Soft Skills for Project Managers™
Whether you are a qualified Project Manager or someone who manages projects as part of their role, you will have acquired technical project skills. However, there is much more to managing projects than just being technically proficient – you also need to master the non-technical, or "soft skills", of project management.
Overview
This workshop builds on existing technical project skills and provides structured techniques for you to master how to:
- Identify and prioritise stakeholders – so you are positively influencing the right ones.
- Develop your influencing strategy and deploy structured negotiation techniques – especially when stakeholders can't agree.
- Build and lead an effective and productive team – that delivers your project on time and within budget.
Who is it for?
Anyone who manages projects, whether they are a qualified Project Manager or managing projects off the side of their desk. This workshop will provide invaluable soft skills to all those with people management responsibilities.
What's it all about?
Most Project Managers have acquired technical project skills (e.g. Planning, Risk Management, Issue Resolution, Estimating, etc), but there is a host of softer skills that the most successful Project Managers possess. You need to be effective at the non-technical, people side of projects too – identifying and understanding who is key to your project and how to:
- Engage and influence.
- Negotiate.
- Build, nurture and lead an effective project team.
What will you get out of it?
Most project management training teaches you what you need to do as a PM (the 'hard' skills) – an essential first step. Experienced Project Managers know that soft skills, how you need to do it, are usually the hardest to master.
This practical workshop focuses on the people aspects (the soft skills) of a Project Manager's role. You will develop the knowledge and rehearse techniques to become effective at the non-technical (people) aspects of project management – maximising the chances of delivering your projects more effectively.
What will your organisation get out of it?
Ultimately, large or small projects will have less risk, resulting in greater satisfaction for key project stakeholders and all those who work within your projects, leading to a more motivated and productive project team.
Workshop outline
Stakeholder management and engagement:- What is a stakeholder?
- How to identify your stakeholders.
- Understanding your stakeholders.
- Prioritisation and planning.
- Understanding influence.
- Influence strategies.
- Understanding negotiation.
- Structured negotiation process.
- Team dynamics, maturity and diversity.
- Using Hermann's Brain Dominance Indicator (HBDI).
- Fostering a collaborative environment.
- Sharing knowledge and experience.
- Understanding leadership models.
- Authenticity vs adaptability.
- Emotional intelligence.
Other workshops to consider
Soft Skills for Project Managers™ is the perfect complement to our Think on Your Feet® workshop. Think on Your Feet® introduces 10 structures that help you visualise and organise your ideas quickly – even under extreme pressure. So you can:
- Analyse, organise and present your ideas – fast!
- Respond confidently and concisely in all formal, informal and ad-hoc situations, especially when caught on the spot or under pressure!
- Explain complex ideas and handle tough questions by condensing your thoughts, simplifying information and avoiding listener and information overload.
Find out more about Think on Your Feet®.
Duration and delivery methods available
This is a 2-day, practical, exercise-led workshop that combines discussion of ideas and techniques with a mix of interactive group-led activities to reinforce learning. The workshop can be delivered face-to-face or online.
Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
Soft Skills for Project Managers™ can contribute to your CPD recognition with leading professional bodies and trade organisations. You can usually record your attendance in the 'organised learning' or 'self-learning' sections. Please check with your membership organisation for more information.
Additional resources
In-house workshops
We send our consultant to your offices to train your entire team through an in-company workshop. This allows us to focus on the team's training needs and enables us to deliver it at a time and date that suits them, significantly reducing the per-delegate cost. Prices are based on 12 delegates; we can train up to 20 for an additional fee.
Delegate places are available from £575pp + VAT.
