Introduction to Project Leadership

Become a project leader and learn how to apply leadership skills to minimize uncertainty and maximize the contributions of your team.

Description

Everyone needs to manage projects – the complex set of tasks that require the marshaling of resources to accomplish defined objectives. Managers and leaders are increasingly finding that mastery of the technical skills of project management is not sufficient to ensure the success of a project; project leadership skills are critical to understanding the uncertainty that surrounds projects and developing a management and leadership approach that leverages the capabilities and collective intelligence of the team.

This course introduces the concept of project leadership as being distinct from project management. Project leadership builds upon the technical skills to manage a project and focuses on developing new skills to identify and manage project uncertainty.

Project leadership is a core skill, not only for Project Management Professionals (PMPs) but for any manager that has responsibilities to manage formal or informal projects or implement organizational initiatives. The most successful project managers and project leaders know how to understand, motivate, and build an optimal level of cohesion among their project teams, can leverage the group’s collective intelligence, and are highly skilled at getting a team to perform even when they don’t have the formal authority to mandate action,

This course prepares you to be a highly effective project leader. After taking this course, you will develop deep insights into the many roles of the project leader, learn how to maximize your likelihood of project success, minimize the chances of failure, and understand how to manage change and uncertainty as it unfolds. Focuses of this course include understanding the intricacies and complexities of managing and leading in a matrix organizations, managing the competing constraints of time, cost, and functionality, and introducing the toolkits that will be developed throughout the series to increase project management effectiveness.

Based upon the research and teaching of Professor Frank J. Wayno, Ph.D., of Cornell’s College of Engineering, Introduction to Project Leadership recognizes that project teams are social systems and they exist inside the social system of an organization; the only way to lead a project to success of a project is to understand that reality and master the skills to use it to your advantage. This course provides the foundation to learn these competencies and develop the skills to implement them in practice.

Regardless of your formal role in project management, this course will help ensure that you develop the leadership skills you need to be a better project manager.

This course is anticipated to be approved for approximately 6.0 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Who Should Take This Course?

This course is essential for Project Management Professionals (PMPs), project managers, and functional managers charged with leading a cross-functional or project team to success. It is appropriate for business leaders, mid-level managers, and project managers who need to learn the critical leadership skills necessary to ensure the high performance of a project team.

Course Format

eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

This course contains the following modules:

• Defining Project Management
• Organizational Design
• Methods of Integration
• The Role of the Project Manager
• Overcoming Challenges to Project Managers
• The Matrix Organization
• Managing Uncertainty
• The Project Manager at the Personal Level

Benefits to the Learner

Learners who complete this course will be able to:

• Describe why project management exists and the various forms it can take
• Apply appropriate methods for helping a project to adapt to various types of environmental uncertainty
• Utilize management/leadership research and theory to define a set of key success factors and behaviors for the project manager
• Overcome the typical challenges associated with different forms of the project manager’s role

Authoring Faculty

Frank J. Wayno, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer

Sponsoring School

Cornell University’s College of Engineering

Total Learning Time

Approximately 6 hours over a period of two weeks.

Certificate Information

This course can be applied toward the following certificate:

• Project Leadership

HRCI Recertification

This course been approved for six (6) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR, and GPHR recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute. Please contact the Human Resource Certificate Institute (HRCI) for further information about certification or recertification.

This course qualifies for 6.00 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI) for Professional Project Managers (PMPs) seeking ongoing education and professional development for continuing certification. eCornell is a Global Registered Education Provider of PMI. PDUs are designated as Category 3.

Project Management Institute Professional Development Units