New in 2026!
Certificate in Project Communication - Interpersonal skills can make or break project success.
This certificate series consists of three workshops:
Project Leadership & Communication
April 15 – 16, 2026
Increasing Influence for Project Managers
May 13 – 14, 2026
Leading Project Teams
June 10 – 11, 2026
All three workshops are 2-days each for a total of six classroom days, and 36 hours
Materials in this class are based on the current Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide).
In today’s business environment strategic initiatives, market shifts, product changes, and staffing fluctuations happen at warp speed. Employees find themselves managing client projects, business operations, task management, and resource levels.
To handle these expectations, communication skills have to be strong. Leading and communicating with the multiplicity of personalities and talent requires an astute understanding of the motivations, anxieties, and goals of the team members you lead. Without the proper tools successful leaders employ, even the best planned project can end in failure.
The skills taught in this certificate have universal relevance: Everyone is a project manager in some way, regardless of title. Effective project management processes are developed to work around the constraints in every industry: Construction, Engineering, IT and Telecommunications, Aerospace, Banking and Financial groups, Manufacturing, City and State Government, the Health Industry, Airlines and Transportation, Energy and Utilities, Retail and Service Providers.
Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of including project and program managers in strategic decisions—in fact, nearly 31% of American CEOs today have significant experience in project management (Dubourse, Archibald, Francois, Pailot, Poroli, & Prabhakar, 2011).
In a project management environment, leading and communicating with the multiplicity of personalities and talent requires an astute understanding of the motivations, anxieties and goals of the team members you lead. Without the proper tools successful leaders employ, even the best planned project can end in failure. This useful program will equip project managers with the skills they need to lead and communicate effectively in a project environment, especially in projects where they don’t have direct authority over other members of the project team.
After completing this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Clearly identify the goals and expectations of a project
- Understand how to conduct a stakeholder analysis
- Determine the people, processes, and tools which are required for success
- Improve communications with team members and stakeholders
- Establish a foundation for project changes
- Explain how to handle internal and external conflicts
- Develop a healthy team culture
What you will learn:
Setting Project Direction
- Types of projects
- Defining goals
- Measuring goals
Ensuring Stakeholder Satisfaction
- Identifying Stakeholders
- Determining Stakeholder Expectations
- Communicating with Stakeholders
Obtaining Project Resources
- Identifying needed people
- Defining the needed processes
- Procuring the needed tools
Monitoring Project Performance
- Responsibility, accountability, authority
- Reviewing project performance
- Reporting project performance
Managing Project Change
- Setting project baselines
- Identifying baseline owners
- Establishing a change forum
Addressing Project Conflict
- Reviewing causes of conflict
- Criticality of why
- Seeking a win-win
Creating Project Culture
- Building a culture of trust
- Ensuring accountability
- Enhancing collaboration
We know what needs to be done and we know how to do it, yet we can’t get our boss, our colleagues, and yes, even the people who report to us, to do “the right thing.”
Some days it feels like we’re just banging our head against the wall. The result…. a whopping headache!
The objectives are:
- How to identify and analyze key stakeholders on your projects
- How to build and utilize stakeholder profiles to use in influencing
- The importance of defining clear roles and responsibilities
- How to establish and maintain trust-based relationships
- How to instill credibility or self-trust
- How to weigh stakeholder influence and the impacts to your project
- Decision-making styles and how to influence each
- Appropriate media for the communications
- Essential elements of a communication plan
- Strategies to build trust and communicate more effectively in a virtual team environment
- What difficult stakeholders really want from you
- Language and ways to verbally manage difficult stakeholders
- How to proactively manage stakeholders
- How to effectively influence stakeholders
- How to use Negotiations as a Project Manager
What you will learn:
Influence & authority
- Influence vs. persuasion
- Power vs. authority
- Personality types
- Barriers to influence
- Sources of power
Trust
- Definition of trust
- Types of trust
- Credibility
- How to build trust
- Trust busters
- Restoring trust
Influencing others
- Influencing the boss
- Influencing cifficult subordinates
- Influencing colleagues
- Influencing groups, departments, or divisions
Stakeholder communication
- Communication barriers
- Rumor mill vs. grapevine
- Decision making styles and how to influence each
- Communications planning
- Virtual team communication
- Communication media
Difficult stakeholders
- What makes a stakeholder difficult
- The fear factor
- More effective communication
- What difficult stakeholders want
- Ways to help and hinder difficult stakeholders
- A.F.E. model
Negotiations
- Determining the other party’s needs
- Building confidence
- Eight ways to increase your power in negotiations
- Negotiation Tactics
A project manager’s role is like that of the conductor of a symphony. They cannot play all of the instruments, but they are responsible for the final product. Their job is to help each team member bring their best to the work of the project and to keep them focused on the goals.
In this program participants will explore good practices for developing and leading teams, including the processes, tools and techniques from Project Management Institute’s (PMI) newest Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). They will develop their skills with hands-on exercises, discussions and role play of team interactions using real examples from real projects.
The objectives are:
- Developing a team charter
- Using the Tuckman model to better understand your team
- Identifying core values and their influence
- How to talk about trust
- Negotiating for what you need; leveraging what you have
- Preparing for and practicing constructive conflict
What you will learn:
- Project managers as influential leaders
- Roles and responsibilities on the team
- Sphere of influence
- Ethical decision making
- Establishing a positive team culture
- Tuckman model for team development
- Values – yours and others
- Building trust
- Leveraging the differences
- Creating a team charter
- Developing interpersonal and team skills
- Acquiring team resources
- Negotiating
- Virtual teams – special needs
- Communication
- Constructive conflict
- Addressing toxic behaviors in teams
- Motivating vs. de-motivating team members
- Facilitating for consensus
very important
about PMP/PMI
how to gain additional knowledge so you are ready to test
Take next two certs – Gain a Master Certificate in PM
Take the exam.
Complete Cert 1 – Fundamentals
Complete Cert 2 – Communication
Complete Cert 3 – Advanced tools
BOOM! Master Certificate
Substitutions are free and must be done prior to the start of the class or certificate program.
Cancellations or rescheduling must be received in writing and full refunds will be given up to four business days prior to the start of class.
Any cancellation or reschedule submitted with three or less business days notice is subject to a $35 charge on 1 or 2 day classes and a $75 charge on certificate programs.
No refunds after the first day of the class or certificate program.
Bring any of these topics onsite to your project teams. Each team member benefits from the synergy and having a subject matter expert to coach and guide them. Contact Denise.Sherman@wichita.edu or Paula.Seiwert@wichita.edu to explore the possibilities.
Materials in this class are based on the most current Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide).