As projects continue to become more complex and teams more virtual over the coming year, developing the leadership skills of project managers will become increasing crucial to success, experts have warned.
But according to Informa’s ESI International, a project management training and consultancy house, a key challenge for organisations will be to clearly define what ‘leadership’ means in a project and programme management context as they seek to boost managers’ critical thinking, communication and organisational change management skills.
J Leroy Ward, ESI’s executive vice president, said: “Savvy business leaders are putting more stead in project management to fine tune their competitive advantage. Alongside technical savvy, other skills such as negotiation, communication, critical thinking, change management and leadership are taking on new importance for project managers.”
In order to supplement the often poor change management skills of many project managers, however, organisations will start to develop and assign increasing numbers of change experts to project teams, who will, in turn, steadily adopt more change management methods that will be packaged up as methodologies.
The focus of professional development, meanwhile, will progressively move towards more experiential and informal learning. On-the-job training and reality-based learning will gain increasing sway as organisations demand that project managers apply what they have learned immediately to ongoing initiatives. Rising levels of importance will also be attached to proven experience and demonstrated competency rather than simply qualifications.
Communities of practice and coaching and mentoring will likewise become more popular means of gaining knowledge, while the rising number of millenials joining the workforce will lead to a higher adoption of social learning technologies and approaches such as wikis, blogs and podcasts.
But because of a general lack of available project management skills, savvy talent management and retention strategies will be required to try and guard against staff poaching, particularly in developing markets such as India, China and the Middle East.
