Project Leadership

Description

Project leaders are more than just project managers; they are talented individuals that have mastered the leadership skills necessary to build a high-performing project team, leverage the collective intelligence of the group, manage it through the process of completing a project, and exercise influence without authority to ensure superior results. This six-course certificate series, authored by faculty from Cornell University’s College of Engineering, is designed to build the critical leadership skills that Project Management Professionals (PMPs), project managers, and business managers need to lead a project team to success.

The most successful project managers and leaders need to know what it takes to make project or cross-functional teams perform at the highest level and understand that they need to be able to mange the uncertainty inherent in today’s complex projects. They know that the true success factors of high-performance project management are the leadership and interpersonal skills which enable them to get team members to work collaboratively and perform at the highest level.

The courses in this certificate series are designed to introduce and distinguish the concepts of project leadership and project management to develop the critical leadership skills necessary for the success of even the most complex project. The courses in this certificate series integrate collaborative group projects, practical case studies, interactive assessments, and frameworks and toolsets to apply the concepts.

The courses in the Certificate in Project Leadership will enable you to:

• Manage the uncertainty inherent in projects
• Manage projects in matrix organizations
• Build a cohesive project team
• Leverage the collective intelligence of the team
• Understand and prevent the issues that can fragment and undermine team performance
• Monitor and control team performance
• Motivate team members to perform and achieve objectives
• Exercise political and personal influence when you don’t have the formal authority to mandate action
• Mitigate and resolve conflict to ensure the success of the project

Project Leadership incorporates the essential leadership skills that lead to improved project management performance, recognizing that projects are social systems that exist within the social system of an organization. The most effective project leaders understand and know how to manage the human dimension to project management and are able to exercise their own power, influence, and authority to ensure the success of a project.

This certificate series is based on the research and teaching of Cornell University Professor Frank J. Wayno, Ph.D. It will develop the skills you need to master the critical competencies to lead your project and cross-functional team to superior performance and results.

The courses in this certificate series have each been approved for 6.0 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI) except for CEPL 552 Project Teams: Mining Collective Intelligence, which has been approved for 6.5 PDUs.

Who Should Enroll in This Certificate?

This certificate series 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.

Enrollment

To register, contact an Enrollment Counselor at info@ecornell.com or 1-866-326-7635 (+1-607-330-3200 from outside the United States).

Certificate programs are eligible for eCornell Payment Plans. Discounts are available for military personnel, veterans, and Cornell University Alumni. eCornell programs are not eligible for financial aid or federal Pell Grants. Contact an enrollment counselor for more information.

Courses in this Certificate

• Introduction to Project Leadership

  • A seasoned, successful project leader is both a master of process and an effective people manager. Project leadership requires the ability to make tough decisions, overcome personnel issues and to exercise authority where needed--all while dealing with technical challenges and the restraints of time and cost.

    This course defines the functional role of a project manager and provides a framework for the development process, from brainstorm through to production. To be successful you need to balance technical expertise with a firm grasp on team dynamics and interpersonal relationships.

    This course is beneficial to Project Management Professionals (PMPs) who seek greater responsibility in leading projects and setting up broad organizational initiatives. Regardless of your formal role in project management, you’ll develop leadership skills to become a better project manager and successful leader.

    This course has been approved for 6.0 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

    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 the technical and leadership requirements of project management.
    • Design a project that is well adapted to technical and environmental uncertainties.
    • Utilize management/leadership research and theory to define a set of key success factors and behaviors.
    • Overcome typical challenges faced by project managers.
    
    
• Project Teams: Mining Collective Intelligence

  • A work team’s real potential for success lies in its “collective intelligence”: the sum of a workgroup’s individual skills, behaviors and competencies. The more integrity a team has, the better positioned it is to handle uncertainty and see a project through to successful completion. It’s role of the the project leader role to create a work environment where a group’s collective intelligence can be leveraged to the greatest effect.

    This course introduces research-grounded theories behind group dynamics and teaches how to create and maintain group cohesion. Learn to facilitate group problem-solving, and manage the most common challenges to effective group functioning, including a lack of cohesion, the onset of groupthink, and dealing with virtual teams.

    Project leaders who have the theoretical and practical knowledge to identify and capitalize on a group’s collective intelligence tend to be the most successful at achieving desired outcomes.

    This course has been approved for 6.5 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

    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 and Describing Teams.
    • Stranded!
    • Characteristics of a Team.
    • Processes and Challenges for Project Teams.
    • How Teams Develop.
    • Creating Cohesion and Work Socialization.
    • Group Facilitation Skills.
    • Common Challenges for Project Managers and Their Teams.
    • Final Discussions.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Build a cohesive and effective project team.
    • Understand how and when to “mine” the collective intelligence of the team to better cope with complexity, difficulty, and ambiguity.
    
    
• Dealing with Difference

  • Difference and diversity can strengthen a group’s collective skills and competencies, but can also lead to dysfunction if not properly managed. The best project leaders take potentially fragmentary elements within a group and use them to their advantage. Overcoming differences and knowing how to manage the collective intelligence of a group can make for a highly effective project team.

