The Six Essential Skills That Define PM Leaders: Insider Insights

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I NSI DER I NSI GHTS

The Six Essential Skills that
Defne PM Leaders
To learn more about becoming a PM Leader,
contact an IPS Learning expert at +1 866.802.1152
or [email protected].
Youre a PMP
with some experience under your belt. Maybe youve led a

major project and applied some leadership skills to your assignments. But
something tells you there is more out there than just the mechanics of your
job. You have ideas worth spreading that require a certain set of skills you
have yet to master.
Do you want to move beyond the technical inner workings of your profession
to be able to see, understand and innovate within the bigger picture? These
six essential strategic business skills will take you from being a tactical
mechanic to a PM leader.
The essential element to becoming a PM leader lies within your ability to see
the links between strategy and execution. To succeed you need to hone your
ability to zoom your perspective inand outas the situation demands.
The Essential Strategic Business Skills to Rev Your PM Engine
1. Managing AlignmentEverything you do needs to be aligned to your
organizational culture, strategy, structure and internal politics. Managing
alignment requires understanding how to move your project, team,
products and organization in concert and knowing that not everything
will be aligned at all times and how and when to realign. For example,
an IT project requires a change in behavior by both the end user and
management. The advanced leader knows how to drive the alignment and
sees it needs to begin at the start of the project.
2. Becoming an InterpreterLike a language translator, the advanced
leader has the ability to read between the lines to understand and interpret
the data within the right context. Interpreting requires the ability to pull
disparate pieces of information from various sources to see the picture
The essential element to
becoming a PM leader
lies within your ability to
see the links between
strategy and execution.
IPS
from different perspectives. For example, a project status report contains
subjective data based on the teams perspective. The advanced leader can
interpret the subjective data by taking in all the perspectives, convert the
information to have meaning from his or her perspective and interpret it for
someone else who may have a different perspective.
3. Learning to InnovateIt is easy to be innovative when you are in a start-
up, but most organizations are more mature and process-oriented. The
advanced leader knows when and how to bend or conform to the rules to
pursue an innovative idea that is aligned to the overall business strategy.
For example, a headphone manufacturer decides to test their products
on celebrity musicians instead of using the traditional scientifc approach.
As a result, the company receives not only celebrity endorsements, but
also develops a great product that is based on real-life experience. The
advanced leader knows when to go out on a limbwhile managing risks
to achieve better business results.
4. Thinking AheadAny chess master will tell you that you must always
think several moves ahead of your opponent. Anticipating trends and how
they might impact the business is a crucial skill for any leader. For example,
a linens manufacturer identifes the negative impact of rising cotton prices
in China. The advanced leader will closely monitor the market to anticipate
what will happen in the next six months and how to minimize collateral
damage as a result of that trend.
5. Leveraging NetworksEffective networking and communication is an
obvious skill set for any manager. The advanced leader needs to learn
how to leverage the networks he or she has already built. For example, a
veteran nurse is assigned to implement a new medical billing system at the
hospital where she works. Because she has spent years building rapport
and trust with the entire team of doctors, she is able to leverage her
network to introduce the new system within a few weeks. The advanced
leader knows how to lead change from the middle.
The advanced leader
must interpret the
subjective data by taking
in all the perspectives.
IPS
The advanced leader will
closely monitor the market to
anticipate what will happen in
the next six months and how
to minimize collateral damage
as a result of that trend.
6. Making the Right DecisionsBusiness is about making money. If you
dont understand the market drivers, you cant make smart business
decisions. The advanced leader understands how to take action based
on a deep understanding of both local and global fnancial trends. This
skill assimilates all fve of the above skills. The advanced leader makes
informed, innovative decisions that are aligned to the business strategy,
interpreted for the appropriate audience, based on anticipated trends and
executed through the right channels. For example, a major technology
component company had a need to engage with a younger generation,
making the decision to acquire a hip headphone manufacturer rather
than creating the next best thing. The advanced leader can identify the
alignment between the two products, interpret the market trend for
the short and the long term, innovate to acquire rather than create,
and leverage their networks to have the courage to make the right
business decisions.
Books, mentors and real-life experience can help you acquire these skills over
time. Or you can take the fast track to advanced leadership through a training
program designed around the essential strategic business skills to advance
your leadership potential.
The Stanford Advanced Project Management (SAPM) program will shift your
perspective from the micro-view of project and program management to the
macro-view, giving you the strategic business skills to advance you to the
great leader you were meant to be.
For more information about the program, visit ipslearning.com/SAPM.
PMP
is a registered trademark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

2014 IPS Learning, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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IPS

I NSI DER I NSI GHTS

with some experience under your belt. Maybe youve led a

is a registered trademark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

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