Project Leadership

Personal benefits

• Become a more effective project executive or sponsor
• Manage project organizations to meet or exceed expectations
• Implement best practices to overcome project obstacles and manage risk
• Appreciate the uncertainty associated with strategic projects
• Increase project visibility and priority across the organization to overcome that uncertainty

Organizational benefits

• Increase the success rate of major projects
• Create organizational synergies between project groups and other departments
• Establish an execution culture that permeates the entire organization
• Know when and how to kill projects
• Getting value from the Project Management Office

This program will integrate dynamic case studies, business situations, and facilitator-led discussions.

Core topics include:

• Differentiating Project Leadership from Project Management
• The Paradox of Project Control
• Project metrics and ‘Celebrating the Reds’ on Status Reports
• Getting Value from the Project Management Office (PMO)
• Strategic Portfolio Management
• Creating a Compelling Vision
• Project Visibility and Motivating the Team – creating a project spirit to inspire energy, excitement, and commitment to the project
• Project Acceleration
• Risk and Crisis Management
• Leadership Style and Team Culture
• Execution – applying project tools to managing the operating plan

In-Person Learning

Learn alongside fellow participants from across the country, discovering best practices that span industries and sectors.

Our in-person programs include classroom learning sessions led by award-winning Smith School of Business professors and industry experts. Practice new skills in breakout sessions, projects and simulations, and apply your learning toward real-world case studies.

Queen’s Health and Safety protocols for in-person programs are evolving and may change by the program date. View the Respiratory Illness Information (COVID-19) (opens in a new tab).

Session Leaders

Session leaders include senior professors from Smith School of Business and knowledgeable experts from industry. These outstanding teachers are constantly in touch with today's business world through real-world business experience, Board memberships and their own consulting practices.

Kathryn Brohman

Digital Business and Strategy Execution
Smith School of Business

A world in which technology enables businesses to prosper, employees to thrive, and a culture for driving results to flourish is the vision behind Kathryn Brohman’s thought leadership in sustainable execution.

An Associate professor at Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, Kathryn has co-authored several books that focus on how today’s organizations can navigate business practices to drive short-term results without compromising long-term success. Her most recent book entitled SHIFT: A New Mindset for Sustainable Execution presents results from her work with over 750+ organizations that helped translate strategy into action. The book provides a pragmatic approach to identifying salient execution barriers, filling gaps to stabilize an execution backbone, and removing distractions to seamlessly adapt to change.

Since arriving at Queen’s University in 2003, Kathryn has pioneered programs in Strategy Execution and Digital Transformation across MBA and executive programs. She has worked with hundreds of organizations in North America to translate strategy into action. Kathryn has received multiple funding grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) as well as the Ontario Research Foundation and published her work in premier journals including MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences, Harvard Business Review, MIS Quarterly Executive, and Communications of the ACM.

Barry Cross

Operations Strategy
Smith School of Business

Barry Cross is an expert and thought leader in innovation, execution and operations strategy. He joined Smith School of Business after nearly 20 years in the automotive and manufacturing sectors with Magna Autosystems and DuPont, where he led many key strategic initiatives, including nearly 30 program launches in North America, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Barry speaks and consults widely in the areas of Lean Innovation, Strategy, Projects and Execution, enabling organizations to create sustainable value for their customers. He is the bestselling author of three books, including Simple: Killing Complexity for a Lean and Agile Organization, and several Most Read articles.