    This course focuses on the three main areas of difference--national and functional culture, personality, and learning style--and how different perspectives can create misunderstanding and misalignment within a project team. You’ll work with a variety of organizational frameworks and toolsets designed to bridge differences and develop processes to overcome disconnect, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

    Properly managing collective intelligence and dealing with difference are two key skills associated with a high-functioning project leader. This course will teach you how to develop and master those skills.

    This course has been approved for 6.0 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

    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:

    • National and Functional Culture.
    • The Importance of Difference.
    • Defining Culture.
    • Diagnosing and Overcoming Cultural Challenges.
    • Personality.
    • Defining Personality.
    • Overcoming Personality-Related Challenges.
    • Learning Styles.
    • Defining and Overcoming Challenges Related to Differences in Learning Style.
    • Difference and the Project Manager.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Analyze project teams for potential disconnects as a result of cultural, functional, personality-related, or learning style differences.
    • Minimize the negative effects that difference has on a project team.
    
    
• Earned Value Management

  • How do know precisely whether or not a project is on the path to success if you don't have any benchmarking tools in place? This course introduces you to several powerful performance metrics and analytical tools that can help you determine whether project goals and objectives are being met.

    You’ll learn how to use Earned Value Management, a highly effective project control system that uses measurement tools like breakdown structures, network diagrams, schedules, budgets, and Gantt charts to ensure that things are on track. Your ability to report on progress and project status will greatly impact your reputation as a project leader.

    If a project falls off target, the project leader is responsible for maintaining a tight focus on tasks that add to the value of a project, and establishing a framework for keeping team members and other stakeholders aligned with project objectives.

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

    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:

    • Earned Value Method.
    • Control Systems.
    • Calculations and Forecasts.
    • Motivating Employees.
    • Defining and Diagnosing Motivation.
    • The Psychological Contract.
    • Managing Yourself as a Resource.
    • Designing Jobs Appropriately.
    • Helping People to Believe in Themselves.
    • Coaching and Development.
    • How People Learn.
    • Coaching and Development.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Apply an earned value method for assessing degrees of project completion.
    • Create accurate forecasts to communicate time and budget required for project completion.
    • Diagnose and resolve issues of demotivation.
    • Apply best practices in coaching and development situations.
    
    
• Influence Without Authority

  • Workplaces are inherently political. Project leadership can be an especially political endeavor; it’s about exercising influence over others to complete tasks and accomplish goals, with or without the formal authority to mandate action. Whether you work in a matrix organization or lead a cross-functional team, your goal as a project leader is to organize the actions of your team members to ensure the successful completion of a project.

    Project leaders spend a considerable amount of time building networks and relationships among stakeholders and influencers. Learn how to apply your interpersonal and leadership skills and strike a balance between your sometimes conflicting role as individual contributor, functional manager, and project manager.

    This course introduces you to the Power Motivation Inventory, a diagnostic self-inventory model that will assess your capabilities as an influence agent and prepare you to leverage your abilities to great effect. The ability to exercise influence without authority is among most important attributes of a project leader.

    This course has been approved for 6.0 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

    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:

    • Power and Influence.
    • The Nature of Power and Influence.
    • Sources of Power in an organization.
    • Strategies of Influence.
    • Introduction to Strategies of Influence.
    • Retribution-based Influence.
    • Rationality-based Influence.
    • Reciprocity-based Influence.
    • Appropriate Selection and Implementation.
    • The Power Motivation Inventory.
    • Sources of Power.
    • Implementing to Maximize Influence.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Develop an understanding of organizations as political systems.
    • Explain the personal and positional sources of power in organizations.
    • Describe strategies for exercising influence; understand the conditions that would make each appropriate; and learn to apply those strategies to a variety of influence opportunities.
    • Develop a plan for increasing personal potency in one’s organization.
    
    
• Conflict Resolution

  • Conflict is inevitable. The best project leaders have a well-developed capacity for managing and resolving conflict.

    Conflict can come from any number of directions: project complexity, misaligned stakeholders, diverse team members, scarcity of resources, and matrix organizational structures—which, by definition, place two sets of managerial values and priorities into tension with each other.

    This course focuses on the approaches that a leader can use to resolve conflict. Participants will assess their own response to conflict using the Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument to determine which approaches are most consistent with their own profile or appropriate to specific situations.

    Principled negotiation, an interest-based technique popularized in the best-selling book Getting To Yes, provides a framework to separate people from problems, focus on their interests and generate and evaluate options. As you emerge from the course you’ll be able to diagnose and resolve conflict in a manner that enhances team cohesiveness and improves the likelihood of successful results.

    This course has been approved for 6.0 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

    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:

    • Conflict Resolution in Context.
    • Organizational Conflict.
    • Avoiding Conflict.
    • Focusing on Completion.
    • Accommodation.
    • Compromisation.
    • Collaboration.
    • Principled Negotiation.
    • Separating People from Problems.
    • Focusing on Interests.
    • Generating Options.
    • Evaluating Options.
    • Additional Considerations.
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Identify and manage various forms of conflict.
    • Consider several approaches to resolving conflict and adopt one or more that support your profile.
    • Incorporate principled negotiation as a conflict resolution tool.
    
    

Accreditation

Participants who successfully complete all six courses in this certificate series will receive a Certificate in Project Leadership from Cornell University’s College of Engineering.