Category: Leadership & Skills

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Why high-performing companies invest in high-performing project leaders

Projects aren’t failing because of poor ideas—they’re failing because of poor execution. And in today’s competitive market, businesses can’t afford to leave execution to chance. Enter the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification—globally recognized, rigorously earned, and one of the smartest investments a business can make in its people.

At RMC Learning Solutions, we’ve seen organizations transform their project outcomes, culture, and talent retention by building teams of PMP-certified professionals. Let’s break down why this certification is more than just letters after a name—it’s a business advantage.

1. PMP-Certified leaders deliver results

The PMP isn’t about theory—it’s about getting things done. It equips professionals with advanced tools, methodologies (Agile, hybrid, predictive—you name it), and real-world strategies that directly impact delivery.

Organizations with PMP-certified project managers see:

  • Higher on-time project completion rates
  • Better budget alignment
  • Improved stakeholder satisfaction
  • Stronger risk management

When your projects succeed, your business succeeds. It’s that simple.

2. It creates a culture of professional excellence

PMP certification raises the bar—not just for individuals, but for entire teams. Certified professionals lead with confidence, communicate clearly, and know how to align execution with strategy. They’re trained to manage complexity, not crumble under it.

This creates a culture of leadership, accountability, and forward-thinking—qualities that ripple across departments and projects alike.

3. It drives employee retention (and attraction)

Top performers want to grow. If you’re not offering opportunities for professional development, they’ll find someone who will.

Investing in PMP certification tells your team:

  • “We value your expertise.”
  • “We believe in your potential.”
  • “We’re committed to your career.”

That message sticks. Companies that support professional development through certifications like PMP report higher employee engagement, loyalty, and retention. And as a bonus? You’ll start attracting the kind of talent that’s serious about delivering results.

“When I earned my PMP, I felt empowered and seen,” said one RMC student. “It showed me that my company was serious about helping me lead, not just follow.”

4. It strengthens your reputation—inside and out

Clients and stakeholders notice when your teams are led by certified professionals. It shows you’re not just doing business—you’re doing it right. PMP-certified leaders bring structure, credibility, and strategy to every phase of a project, which builds trust, improves outcomes, and strengthens your competitive edge.

5. It future-proofs your organization

With PMP-certified leaders in place, you’re not just solving today’s project challenges—you’re building a pipeline of future-ready leaders. These professionals understand how to navigate uncertainty, lead cross-functional teams, and drive strategic outcomes that align with your organization’s evolving goals.

Let’s build your dream team of project leaders

At RMC Learning Solutions, we specialize in preparing professionals for PMP certification through proven, results-driven training. We work with companies like yours to create tailored learning paths that align with business goals and deliver long-term value.

Ready to build stronger teams, better projects, and a more resilient business?

Contact us today to explore how RMC can help your team earn their PMP certification and lead your business into its next chapter of success.

Empowered people lead powerful projects. Let’s make it happen.

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Project Leadership and the PMP

Young members working together at a white board on a project

Previously I wrote a post about Project Leadership where I discussed the distinction between power and authority. The major take away from the post is that it’s better for a project manager to exercise leadership by obtaining “buy-in” from team members and stake holders and use a coaching leadership style when working with project team members.

Leadership had become an important part of the PMP.  It is a component of Domain I (People) of the Exam Content Outline and there are a fair number of questions on the exam relating to leadership.  We cover project leadership in Chapter 5 of our PMP Exam Prep book Rita Mulcahy’s PMP Exam Prep.

Project Leadership

  1. Project Leadership According to PMI
  2. Project Leadership Versus Management
  3. Servant Leadership
  4. Project Leadership and Communication
  5. Emotional Intelligence and Project Leadership

Project Leadership According to PMI

The Project Management Institute (PMI) takes a more comprehensive approach to leadership.  It is identified as part of Domain 1 or the Exam Content Outline (ECO) for the PMP, and is part of a suite of “people skills” that PMI tests people on as part of the exam.

Leadership is handled as a single chapter of the PMP Exam Prep book (11th ed.).  In preparing for the exam, it is best to look at leadership as an umbrella covering all of the people skills necessary to be an effective project manager.  This is the approach taken by PMI on the exam.

Project Leadership Versus Management

In preparing for the exam, the student needs to understand the distinction between leadership and management.  As noted in the book: “Leadership involves a sophisticated approach to working with people.  We don’t manage people; we get work done through others.”

In some ways this distinction is similar to the one between power and authority described by Richard Neustadt in his book “Presidential Power.”  However, there are important differences, the obvious one is that in the context of the PMP the distinction between leadership and management is entirely business focused.

Like the power versus authority distinction, the management versus leadership distinction looks at formal versus information methods to get team members to perform necessary functions.  Whereas management focuses on things like tasks, control and efficiency, leadership focuses on things like people, empowerment and communication.

Servant Leadership

This style of project leadership is normally associated with agile project management.  In many ways, it is traditional command and control leadership flipped on its head.  Here the project manager is a servant leader.  They ensure that team members can effectively do the work needed to deliver business value.  The focus is to maximize team productivity by removing impediments.

