Project Leadership in Action: Power, Influence, Politics, and Negotiations

Introduction

Leadership in project management is a journey of discovery, embarking on a path to discern the pinnacle of one's leadership qualities and progressing toward fostering and cultivating an ideal leadership identity. This endeavor aims to hone skills that significantly bolster the success of projects. The project leadership course fortifies your leadership identity to ensure its sustainability with every action you embark on or decide to delineate in all your project endeavors.

In project management, possessing robust interpersonal abilities is pivotal in efficiently executing tasks. Thus, this project leadership, politics, influence, and negotiation course will amplify your capability to wield personal skills to impact others positively. The project leadership course elucidates skills and methodologies vital to influencing others assertively and elegantly, especially within the framework of a project where direct control is not feasible.

The curriculum delves into various leadership traits, characteristics, behaviors, and styles. It scrutinizes interpersonal styles and skills and their effect on project leadership, motivation, team dynamics, trust, and the empowerment of employees. The seamless integration of these concepts provides a comprehensive view to spawn more opportunities for the success of your project while preserving your integrity.

The final sections of the project leadership, politics, influence, and negotiation course center on procuring what is essential for a project through the art of negotiation. The project leadership Course expounds on how the adept application of influence tactics, personal power, and organizational politics can be effectively harnessed during diverse project negotiating scenarios.

What is a Project Leadership Course?

A project leadership course is an educational program designed to equip professionals with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to lead and manage projects effectively. The project leadership course covers foundational leadership principles, project management best practices, and the art of negotiation to ensure that project leaders can guide their teams to success while navigating the complexities of organizational dynamics and stakeholder relationships.

In this project leadership in action course, participants will engage in comprehensive training, including power, influence, politics, and negotiations, to provide effective leadership in project management. The leadership in action course will address various aspects essential to project leadership training, such as leadership and influence skills, leadership politics, and organizational leadership dynamics.

This executive leadership course will prepare project managers and team leaders to become adept at political leadership in a project context. It will also provide them with the leadership influence training necessary to succeed. This organizational leadership course serves as a transformative experience for those seeking effectiveness and proficiency in leading their projects amidst the intricate mosaic of power dynamics and negotiations.

Targeted Groups

• Project managers.
• Team leaders.
• Project technical.
• Workstream leaders.
• Project sponsors/owners.

Course Objectives

By the conclusion of this project leadership in action course, participants will be equipped to:

• Learn practical techniques to enhance their project leadership skills.
• Exercise a wide range of concepts to enhance their power and ability to influence others.
• Manage corporate politics at both project and senior management levels.
• Master forms of power and evaluate strategies to increase their total power to ensure the project's success.
• Identify principles, guidelines, and common methods of negotiation on projects.
• Develop negotiating strategies that focus on projects' common goals and interests rather than positions.
• Discover and nurture a unique leadership identity, learning to project a dynamic image.
• Continue the development of their leadership identity.
• Become more politically astute while upholding integrity and ethics.
• Understand the skills and competencies required to influence and negotiate project needs effectively.
• Refine their skills in gaining and using influence positively.
• Boost confidence when negotiating with project stakeholders.
• Learn how to safeguard against the pitfalls of intra-organizational politics.

Targeted Competencies

• Leading others.
• Situation analysis.
• Problem-solving.
• Understanding motivational needs.
• Customer orientation.
• Leading projects.
• Controlling projects.
• Cognitive abilities.

Course Content

Unit 1: The Nature of Project Environment and Organizational Politics

• Challenges in the project environment.
• Politics: Project management leadership fact-of-life.
• Leadership in project management: A political art.
• Organizational politics and the project lifecycle.
• Organizational culture and its impact on project management.
• Project politics and self-awareness.
• The role and influence of project stakeholders.
• Factors contributing to organizational and project politics.
• Political behaviors for project team members.
• Developing political skills necessary for project team members.
• Necessity of result-based leadership in project environments.

Unit 2: Project Leadership

• Traits of effective project leadership.
• Project leadership attitudes.
• The three building blocks of project leadership.
• Project leadership styles.
• Personality and self-awareness in project leadership.
• Comparing IQ vs. EQ in project leadership.
• Project team leadership: communication and coaching.
• Behaviors of developing exceptional project leaders.
• Project leadership in action.

Unit 3: The Use of Power and Influence in Project Leadership

• Creating excellence in project leadership through power and leadership.
• Necessity of power in projects.
• Sources of power.
• Powerful vs. powerless talk in project leadership.
• Building a sense of personal project leadership power.
• Models and practices of empowerment.
• Influence tactics for project leaders.
• Keys to successful influence in project leadership.
• Attitudes and behaviors of project stakeholders.
• Developing credibility in projects.
• Project leadership trust-building.
• Communication/trust/agreement relationship in project leadership.
• Project leadership in action.

Unit 4: Negotiation for Maximizing Project Results

• Necessity of negotiation in projects.
• The role of the project leader is as a negotiator.
• Preparations for project-related negotiations.
• Active listening and negotiation with project stakeholders.
• Emotions and conflict in project negotiations.
• Principle-based project negotiations.
• Common negotiating errors.
• Negotiation tactics are necessary for project leaders.
• Using persuasion and delegation for project success.

Unit 5: Project Leadership Development

• Self-awareness and self-discipline skills for project leaders.
• Leadership learning and mentoring in project contexts.
• Leadership transitions in project environments.
• Political strategy formulation for project teams.
• Fostering a positive project culture.
• Navigating multi-relationship management with project stakeholders.
• Being the complete project leader package.