Press release for PDD 2008

Relationships Key to Business Success

ALBANY, NY - Christopher Foster has managed dozens of people as a project manager. Foster is responsible for projects with million dollar budgets, tight deadlines and critical milestone dates. Where does he like to focus his energy? "People," says the 10-year Project Manager with CGI, a global information technology and business process services firm.

"Building and maintaining relationships with employees, customers, and vendors is what project management is all about," says Foster. "Budgets, timelines, those can all be changed with the swipe of a computer mouse. It’s interpersonal skills that make projects a success.

Foster was among the more than 100 people who attended, "Leadership through Effective Relationships," on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 in Albany, New York. The day-long professional development day was sponsored by the Upstate New York Chapter of the Project Management Institute. (UNY-PMI). Led by Aileen Ellis, PMP, PgMP, president of AME Group Inc., "Leadership through Effective Relationships" focused on the methods project managers can use to build leadership skills and tips and techniques for identifying their own leadership style. "Leadership and management is more than an executive title and a corner office," said Ellis who has presented the program around the world. "It is communications skills, better understanding of the people on your teams and what they need in order to be more successful. This is what leads to effective management."

The day-long learning program (which earned attendees 7 PDUs) featured a great deal of interactive activities focusing around a motivation/behavior self assessment instrument which attendees completed during the conference. Breaking into groups based on their motivations, learners practiced different methods for reaching out to various constituencies. For example, some people are motivated by relationships and interpersonal contact. Others are analytical, and look for data, information and hard statistics before making a decision regarding a project. High-level thinkers focus on long term goals and leave details to others.

UNY-PMI’s Professional Development Day illustrated choices to all these "personality types" on how to chart a course to build leadership and management skills to realize more productive relationships. At the end of the day, attendees:

• Identified an easy way to recognize and manage conflict while turning it into a positive force for change.
• Defined memorable ways to discover their own relating style and potential sources of conflict.
• And, experienced a proven way to look beyond other people's "behavior" to recognize.

Ellis is one of three co-authors of Charting Your Course for Effective Communication. Each attendee received a free copy of the book during the day, and Ellis hosted a book signing at the learning program’s conclusion.

UNY-PMI's is the seventh oldest PMI chapter worldwide. Membership is more than 450 professionals, with more than 250 holding PMP certification. Members come from government, healthcare, financial services, engineering, IT and consulting. The chapter celebrated its 30th anniversary last year.