The servant leader makes sure the team stays on track, removes impediments and continually communicates with team members.  If the team needs to increase its budget, the servant leader’s job is to get it.  If they need more people, training or physical resources, the servant leader makes sure they have those.

Project Leadership and Communication

Effective communication is an important project leadership skill. The People Domain and the exam cover many aspects of communication.  PMI covers many aspects of project communication on the exam.  The following are some, but not all of those aspects.

There are basically four types of communication:  Formal written, formal verbal, informal written and informal verbal.  These types of communication have different information densities and are appropriate in different situations.  For example, formal written could be a report to the project sponsor or a project plan while informal verbal could be an unscheduled meeting or casual discussion.  The appropriateness of a particular type of communication will vary depending on the situation.

There are also different methods of communications such as push, interactive or pull.  Interactive is reciprocal between two parties, an exchange of information in real time.  Push is where one party conveys information to another while pull occurs where one party elicits information from another party.

In addition to the types of communication discussed above, the exam extensively covers various modes of communication and tests a student’s knowledge of them on the exam.  These are covered in the leadership chapter of the book.

Emotional Intelligence and Project Leadership

Every human being needs some level of emotional intelligence, often referred to as EQ.  People with low levels of EQ often do not function well in jobs where they have to work with other people.  Unlike IQ, EQ can be taught.

EQ is about reading people, seeing changes in their expressions, how they communicate and being able to guage their feelings.  Part of EQ is the ability to “read the room.” Other times it’s knowing when to keep your mouth shut and actually listen to people when they talk. As you can see EQ has a lot in common with communication.  It’s about active listening, reading non-verbal communications and understanding the real reason behind someone’s behavior.

For the exam, EQ is considered part of the “People Domain” and an important aspect of leadership.

Project Leadership and RMC Exam Prep

Leadership is part of the exam. From PMI’s standpoint, there is a lot to it.  It’s not just directive.

If you are considering the taking the PMP, RMC has you covered. From our PMP Exam Prep book to our PMP Exam Prep Live Instructor led classes and our on demand PMP Exam Prep eLearning course, RMC covers the aspects of leadership you will need to know to pass the exam.

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How to Choose a Project Management Methodology?

Close up of two business people talking about project management methodologies

What Type of Project Management Methodology is Best?

While attending an Agile conference, I heard a lot of discussion about the types of project management methodology from pure agile teams, waterfall teams, and a combination of the two. Several presenters stressed the importance of being a 100% dedicated agile team. They stated that the only way to be successful is to make sure your team or company follows the Scrum/Kanban/XP/etc. methodology in its purest form. Other presenters called out these statements as false and went on to discuss numerous examples of blended approaches that have worked at their company or with their clients.

How can an organization trying to understand agile figure out the best approach when so many experts in the field have different opinions?

Best Project Management Methodologies

  1. Project Structure
  2. What About a Blended Approach?
  3. Benefits of an Adaptive Approach
  4. Choose the Methodology that Works Best for your Organization
  5. Sharpen Your Agile and Hybrid Skills Sets

Project Structure

If we, as an organization, want our projects to be more successful in our customers’ eyes, we need to start asking the right questions.  How do we create a project structure that works for our current environment, team, and clientele? Is this a product we need to get to market faster? How can we get our stakeholders/customers more involved? What really defines success?

In today’s environment, many organizations are trying to figure out how to be more “agile” or adaptable. Many organizations are transitioning to the agile approach, kicking off agile pilots, and having great success. Wonderful! But just as many are failing. This is why I’m suggesting that we need to ask the right questions to determine what will be successful within our organizations. What really is the best approach for our environment, on a particular product or project?

What About a Blended Agile Approach?

It is possible to blend agile and traditional project management practices together in the right proportions to fit your project and environment. Blending some of the structure of traditional project management with the fluidity of agile can be quite liberating. I have seen this type of approach work in organizations where there’s resistance to agile among the leaders and mid-management. Leadership support is key when making any type of organizational transition.

Change is very scary to many individuals. It is easier for leaders to buy in to agile practices when the project team is asking, not to throw out all the current processes (which usually have been in place for ten or more years), but to blend the approaches in a way that means more value, quicker release to market, and more satisfied customers and employees.

Benefits of an Adaptive Approach

If you are interested in taking more of an iterative and adaptive approach to project management, consider the following key points:

  • Collaborate daily with your key stakeholders.  Communication is critical. Consistent collaboration with your key stakeholders can only make your project more successful. Increased visibility is never a bad thing, and it enhances your ability to succeed on the next three items.
  • Emphasize maximizing business value. How can we get to the market more quickly with a minimal viable product?
  • Reduce unnecessary documentation. Using an agile approach does not mean there’s no documentation, but there is less documentation than in traditional project management. Figure out what level of documentation is necessary to ensure your leaders, team members, and customers feel comfortable.
  • Be more adaptive to change. Customers tell us they know what they want, but they discover what they want when they experience it. Using an iterative approach makes us more adaptive to change requests, but also allows the customer to experience the product as the team is building it.

Choose the Methodology That Works for Your Organization

In conclusion, with proper planning, coaching, and training, organizations can choose a project management methodology that works best for their project teams, customers, and environment. At the conference, most presenters really stressed the importance of working with a qualified agile coach to help assess your organization’s maturity and determine the best approach for your project and environment. Waterfall, agile, and blended approaches all work!

