# FPM 234: Applied Leadership in Projects & Programs Course (Self-Paced)

Canonical URL: <https://www.graduateschool.edu/courses/fpm-234-applied-leadership-in-projects-programs-course-self-paced>

## Overview

This course helps mid-level program and project managers strengthen the leadership and interpersonal skills needed to guide high-performing teams. Participants learn how to foster trust, motivate others, build stakeholder relationships, and manage conflict effectively while making sound, ethical decisions under pressure.

The course also develops coaching, mentoring, and innovation skills that enhance team performance and creativity. Through practical exercises, participants apply these techniques to real-world scenarios and create an action plan to improve leadership effectiveness within their federal projects.

## What you'll learn

- Shape team culture to strengthen accountability, psychological safety, and delivery focus.
- Identify stakeholder influence and develop engagement strategies that build lasting partnerships.
- Use principled negotiation to gain resources, commitments, and decisions without conflict.
- Resolve disputes constructively with approaches that maintain relationships and project momentum.
- Make timely decisions under uncertainty by weighing evidence, ethics, and risk tolerance.
- Coach and mentor team members using proven frameworks to improve performance and independence.
- Encourage creativity through experimentation, reflection, and structured innovation practices.
- Create a leadership action plan with measurable goals and checkpoints for the next 90 days.

## Curriculum

#### Module 1: Leading Project Teams

- Establish vision, norms, and psychological safety.
- Reinforce accountability and ownership of outcomes.
- Tune leadership style to team needs.

#### Module 2: Building Networks & Professional Relationships

- Map influence and stakeholder power dynamics.
- Use persuasion and principled negotiation to gain commitments.
- Maintain relationships across organizational boundaries.

#### Module 3: Managing Conflict

- Identify root causes and choose an appropriate response style.
- Facilitate difficult conversations that preserve trust.
- Turn disputes into opportunities for learning and improvement.

#### Module 4: Making Decisions

- Balance speed and rigor using structured decision frameworks.
- Apply ethical and risk lenses to ambiguous choices.
- Communicate decisions and rationale clearly.

#### Module 5: Coaching for Success

- Use simple coaching models to grow capability.
- Deliver actionable feedback and measure progress.
- Create stretch opportunities aligned to individual and team goals.

#### Module 6: Creativity & Innovation

- Encourage experimentation and low-risk pilots.
- Convert ideas into implementable improvements.
- Build mechanisms to sustain innovation.

## Pricing

**Tuition:** $1769