Levin - Interpersonal skills for portfolio, program, and project managers

Dr. Ginger Levin is a senior consultant and educator in project management. Her specialty areas include portfolio management, program management, the project management office, metrics, and maturity assessments. She is certified as a PMP, PgMP, and OPM3 consultant and assessor. She was the second person in the world to receive the PgMP designation.

In addition, Dr. Levin is an adjunct professor for the University of WisconsinPlatteville, where she teaches in the masters in project management program, and for SKEMA (formerly Esc Lille) University, France, in the project management program at the masters and doctoral levels. She is also a visiting professor for RMIT in Melbourne, Australia, at the doctoral level.

In consulting, Dr. Levin has served as project manager in numerous efforts for Fortune 500 and public-sector clients, including BAE Systems, UPS, Citibank, the Food and Drug Administration, General Electric, SAP, EADS, John Deere, Schreiber Foods, TRW, New York City Transit Authority, the U.S. Joint Forces Command, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Prior to her work in consulting, she held positions of increasing responsibility with the U.S. government, including the Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Personnel Management, and General Accounting Office.

She is the coauthor of Implementing Program Management: Forms and Templates Aligned with the Standard for Program Management, second edition; Project Portfolio Management; Metrics for Project Management; Achieving Project Management Success with Virtual Teams; Advanced Project Management Office: A Comprehensive Look at Function and Implementation; People Skills for Project Managers; Essential People Skills for Project Managers; The Business Development Capability Maturity Model; and the PMP Challenge! PMP Study Guide and PgMP Study Guide.

Dr. Levin received her doctorate in information systems technology and public administration from The George Washington University, receiving the Outstanding Dissertation Award for her research on large organizations.

To my husband, Morris, for his continuing encouragement,
support, and love.

Interpersonal issues tend to be the most frustrating aspect of the work portfolio managers, program managers, and project managers do. For the project manager, interpersonal issues can hinder project success, especially in terms of meeting the projects schedule and budget. They can also jeopardize achieving customer satisfaction with the projects scope and quality requirements. In program management, interpersonal issues can get in the way of the delivery of benefits not only from the individual projects that constitute the program but also more importantly, from the program as a whole. They can also interfere with governance approval and the ability to meet and manage stakeholder expectations. The overall value of the programs deliverables can diminish. In portfolio management, interpersonal issues can impede the development of a portfolio management process that is followed consistently throughout the organization and can delay and even prevent communication about the programs and projects and their priorities to others in the organization.

This book is dedicated to giving you, the project professionalwhether at the portfolio, program, or individual project levelprofessional, tangible, and tested interpersonal skills that will help you address the many people issues you encounter in your work and with your team, while also helping you manage your own career direction. The differences in working with people at the various levelsportfolio, program, and projectare stressed, as are the differences (and similarities) in working on virtual and co-located teams. This book presents a set of specific, practical skills that you can use to resolve the difficult people issues managers so often encounter and to turn them from challenges and problems into opportunities.

The interpersonal skills addressed in the chapters of this book include:

• The ability to provide strong leadership and to comfortably implement four key leadership roles critical to success

• Different strategies for building effective and high-performing teams, whether the teams are virtual or co-located

• Proven methods for motivating your team as well as understanding your own motivation style

• Best practices for communicating, with an emphasis on developing concrete communications skills and recognizing what not to do

• Approaches for building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders at all levels, both internal and external

• Decision-making approaches and managing relationships with people who have dominant sources of power

• Proven methods for handling stress and responding to unexpected critical incidents

• Best practices for resolving conflict in the most productive and effective manner, along with ways to manage agreement to avoid groupthink

• Specific career management skills and approaches to follow in light of the complexities inherent in our working environment.

Why are interpersonal skills so critical? We are under extreme pressure to complete programs and projects faster than ever before and to achieve ever higher levels of customer satisfaction. We also are under pressure to select programs and projects that truly will make a difference to our organization in an environment of limited resources and necessary capacity planning. Our work is increasingly complex, often relying on new and unproven technologies and requiring greater interaction with an increasingly large number of stakeholders, many of whom may not be identified until the later stages of our work. In addition, we often perform our work in a global environment, with some of our teams never meeting face-to-face during the course of their work. It is also rare for most people to work on only a single program or project, so effective time management is essential.