Planning, coaching, and training for any type of project transition are the key to success with any methodology. We all need to drop our preconceived notions that one particular methodology is better than another. Find the one that will make your team and project more viable, productive, and collaborative.

Sharpen Your Agile and Hybrid Skill Set

Regardless of methodology, having a comprehensive understanding of agile and predictive approaches allows you to adapt based upon the project and your business environment.

If you want to run more projects using agile practices or a hybrid approach, RMC has options for you to discover.  RMC has many offerings including our Agile Fundamentals book, available in hard copy or in an online subscription format.  RMC also offers a self-directed Agile Fundamentals eLearning Course that teaches agile project development, practices, tools, and techniques. Our Hybrid Agile eLearning course teaches you what you need to know to combine predictive and agile approaches.

Sources:

https://www.teamwork.com/project-management-guide/project-management-methodologies/[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

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Project Vision and Mission

Two Business colleagues standing around table discussing

Project managers are expected lead, engage, and empower their teams and stakeholders toward outcomes that deliver value to the organization and your customers. Defining a clear project vision and mission for the project gives direction and meaning to the team to deliver the project goals. This leads to greater accountability for the” why” and “how” of the project.

Establishing the mission and vision is key, whether you are executing a predictive or agile project or using a hybrid approach. Let’s define what’s in a vision and mission statement and how to craft one of your own.

Vision and Mission for Projects

  1. What is a Vision and Mission for Projects?
  2. Why is the Project Vision and Mission Important?
  3. Connecting Work and Achievement
  4. How Do You Create a Vision and Mission Statement?

What is a Vision and Mission for Projects?

Project Vision Statement – The Why Project Mission Statement – The What and The How
  • Communicates where the organization or customer want or need to be at the end of a project.
  • The vision helps state the expected benefits and the future state where the benefits will be realized.
  • Defines the problem we are trying to solve or the goal we wish to achieve. It includes the purpose, focus and the objectives for what we are trying to do.
  • The mission describes how the team will work to deliver the product, service, or result.  It focuses on the approach to achieve the objectives.

Why is the Project Vision and Mission Important?

The vision empowers the project team by answering “why.”  Team members are tired of just executing without a sense of the bigger picture.  They want to be a part of the solution, making a difference through their contributions.  Vision gives direction and meaning to the work.  It helps fosters growth and engagement in the effort.  It lends focus to the project and can lead to better ideas and fewer fire drills.

The mission confirms the benefits and value of the project. It answers the “what” and “how” question. The mission helps motivate your team to move forward, allowing each team member to own their work and decisions to support the common goal.  It provides the basis for performance metrics and evaluation. When the team understands the direction, it informs their analysis and decision-making. Mission also establishes a framework for work behaviors and responsibilities.

Connecting Work and Achievement

The communication of the project vision and mission is an ongoing part of the plan. The vision and mission need to be shared with project stakeholders. Regularly refer to them in meetings and other communications to maintain alignment and identify possible misunderstanding.  Link them to efforts, deliverables, and milestones through the project. Use them to inspire and motivate the team.

How Do You Create a Vision and Mission Statement for a Project?

Prepare the Team:

Set the stage by preparing them for what will happen and its value. The investment in the team’s knowledge inspires their commitment.

  • Define what the team will be doing, why and when?
  • Communicate how the vision and mission statements will be used.
  • What are known project objectives.
  • Prepare for resistance.
  • Understand the needs and of introverts and extroverts.

Create the Project Vision Statement:

Describe the desired future state of the project. It answers the “why” question. Your vision statement can be written out or it can be mapped out to give the team guidance and direction. Include the following key elements:

  • What are the final project goals? What are you trying to achieve through the project?
  • List examples in broad terms of what the future will look like. Ask what is the greater good you are trying to solve for? What is the need?
  • What are you organizing your efforts to change?
  • Imagine the risks if the project is unsuccessful.
  • Describe each example in terms of “I wish” or “Wouldn’t it be great if?”
  • Refine the statements that should stay in the vision.
  • Imagine it as reality and capture the data for strategy development.

Develop the Project Mission Statement:

Your vision needs a strategy! You need a summary of the purpose, the focus, and the aim that we are trying to achieve today. The mission statement answers the following:

  • What is the project?
  • Who are we doing this for?
  • What are the objectives?
  • What does it take to reach the objectives?

Review for the Mission for Changes:

The mission is likely to go through some changes during the project. Schedule a periodic evaluation informed by the following questions:

  • Do our efforts align with the vision and mission? (Are we off-track)
  • Do we still have a shared vision?
  • What have we learned?
  • What should be adjusted?

Learn More on this Topic

Developing a project vision and mission is a worthwhile exercise for project leaders.  Taking the time to do so can positively impact your team’s understanding of what you are trying to achieve and how the team will work to solve the need.  If you want to learn more about mission and vision, RMC offers a Strategic Business Management Best Practices eLearning course.  This course is worth a total of 33 PDUs (2 Technical, 4 Leadership and 27 Strategic).  We also cover this topic extensively in Rita’s PMP Exam Prep book which is a great project management reference guide

You can also listen to our webinar Empowering Your Project Team with Vision and Mission and earn 1 Free PDU.

