Course Overview

It’s easy to forget the “manager” part of the “project manager” title amongst all the activity during a project. However, it is crucial that project managers hone their management skills as they are a key part of success. There are also some advanced project management techniques that project managers can master to help bring their projects to the next level.

This one-day course will help you teach participants some of those staff and project management skills, including:

• How to choose the project team, or make the best of an assigned team
• Techniques for keeping a project team on track
• How to develop a project communication plan
• How to communicate with sponsors and executives

Detailed Course Outline

Introduction and Course Overview You will spend the first part of the day getting to know participants and discussing what will take place during the workshop. Students will also have an opportunity to identify their personal learning objectives.

Choosing the Project Team This session covers some things to consider when choosing a project team and how to make the best of an assigned team. Other topics covered include the pre-assignment review, assigning the project work, negotiating for the people you want, and preparing for team problems.

Building a Winning Team In this session, we will discuss why teamwork is so important. We will also look at Tuckman and Jensen’s four stage team development model: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing.

Team Meetings Most projects should have a defined timeline for team meetings. First, project managers meet with the individual members of the team. Then, the project manager meets with the team as a whole. Next, the first status meeting occurs. This session will discuss all of these meetings in detail, plus some general meeting management tips.

Nine Easy Ways to Reward Your Team One challenge many project managers face is how to keep the team motivated during the project. We discuss nine ways project managers can keep the team moving and performing at their best.

Developing a Communication Plan To ensure your project’s success, you must include a communications plan as part of your initial project planning. This plan will cover the who, when, why, what, and how of your communications with various project members throughout the whole project.

Communicating with Sponsors and Executives Your project sponsor and executives are key members of your team. Typically, they provide the authority and the resources to execute your project. During this session, we will discuss some ways to effectively communicate with your sponsor and executives.

Dealing with Problem Team Members Have you ever had a team member that kept running to the sponsor with every little problem? Or a member who never had anything positive to say? We’ll look at a number of problem team members and identify how to turn their problem characteristics into team strengths.

Workshop Wrap-Up At the end of the day, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and fill out an action plan.