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Course will be held in English language

Course will be held in English language

Every organization has processes, does not matter which lifecycle stage or age it is. Even if there is no document where process is described, that does not mean process does not exist. Very often, when organization is in a growth mode, first and foremost it focuses on the results, without thinking, how they will try to achieve the results. If building right processes around the practices that company applies is not one of the highest priorities, ask yourself how long will it take for every person to figure out who is doing what or how long does it take to onboard new people, if there is no structure around services or products that company provides? Process management is foreseen as an activity that is needed for big companies only. Process management is one of the important things when organization seeks to be more effective and efficient. But sometimes you may hear an opinion that process management is required for corporative organizations, and it is seen as an evil in small companies that kills the vibe. In addition, actual value of the process is forgotten and seen as something that slows down the company or make it more bureaucratic - could be, if organization goes too far with governance and implements too many steps, where they are not needed, but eventually processes help people to be more efficient. Process management is a way to setup a structure for the organizational routines and practices. Process management is important in various organizational stages, because this is what helps people to understand what their role is, what is the responsibility that person needs to fulfill and what person should expect from others. One of the most important goals of the process is to make things happen faster, because you do not waste your time by figuring out who can help you in certain steps and who is in charge of different things. In addition, having processes in place it will help you to solve ownership problems in the organization, there will be less sheet dragging to different conners moments and hopefully more commitment. And finally, when you need things move faster, without process being in place, there is no way you will be able to determine which steps need improvement without having proper process painted. Final thoughts. Describing and implementing processes take time and may look like additional overhead for the organization, without any added value. But if somebody would calculate how much time is spent to figure out who needs to do what, will understand that having process setup, would make things work faster and would help organization to succeed.

Ask any company owner or Chief Operating Officer (CEO), if they would like to have managers and specialist who would be acting as true leaders and you will hear the answer loud and clear, that yes, this is what they are looking for. There are certain personal skills that every leader should have or gain in order to be a good leader, but if person have skills, there is a question still: is every company ready for certain level of leadership? Leader is an individual who acts as an owner and does not demand for instructions. Person with leadership skills normally are the ones who set their own rules, know and understand what their long term goal is and like to have certain amount of freedom to implement improvements in the organization. Leaders are the ones who can stand behind their opinion and look for potential solutions in the areas where things are not working. He / she will always question the state of mind and will not use first no as an ultimate answer, but instead will try at least 3-5 various ways to change status quo in the organization. As nice organization full of leaders would look like, it is important to understand is your organization ready for such people to pitch in. One of the most important things for person who wants to improve status quo in the organization has a mandate of implementing things: if culture in the organization is that every single tiny thing needs to be aligned and discussed, it will be a buzz killer for any leader to do what is right, because person is just stuck in endless conversations. It does not mean that there should not be anything aligned, but there should be clear border line, where you give leader a mandate to move ahead. Without it may look that you do not trust the person, therefore you expect person not to move any direction without informing or aligning things with others. if company style of working is to have numerous catch up's, reports, check in's during the week, that will create feeling of mistrust as well. Such environment encourages to question whether you are seen as a task doer or the one who can work in self- organized manner and deliver the result at the end of it. if company higher leadership do not show signs of encouraging people to act as owners of their area, that will keep people in the state of asking for directions. How higher management can show that they want people to act as leaders? Simple - by getting their hands dirty and coming up with improvements and implementing them. if company is asking and making instructions on every step, it actually limits opportunities for the people to be more independent and approach things in their own manner. This one is very hard to overcome, because organizations have instructions mostly because people would know what to do and save time, but down side of it, is that no new thing, will work without somebody holding hand, will not encourage people to look for optimal ways of how to do it and eventually you will find yourself in a situation that no new assignments can be delivered without clear step by step instruction. Such environment often kills any opportunities for leadership skills growth within existing company community. Final thoughts. If your aspiration is company being driven by leaders, there are certain things that you need to fix, before even asking to act as a leader: give freedom to act, stop checking on every step of the way, stop giving instructions, instead ask to come up with their own path, how things need to work. All of these may become a buzz kill for any person with leadership skills package.

There are different definitions what project manager means in different organizations. And sometimes Project manager name seems to be used in a wrong setting, that creates various misunderstandings in expectations towards people who are wearing the title of project manager. Project Manager is the one that feels in charge of the project ultimate delivery. Being in charge of the project may mean various different things, but mainly it means that project manager is a manager when he / she: does not run from the responsibility when issues appear. looks for the most efficient ways how project result should be achieved. understand project key risks and deep dive into them. trusts, but verifies what project team is delivering. presents project delivery to the stakeholders as it would be his / her personal responsibility. analyzes and understands project stakeholders and works out communication plan that fits each and everyone's needs. is not afraid to look for solutions when unknown risks realize. understands that there is no project that goes according to plan. knows how to work when there are no instructions in place. respects company ways of working and shows cases to others. The list can go on and on. The whole idea is that project managers are the ones who run the show and are capable to navigate unknown waters. Being a project manager does not mean that you are alone, you have the project team that you need to know how to work with in order to achieve the results. Most of the time project team members are not direct subordinates to the project manager, which makes it even harder to make group of people work for the common goal. This part is important because project manager need to have not only team management skills, but as well be able to read the team to catch various different reasons why some of them are not meeting agreed timelines for tasks from project plan and obviously motivate to work the tasks out. Final thoughts. When describing the role of project manager, it is important to understand that project manager has managerial element for a reason: person needs to run the team and motivate it to reach the necessary results, needs to feel an owner of project delivery and be able to work with various different stakeholders in unknown waters - where there are no instructions available.