Sources:

Current PMP Exam Content Outline

https://www.lytho.com/blog/the-case-for-a-project-mission-statement

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Guide to Resource Planning & Management for Project Managers

Woman discussing resource planning and management in a meeting

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Do you want to increase efficiency and help your team do their best work, while providing the right resources at the right time? Of course, you do! Well, one of the ways to accomplish that is through resource planning and management.  

With the help of proper planning and resource allocation in project management, you’ll be able to provide your team with exactly what they need, when they need it, at any point during the life of a project. This can help you keep everything on time and on budget.  

Below, we cover what these processes involve, and how they can help you become an even better project manager.  

Resource Planning and Management for Project Managers

  1. What is Resource Management?
  2. What Are the Types of Resources in Project Management?
  3. What Is Resource Planning in Project Management?
  4. Resource Planning Is All About Improved Efficiency

What Is Resource Management?

The management of resources includes various activities, such as planning, organizing, and scheduling. The ultimate goal is to allocate and use resources in a way that’s efficient and will significantly increase the odds of completing a project on time.  

With the right strategy, your resource management will make your team more effective. You can also move through a project more smoothly by planning for both the short term, and long run between the start of a project and its completion. And you’ll will have used your resources strategically and effectively because you scheduled and allocate them in advance, as well as tracking progress along the way.  

What Are the Types of Resources in Project Management?

They can be anything and everything that you’ll use to ensure a project will be a success. This includes resources like equipment, technology, and tools, as well as the individuals who are on your team. 

To get started, ask yourself what your team will need to complete the tasks you’ll assign throughout a project. Examples include: 

  • Technology
  • Machinery
  • Vehicles
  • Equipment 
  • Facilities
  • Supplies

Resources can vary from one industry to another, and from one project to another. As you work on determining what you’ll need to complete tasks and milestones, figure out what resources you’ll want to tap into, and how your team can make the most of those assets.  

What Is Resource Planning in Project Management?

Resource planning is an aspect of a resource management plan. You can do things like: 

  • Figure out the current availability, as well as the future demand, of non-human as well as human resources, so you can ensure your team will always have what they need. 
  • Use a technique known as resource leveling to adjust resource usage and start and end dates based on the supply of resources versus the need for them. 
  • Determine where every resource needs to go, and when, to optimize the performance of each team member.   

Project resource planning stages and steps

Here are some of the steps you can take when resource planning: 

  • Create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)to figure out the types of professionals you need on your team. Agile projects use a Backlog, often without a WBS, and Hybrid projects may use both.
  • Estimate the type and quantity for each needed resource.
  • Estimate when each resource is needed, and the amount of time that it will be used. This helps ensure both team members and the tools they need are available to complete an activity when needed.
  • Determine how you can fulfill all requirements and how much time you’ll need to complete the project.
  • See if you can complete the project before the deadline set by your client. You may need to negotiate this or other project constraints (like scope, cost or quality) to meet a fixed date.
  • Determine how you’ll track progress so you can make adjustments as needed. 

Resource Planning Is All About Improved Efficiency

When you become a pro at resource management and planning, you’ll be able to boost efficiency by deriving as much benefit as possible from every resource. You can keep your projects organized, as you’ll have a plan to foresee how various resources will be used. And you can help your team work better by providing them with support at every step. Overall, it’s a smart strategy that can help you improve the way you lead teams and manage projects.    

With the help of proper planning and resource allocation in project management, you’ll be able to provide your team with exactly what they need, when they need it, at any point during your project.

Sources: 

https://www.float.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-resource-planning-for-project-management/ 

https://memory.ai/timely-blog/resource-planning 

https://www.workamajig.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-resource-planning-in-project-management 

https://www.wrike.com/blog/what-is-resource-management/ 

https://www.ganttic.com/blog/why-is-resource-management-important 

https://www.ganttic.com/blog/what-is-resource-management 

 

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Project Scope and Business Environment Impact

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The project’s business environment can be the most important factor affecting project scope. This impact is agnostic to your project’s development approach (plan driven, agile, hybrid). Each development approach has ways to respond to these changes. It is the project manager’s responsibility along with team leaders, team members, sponsors, and other stakeholders to identify business environment changes early, prepare adequately and adjust to them.

Business Environment Influence on Scope

  1. Business Environment Influence on Scope
  2. What Causes Business Environment Change?
  3. Project Manager Business Environment Changes
  4. Ways to Engage Stakeholders
  5. Tips to Understand the Business Environment Impact

What Causes Business Environment Changes?

As a project leader, it is important to understand the organization’s strategic and operational objectives as well as the specific objectives of the project. It is equally important to understand the external business environment that can impact and introduce change to the project.

Common causes of internal and external business environment change include:

  • Competition / market
  • Regulatory / compliance
  • Technology
  • Politics

A project leader must continuously observe and respond to the business environment. Start by asking good questions. In addition, you must anticipate environmentally caused risks throughout your project.  The following are some strategies for anticipating environmentally caused changes.

