Why is this important?

How much of your business is delivered by project teams? Think for a moment about how often you create teams to deliver specific projects in your business. Those projects are often complex and involve the effective management and integration of complicated tasks and processes.

Project teams are often used to:

• develop new products and services
• plan market reviews and develop strategy
• implement new IT systems
• deliver capital projects such as refurbishment or new build
• assess and manage business risk
• develop health and safety policy and procedures
• assess and implement performance improvement measures
• research and develop new business opportunities

Project managers need to demonstrate competent technical and professional skills but they also need to develop sound communication, influencing and other 'people skills' if they are to win the hearts and minds of their team members. They will need to understand motivational factors, personality types and demonstrate flexibility of behaviour to resolve conflict and find creative solutions to problems as they arise.

An effective project manager can be the difference between successful completion and delivery of a project or abject failure. Effective project management skills can be taught and existing ones improved.

How O" can help you

O" can help you benchmark your existing or proposed project managers to identify their strengths and weaknesses and the areas where they would benefit from further development. This can include a range of internal and external stakeholder feedback, psychological profiling and other assessment processes to examine the candidate's current methodology and skill level and help them increase their self awareness and knowledge. We then work in collaboration with you to design a bespoke coaching and training programme to fill in their skills gaps. Typical areas where a coaching programme may focus include:

• writing and agreeing the precise specification for the project with the customer or stakeholder
• planning the project in terms of time, resources needed, team function, project activities and cost
• communicating the project plan to the project team
• agreeing and delegating actions to project stakeholders with clear milestones for monitoring control
• forming, motivating, managing and supporting the project team
• reviewing project progress in accordance with the project plan; adjusting critical tasks and communicating changes to stakeholders
• completing the project; reviewing performance and giving and receiving feedback to project members
• sharing lessons learnt and best practice

The benefits to you

There are clear benefits to developing the project leadership skills of your executives and managers. The return on your investment in this area will be high and may be evaluated through monitoring the improved performance of teams to deliver their projects on time and within budget. Similarly, your reputation with external stakeholders will improve dramatically as you consistently and accurately match their needs and keep to agreed timescales and budgets.

Does your company always meet your customers needs within agreed time and financial parameters?

Does your staff always deliver their projects on time?

Have you evaluated the potential cost to your company's profit margins or reputation of poor employee project management skills?

If you have answered "no" to any of the above questions, contact Robin Johnson or Philip Perry at O" Consulting on 0845 260 7700