality of outcome objectives set by you
  • To communicate effectively with all concerned before, during and after completion

Research into the productivity of high-performance project managers has found that they share common characteristics. These can be categorised as leadership competencies and are proved to be essential for a project manager to lead a team successfully. We have listed these competencies below.

  • Setting goals and objectives
  • Thinking strategically
  • Communicating effectively
  • Managing time and priorities
  • Achieving quality
  • Taking ownership and responsibility
  • Motivating and influencing
  • Reviewing and evaluating

When they make decisions, they make them with the end in mind. This comes from a clear vision of what they are trying to achieve.

They create project and action plans designed to implement the project completion. Typically, they establish precisely what they intend to accomplish in specific time frames, such as one month, six months, a year. Although they remain focused on these time-sensitive objectives, they remain flexible enough to change their tactics if business conditions or the prevailing economic environment change.

Turning intentions into actions, effective project managers muster the resources necessary to accomplish their project plans. First, they determine what they will need – raw materials, additional employees, creative input, capital, alliances inside and outside of the company. Then they act to assemble these resources in a way that makes the project process more efficient.

For example, a project manager who is determined to speed shipments to customers may create an alliance with the warehouse manager, promising faster sales and re-order data in return for accelerated order processing. The bottom line: there is greater collaboration among the company’s employees, resulting in the realisation of its goals and greater creativity. They recognise that influencing colleagues and motivating the project team is integral to getting things done on time and to the correct specifications.

They are good at managing priorities. Their thinking goes like this: “Here’s what I am going to do today. This task is a top priority not because it is the project I want most to clear from my desk, or because someone is pressing me to do it, but because it will draw the straightest line between my work and the project’s goals.”

They are skilled at balancing the quality/quantity equation that is inherent in all work. For example, a well-intentioned but relatively unproductive employee may take pride in saying, “I always do everything perfectly.” When the project manager counters that the quest for perfection caused the team to miss the deadline for a key delivery, he returns to the same myopic theme: “Yes, but you have to admit my work was done beautifully.”

Recognising instinctively that this is unacceptable, the best performers strive to achieve the delicate balance between quality and quantity. This means doing the best work in the time frame and the quantities required to meet the customer’s expectations and the company’s strategic goals.

They take ownership of the projects and responsibilities assigned to them. Superior project managers always demonstrate a “can do” attitude. They rarely shun responsibility. Instead, they consider completion of a project to be a personal responsibility, and they work to influence others to help achieve stated goals.

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.