Project Manager Business Environment Considerations

There are several actions you can take to sharpen your business environment acumen and prepare for project scope impacts:

Inform Yourself: Expand your organizational knowledge and awareness. Consider the strategic objectives. Who are the key decision makers? What happens if the project fails? What is happening in the industry? Find new influences (e.g. How static is the regulatory or compliance environment?, Will technology change?, Is the competitive landscape changing?). Understand and make connections.

Watch for Changes: Be observant as to what is happening in the marketplace as well as internally in your organization. Look for the ripple effects that can impact your project scope. What is learned?  What is new?

Analyze the Organization: Determine if your organization has the maturity and structures to support environmental changes that may occur during or from the project, how the project can adjust to them and how it can prepare the organization for the change.

Create Processes and Procedures: Look for opportunities to get additional help and support. For example, having a way to identify and escalate a business environment change to appropriate stakeholders is beneficial to dealing with the situation efficiently. By having a clear process it makes it easier for all project stakeholders to escalate concerns.

Monitor the Environment: By monitoring the known environmental factors and our current state we can see trends developing or identify changes to the project environment early to proactively respond during project work.

Identify Obstacles: Explore obstacles as they happen and facilitate ways to help the project more forward.

Continuous Improvement: What are you learning along the way that could help to do better or more efficient work?

Ways to Engage Stakeholders

Ask your stakeholders for assistance in identifying internal and external business environment factors that need to be considered. You’ll want to hear what they think might be influencing the business environment. Ask for their help in evaluating any risks to the project. Encourage stakeholders to help you develop ideas, create processes and evaluation measures to keep the project on track.

Engaging stakeholders is also about sharing relevant project information. For example, you will want to communicate the cost of failing to anticipate business environment changes and impacts to your project. Provide updates on the successes and managing the project within the broader organizational environment. Give your project leadership the right information. Share your reasons for doing this and demonstrate through actions how it’s relevant, appropriate, and important.

Tips to Understand the Business Environment Impact

Here are three tips you can use to evaluate, prepare, and address business environment of your project and be prepared to manage its potential impact on scope.

  1. Clarify the Current State

Clearly define the current state of your business environment. Consider the following to document your understanding:

  • Engage with stakeholders
  • Identify external business environment influencers
  • Don’t forget internal influencers and attitudes
  • Group influencers using an affinity diagram
  • Analyze for missing groups
  • Analyze the impact
  • Prioritize for focus
  1. Create a Register for Business Environment Influencers

Use a register as a repository of the influencers and the relevant data. It should include the name and description of current concerns and include other information. Here is a more detailed list:

  • Name of influencers and a description
  • Category
  • Type (internal / external)
  • Action required
  • Risks
  • Timing
  • Measures
  • Owner
  • Level of influence on project
  1. Perform Check Ups – Did You Get It Right?

As the project work is being done, schedule a periodic re-evaluation of the current state. In this evaluation, review:

  • What is new?
  • What has changed?
  • Could the efforts produce unintended positive or negative results?
  • What should be adjusted?
  • What must be avoided?

RMC’s Got the Support You Need

If you are planning to take the PMP exam, you will need to know about the business environment and the broader impacts that environment has on your projects.  Rita Mulcahy’s Exam Prep materials can help you prepare for this and other exam topics.  We offer PMP Exam Prep instructor-led courses and PMP Exam Prep eLearning. Prep on your own time with Rita’s Exam Prep book, PM FASTrack Exam simulator or our complete PMP Exam Prep System.

If you already have your PMP certification, earn 1 FREE PDU when you listen to our webinar Bursting the Scope Bubble: Business Environment and Its Influence on Your Project.

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Identify and Analyze Risk in Project Management

Business woman working on managing project risks

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One of the most important steps when coming up with a plan for your next project is identifying and analyzing risks. Whether you’re new to project management or you want to become a better project manager, understanding how to accurately determine where the risks lie on your projects can help ensure you’ll meet your goals with fewer, if any, setbacks along the way.  We encourage you to find out how your lack of risk knowledge could be hurting your projects.

Identify and Analyze Risk in Projects

  1. What are Risks in Project Management?
  2. What Is Risk Management?
  3. The Benefits of Risk Management
  4. A Guide to Risk Identification and Analysis
  5. Risk Management Starts at the Planning Stage

What Are “Risks” in Project Management?

What is a risk, exactly? It’s any uncertainty that might affect your project in either a positive or a negative way, so a risk is really a potential threat or a potential opportunity.

A threat might delay your project, increase your costs, and reduce the level of quality that you deliver, as a few examples. An opportunity might improve project performance by doing things like reducing the cost, improving the schedule, or boosting the quality delivered.

Each project will have its own set of risks, so you shouldn’t assume that the risks involved in your last project will affect the one that you’re currently working on. In other words, every time you start a new project, it’s best to identify risks, analyze their possible impact on your project, and come up with plans to reduce negative risks or deal with them if they turn into actual problems, and take advantage of opportunities.

What Is Risk Management?

The purpose of risk management is to identify as many potential opportunities as possible, and to plan the project in such a way as to take advantage of them. Risk management also seeks to identify and eliminate as many threats as possible and reduce the negative impact of any remaining project threats. You can use risk management to prevent problems rather than dealing with them after they occur. You identify and assess risks, and then you plan accordingly.

