Projects often fail due to unclear objectives, poor leadership, ineffective communication, and undefined roles and responsibilities. It takes a skilled project manager to sidestep the obstacles and deliver results.
Kirsten Wells has a long history of doing just that. She holds an MBA, MSc, and PMP and has years of experience successfully managing people and projects. She also teaches the Project Management for Business certificate program from Kompass Professional Development.
We caught up with Kirsten recently to learn more about her career journey and what students can expect from her course.
Here’s her story.
Q. Can you share a bit about your education and professional background in project management?
Kirsten: I received my PMP in 2009. At that time, I was working at The Weather Network on a lot of different projects. I had five different departments, and everything went through those different departments to get to the public.
While I was working there as the Director of Automated Products, I completed my Executive MBA at the Ivey School of Business. And then I became the Director and General Manager of Public Alerting. You know those amber alerts you see on your phone? I say amber alerts but there are so many different kinds, with earthquakes and every calamity possible. So I took on that role. There were about 90 people involved in that project at different stages. I would call that the major accomplishment of my career.
Then I went to work for Ivey Business School overseeing the Career Management of the Executive MBA and the Accelerated MBA programs. I was there for about five years and I loved it.
While I was working at Ivey, I went to London, England, and completed my Master’s in Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology.
So I have a very varied background.
Q. What’s the Project Management for Business certificate all about? What skills do students learn in this course?
Kirsten: What’s great about this program is that students learn some of the softer skills, like leadership, ethics, and honesty. Those are not covered in all types of project management certificates.
The program also gives a good overview of different systems that are out there to track data to manage your projects. We list the different software so you can go and evaluate them yourself and decide which ones make sense for your project.
There’s even an assignment related to that. So based on what you’ve learned in your company and learned in this program, what tools would you use and why?
You go through the steps that create a whole project for you: evaluating the software, evaluating your team, stakeholder management, etc. If you get to hire your team, you learn what to look for in terms of personality, competency, and so on.
The program teaches you the importance of communication, real teamwork, and leadership.
Q. How can project managers keep remote workers engaged?
Kirsten: I think that a lot of project managers don’t say things like “thank you” and “you’re doing a good job” enough. It’s important to have that encouragement and to take advantage of the successes of the project early on.
They don’t have to be big wins. It could be as simple as, “I know it’s 7:00 in the morning for you right now, but we’re so glad you’re here, and we’re looking forward to your update.” Praise and communication and celebrating the small wins are very important in terms of keeping people motivated.
In a large group, there will always be one or two people who don’t want to attend meetings because they find it a waste of time. Sometimes you have to have a contract with your employees, and they all have to say, “I am willing to make meetings at 7:00 in the morning or 8:00 at night in order to make this team and this project successful.” You can gather people on a video and have them verbalize that, because then they’re making a public declaration of what they’re going to do.
Q. Who is this certificate designed for?
Kirsten: Quite a few people would benefit from this kind of training. It’s geared for those who want to climb up the project management chain, but I think everybody that’s working in project-related activities would get a lot out of it. It could be marketing, or sales, in any industry that has people that need to get together to work on a deliverable.
Q. What else should students be aware of?
Kirsten: The program is structured so that you have enough time to read the course material and do the assignments reasonably in that time period. It’s usually two to three weeks per module and you finish one module before going on to another. Like everything in life, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it, but it certainly is manageable.
Every month there’s a dedicated window where we can get on a Zoom meeting to discuss whatever you like, and I’m always available through email.
LEARN MORE ABOUT MANAGING PEOPLE AND PROJECTS
Explore the Project Management for Business certificate from Kompass. The program runs for three to six months and is delivered online.
Click below to explore the certificate in more detail and chat live with an admissions advisor.
