Project leadership forms part and parcel of just about anyone in business with any degree of responsibility. And of course, the higher up the organisation you go, the more complex and the riskier the projects are. Much project leadership thinking tends to focus on the practical time-based, resource allocation type of detail. Yet to execute a project effectively, we need to get people - the right people - not only to back our idea but to stay with it until it is complete.

I've worked with veteran marketer and TedxSpeaker coach, Brain Rea, to bring his remarkable course Incite for Execution to life for The School of Thought. It's "the definitive Influencing Toolkit for  Project Leaders - How to Communicate and Influence Stakeholders for Better Project Execution and Outcomes". The Aha moment that led him to create the course, was when he picked up a book by Daniel Pink (How to Sell), in which he read that most middle managers spend 40% of their time on non-sales selling - ie. persuasion. That's 24 seconds in every working minute! And most are doing it without understanding the psychology and tools behind how to influence stakeholders effectively.

As Brian says in the course, "Communication is the lubrication of execution". This learning journey equips you to influence critical project stakeholders, team members and decision-makers for better project and transformation outcomes.

The course is primarily for people that lead diverse, multi-functional project teams; who want to get buy-in for an important message, idea or strategy or who oversee complex, sensitive or long-term transformation initiatives. 

I had a chat with Brian to find out more about his philosophy and the course: listen on your favourite podcast channel.