So, you would start by identifying what could possibly go wrong throughout the duration of your project. Then, you would assess the probability of those risks manifesting into real problems, and you would figure out the impact that a risk would have on your project.

Next, you’d come up with strategies to eliminate or mitigate the effects of risks you’ve identified. Then, you’d create plans to resolve any issue that might arise so you’ll be able to act right away when necessary.

Finally, you’d perform ongoing risk assessments as the project progresses

The Benefits of Risk Management

A few of the main benefits associated with risk management are:

  • Savings on project cost and time.
  • Greater control over the project.
  • Fewer hours spent dealing with problems because solutions have been planned to improve efficiency if a risk occurs.
  • Minimizing scope creep (scope creep refers to uncontrolled changes or continuous growth in a project’s scope, and this can occur when the project isn’t properly defined, documented, or controlled).

A Guide to Risk Identification and Analysis

For the best results, take advantage of a systematic process for risk management like the one below.

Using this process, you can spend more time managing the creation of your project deliverables. And, if a risk were to occur, you’ll be able to quickly implement your planned risk responses (contingency and fallback plans), rather than determining a course of action when an issue has occurred. All in all, this allows for more proactive project management.  You can avoid losing a lot of time and resources when issues do not become problems.

  1. Plan Risk Management: Determine how risk management will be done on your project, who will be involved in it, and what procedures will be used.
  2. Identify Risks: Determine specific risks by project, as well as by work package or activity.
  3. Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis: Subjectively analyze the probability and impact of each risk (for example, by using a scale of 1 to 10 for each risk). Also, prioritize the risks and categorize them. Decide what high ranking risks move on to the Quantitative Risk Analysis process. Categorizing may also help you find common causes for some- risks.
  4. Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis: Numerically estimate the cost and time impact of the high ranking risks from the Qualitative Analysis process. Expected Monetary Value (EMV, or % Probability x $ Impact) is the most common way of quantifying these risks. With these calculations you can create a risk reserve.
  5. Plan Risk Responses: Determine a course of action to reduce the overall risk to the project by decreasing the probability or impact of threats, while increasing the probability or impact of opportunities.
  6. Control Risks: Execute the risk response plan to manage risks and control overall project risk. Continually look for new risks and keep the risk management plan updated.

Risk Starts During the Planning Stage

Risk management begins during project planning. However, because risk assessment starts during planning doesn’t mean it stops there. Instead, you should continue performing risk analyses, including qualitative and quantitative analyses, during each stage of your project.

Ultimately, by using risk identification and analysis throughout a project, you can increase the odds that it will go smoothly, that you’ll stick to your budget and anticipated resource requirements, and that you’ll finish on schedule to impress and satisfy your stakeholders.

Build Your Risk Management Skills

The ability to effectively manage risk is an essential skill for professionals managing projects.  You can learn more about how to clearly identify and prevent many of the problems commonly faced on projects using our Risk Management – Tricks of the Trade® for Project Managers – Third Edition practical and easy-to-use Course in a Book®. It’s essential reading for anyone looking for a clear explanation of risk management and how it fits into the project management process.  RMC also offers our Risk Management eLearning course, and Learn things you can apply to your projects today!

Sources:

A whitepaper by RMC Learning Solutions, “6 Essential Elements to Effective Project Management.”

https://www.projectmanager.com/training/how-to-analyze-risks-project

https://www.clarizen.com/whats-risk-analysis-process-project-management/

https://www.pmis-consulting.com/example-project-risks-good-and-bad-practice/ 

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Three Ways to Lead with Emotional Intelligence

Young woman smiling over shoulder using emotional intelligence

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Emotional Intelligence (EI) is your ability to identify and control your emotions to be a successful leader. Emotional intelligence is an awareness of emotions in yourself and in others.  It is the ability to develop and manage strong relationships.  Emotional intelligence uses reason to identify, understand and effectively deal with emotions. Studies show EI is a skill linked to success at all levels. Project managers with high EI are better equipped to deal with, handle and resolve conflict and change.

Leading with Emotional Intelligence

  1. What is Emotional Intelligence?
  2. Benefits of Using Emotional Intelligence
  3. Three Emotional Intelligence Techniques

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Author and social scientist, Daniel Goleman identified five categories within emotional intelligence.  They are: self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, motivation and social skills.  These 5 categories define the ability to understand the needs and feelings of oneself and other people, manage one’s feelings, and to respond to others appropriately. Let’s walk through each competency.

1. Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is a pivotal component of emotional intelligence.   When you are self-aware, you have the ability to identify and name your emotions.  It means you have the ability to honestly recognize your emotions and the effect of your emotions.  It also includes the ability to know your strengths and limitations and having self-confidence in your capabilities and worth.

2. Self-Regulation

Regulation is the ability to manage emotions, which includes both regulating your own emotions, and when necessary and helping others to do the same.  Other aspects of self-regulation include trustworthiness, the flexibility to adapt to change and having high integrity.  Being open to new ideas and information is also a key trait of self-regulation.

