Course F: Leading projects from a distance

Course vision
More and more project teams are located on multiple locations. The current economic environment with cost cutting and travel bans requires project managers to lead their teams from a distance, sometimes just crossing the boundaries between companies but increasingly across borders around the globe. For project managers this means a new set of challenges. They have to learn how to lead remote team members and develop cross border productive teams.

Successful distance leaders know how to strike the balance between trust and control. They develop the ability to:

• communicate with their teams by effective use of the available communication technologies.
• develop the personal skills needed to overcome the cultural barriers.
• switch between management styles and handle the apparent contradiction

This training provides you with a framework of reference, some key skills and insights to help you become effective distance leaders. We will deal with projects both small and large. Understanding and dealing with complexity in a way that allows project managers to tailor their distributed project organization and avoid unnecessary bureaucracy.

Training method
This course will provide a balanced blend of competence building in leading distributed teams and at the same time solving some of the technical challenges associated with high tech communication. By no means is this going to be a technical course. We merely need to make sure you know how to communicate and effectively use the right tool in the right situation. In small groups we will simulate reality and create hands-on experience based on a sound theoretical framework.

Training objectives

As a participant you will learn to:

1. Understand the essence of distance leadership
   Experience what works and what not, both from theory and (best) practice
2. Build trust and resolve conflicts in teams
   Enhance your capacity to be a remote coach and mentor for the team
3. Collaborate and negotiate across cultures
   Apply practical cultural knowledge to overcome barriers and avoid the early pitfalls
4. Select and use the appropriate communication tools
   Develop a project and team-specific communication strategy
5. Direct the actual work effort and control the outcome from a distance Know how to motivate and have the local teams execute the work at hand
6. Overcome the resistance and barriers in organizations and teams when implementing remote work
   Get and use proven tools and practices
7. Gain insight into your personal areas for future development. Experience the importance of online personality as an added value

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Faculty:

Henk Bellinga

Managing Director
Advitec Consulting
The Netherlands

 

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Guest lectures by industry practitioners:

Birgitte Fauerholm Saabye

NNE Pharmaplan
Denmark