8 Essential Skills for Program Leadership

Project and Program Management are terms that are used in the same sentence with the same meaning. Very often project managers need to be program managers and vice versa. The project and program manager must have interchangeable skills that are not written down anywhere. Program managers should have the ability to react, manage problems, deal with conflict as well as serving the business. This session will look at the skills that program managers need in order to become program leaders.

It is now how a program is managed, it is important how it is led. This statement require program managers to be able to understand some core skills that should be developed and delivered on: -

• Leadership Skill 1: - Your ability to Serve you Team which is Servant Leadership
• Leadership Skill 2: - Manage YOUR development and understand how to get to best from you as a  Program or Project Manager
• Leadership Skill 3: - Being a Critical Thinker to question and challenge, and adapt new ideas and frameworks to suit different context
• Leadership Skill 4: - Be a Sales Person by focusing on achieving value and realizing benefits by thinking about Program and Project Management
• Leadership Skill 5: - Think about others Communication Values with the skills in developing and adapting project information and reporting
• Leadership Skill 6: - Be a Problem Solver to structure problems, seek out facts, engage with others, be innovative and creative in developing solutions
• Leadership Skill 7: - Negotiation is one of the skills where all parties are satisfied with the agreement. Develop and practice negotiation skills both within the project team and external to the team with other stakeholders, sponsors, contractors
• Leadership Skill 8: - Sponsor engagement by ensuring the right results with the right people

These skills of a Program Manager is just not thinking about how to get something done but it is by managing your environment, the people around you and by developing yourself. 

So if you are about to become a program manager, think of the following as you step forward:

1. Understand what the challenges that program managers face
2. Identify how to switch from program management to program leadership
3. Identify the techniques that can be used to on-board team members
4. Focus on your ability to become a problem-solver and how to use these skills
5. Understand that conflict is good in project and that the role of the project manager is to manage it
6. Use critical thinking to understand results and modify behavior
7. Be able to understand the principles behind servant project leadership and how to implement it.
8. The ability to influence sponsors and team members alike in non-ideal situations.
9. Understand how to effectively communicate project results and status 
10. To be proactive and reactive in managing project situations and conflict.