3. Social Awareness

Another component of EI is social awareness.  Social awareness is mainly about empathy.  Empathy is our ability to feel what the other person is feeling.  We often describe it as the ability to put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Social awareness also includes organizational awareness.  This is the ability to anticipate and recognize customer needs, an ability to read the politics and understand the power dynamics in your organization.  Finally, social awareness includes sensing what others need to grow and develop.

4. Self-Motivation

Also called self-management, it describes your ability to demonstrate emotional self-control.  You may experience impulses or be in a bad mood, but you control those emotions.  As a person, you are interested in moving forward towards a goal or strategy.  You are also self-motivated and don’t let setbacks control the outcome.  Finally, you are able to stay calm under pressure and don’t panic in the face of a crisis.

5. Social Skills

The core to social skills is relationship management.  It covers abilities such as influence, conflict management, teamwork and leadership.  You use emotional intelligence to create and nurture relationships.  Your ability to influence comes from a strong ability to communicate clearly and persuasively.

Benefits of Using Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is important as our teams are more global. It is also important as more of our work is online.  Our environments are more intense, but they’re also more distributed and remote.   This means we have fewer opportunities for in person understanding.  We all have emotional intelligence skills.  The big benefits come from understanding, managing and using EI competencies to perform our work.  The benefits of emotional intelligence are far reaching:

  • Ability to actively listen and restate what you have heard .  This helps you clearly understand expectations and builds trust. You’ll find you are better aligned to the goals of the organization.
  • Improve the ability to develop ourselves and develop others. You are able to provide feedback effectively and are comfortable building the skills and abilities of others.
  • Helps with managing and resolving conflict. You need to be in touch with your emotions and to see another’s point of view to get to resolution.
  • Builds appropriate reactions within the context of your organization.
  • Helps you tailor your communications to influence stakeholders in our work environment, projects and day to day work.

Three Emotional Intelligence Techniques

By increasing your emotional intelligence, you can better connect and collaborate with others. You become more resilient and help motivate and lead others.  There are many things you can do to increase your emotional intelligence.  Here are three ways to lead with emotional intelligence:

1. Practice Recognition

  • Analyze your interaction daily.
  • Journal or note emotions as they arise.
  • Watch response in others. Notice body language. Notice when people are not engaged.

2. Use Empathy

  • Identify the emotion you are feeling, or the emotions others are exhibiting. Identify when you have experienced similar.
  • Note differences in how others respond. Your emotions may be different than others and that is good information to have in order to read the situation.
  • Tailor your responses by being aware of yourself and others. Then, adjust appropriately to the situation and respond intentionally.  This will prevent you from trying to tell another person what they should be feeling or to dictate a response.

3. Respond Intentionally

  • Stop reacting immediately. Not every thought in your head needs to be shared.
  • Ask yourself if this is the right time to respond? Or do you need to take more time to think through your response?
  • Ask yourself what is the appropriate response and how much information do I need to share?

Final Thoughts

As a project professional, applying your emotional intelligence skills to increase your organizational awareness, identify opportunities to use the appropriate level of empathy, and enhance your self-awareness of your emotions helps you be an effective leader. You’ll be better able to deliver project objectives and deliverables with less conflict and a more cohesive team.

RMC can help you elevate your leadership skills by examining strategies and tactics to increase organizational awareness by improving emotional intelligence.  Consider taking RMC’s Leading with Emotional Intelligence instructor-led virtual course.  We also offer a Leading with Emotional Intelligence micro eLearning course worth 1 PDU. Listen to our free recorded webinar on emotional intelligence.

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Project Charter and the Practice of Law

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What Is a Project Charter?

A project charter can be a useful project management tool for the practice of law. The charter is the authorizing document for a project. It contains information describing the scope of the project, a rough estimate of its cost, the value of the project to the organization, and a basic description of the internal and external resources needed to complete the project. The document also identifies known stakeholders in the project as well as the project’s objectives.

An interesting aspect of the project charter is that it provides a basic description of what success looks like and identifies deliverables and objectives. While deliverables probably would not be relevant in most legal project charters, a description of objectives certainly would be. The project charter is signed by the project sponsor. This authorizes the project manager to do the project.  It is through the project charter that the project plan is created and money budgeted.

Project Charter and the Practice of Law

  1. What Is a Project Charter?
  2. How Lawyers Can Use a Charter?
  3. Additional Charter Benefits For a Law Firm
  4. Things to Watch Out for When Using a Project Charter

How Lawyers Can Use a Project Charter?

In modified form, a project charter can be adapted to some aspects of a law practice, perhaps as part of or attached to a retainer agreement. There are a couple of scenarios where a project charter might be helpful. In a case for the purchase of a business, where a client is looking to fit a prospective purchase with other businesses they currently operate, a document created with their lawyer outlining the strategic fit of such a business within their portfolio (from a legal perspective) could be helpful.

I am not advocating that the lawyer start providing business advice to a client, however, it would be a good idea to discuss where aspects of a purchase would fit from a corporate entity standpoint, a tax standpoint, or how intellectual property portfolios might mesh. This could provide a strategic baseline for the transaction that could be important if some of these assumptions change during negotiation or due diligence.

A charter would also be helpful since it could provide a first cut at estimating the scope of the transaction, the level of effort and cost. Having this initial look at issues relating to the transaction might provide good information to a client as to whether to proceed or walk away. It could also provide the clients other business advisors, such as accountants and business advisors with information that will allow them to better advise your client.

Additional Project Charter Benefits for a Law Firm

Another area that comes to mind for the potential use of a project charter could be where your client is contemplating filing a lawsuit against an intellectual property infringer. There, the strategic direction of the potential lawsuit, the goals sought to be achieved when matched against the costs and strategic risks associated with a such an action could provide vital insight as to whether and how your client should proceed. For example, balancing the risks of starting a patent infringement action against the risk of a counterclaim seeking to invalidate the patent or an antitrust action seeking damages or an injunction from misuse of the patent.

Many of these things are done by firms all the time. An advantage of doing them in the context of a project charter is that you are discussing these issues in a business language that your client can readily understand. In essence, by creating such a charter, in plain language, you are meeting them half-way, providing a legal framework for a proposed course of action described in a business context. This could be extremely valuable to your client.

Things to Watch Out for When Using a Project Charter

There are risks associated with this type of document. The first thing a lawyer should be mindful of is the possibility that any discussions of business strategy could be viewed as non-legal work and thus not covered by the attorney-client privilege. In creating a charter for your project, a lawyer needs to be careful to limit it to legal advice and related legal strategy.

Build Your Project Management Knowledge

A project charter can be a useful tool for a lawyer. It can be used to clarify the objectives, costs, and potential risks of a legal matter. It is also a useful tool in lawyer-client communication.

Continue to learn more about project management techniques. RMC’s PM Crash Course in a book or online PM Crash eLearning course gives non-project management professionals an excellent foundation in predictive and agile methods so you so you can apply them to your job immediately.

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Applying OCM to Projects

Project team working at on applying OCM to their project

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Projects come with specific objectives and goals that can result in changes to the way a business works. But if the individuals within an organization who are going to be impacted by the outcome of a project don’t agree to implementing changes, your goals won’t be met after all. The solution: Organizational Change Management.  

Organizational Change Management and Projects

  1. What Is Organizational Change Management?
  2. Why Is Project Change Management Important?
  3. Organizational Change Management Strategies
  4. Using an OCM Framework Is a Game Changer

What Is Organizational Change Management? 

A lot goes into managing projects successfully, but one thing that might be overlooked is Organizational Change Management (OCM). Put simply, this process helps ensure that anyone who will be affected by a project will be aware of, as well as accepting of, important changes.  

OCM is a process that helps you prepare stakeholders and workers for the changes that lie ahead, thereby putting their minds at ease and giving them the chance to understand why the changes are necessary and beneficial.  

Why Is Project Change Management Important? 

Let’s say you’re managing a project that will result in the implementation of new processes designed to boost a company’s efficiency. Now imagine that those processes are quite different from those currently in place, causing workers to be resistant to the changes.  

As you probably already guessed, when this type of scenario occurs, it can dramatically decrease the ROI of a project. After all, the whole point was to implement changes for the better, with the expectation that the people within the company would be willing to agree to the changes.  

With OCM, the focus is on educating and preparing those who will be affected so they can understand the benefits and the necessity of applying the changes that a project requires. Ultimately, it’s about transitioning seamlessly from old ways of doing things to new methods that bolster success.   

Organizational Change Management Strategies 

How can you make the most of change management in project management, and make sure you integrate OCM into project plans effectively?  

First off, homing in on the people who will be directly affected by a project’s outcome is the goal of OCM. But you want to do this while you’re managing a project, not after it’s complete.    

Also, you can have a project management team and a change management team working together to help reduce risks, improve communication, and boost efficiency. It’s best if these teams work together, communicate well, and agree to the common goals. And it’s also wise to ensure team members on both sides understand their responsibilities and can follow a process that includes milestones.    

Using an OCM Framework Is a Game Changer 

Integrating OCM into your project management plan can be easier when you use an OCM framework that’s designed to reduce resistance, increase motivation, and create change smoothly and quickly.  

A framework can help you take the appropriate steps, in the right order, to ensure people will be prepared for any changes that are forthcoming. You can address concerns and reassure everyone that a change will be a positive move in the right direction. Changes can be managed, workers can be productive, and project goals can be realized.   

The good news is you can choose from various frameworks to find the one that you prefer. Examples include: 

  • ADKAR Model
  • Satir Change Management Model 
  • Kotter’s Model
  • Kübler-Ross Model
  • McKinsey 7-S Framework
  • Lewin Model 

Bottom line: with Organizational Change Management, it’s all about managing a project like you normally would, while also planning for the ideal outcome by taking steps to ensure the impacts of the project will be readily accepted. And, with the right OCM framework, it becomes easier to focus not only on the requirements of the project but also on the people who will be affected by it.   

Sources: 

https://www.enableps.com/the-importance-of-ocm-in-projects-management/  

https://adaptmethodology.com/change-management-framework/ 

https://blog.remesh.ai/7-organizational-change-management-frameworks 

https://change.walkme.com/change-management-frameworks/ 

 

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