Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s School of Business entertained more than 400 attendees at its 2013 Project Management Symposium. The event was held Friday, Nov. 15, at the Morris University Center on the SIUE campus. The annual one-day event focused on cultivating the art and science of project management.
Headlining the closing session was Petty Office Justin Ponder, of U.S. Navy Special Forces. The presentation was “When Your Life Depends on Your Team: Lessons in Building and Leading Teams.” Zachary Schaefer, assistant professor of speech communication in SIUE’s College of Arts and Sciences, interviewed Ponder, who is stationed at the Naval Amphibious Base in Little Creek, Va.
Ponder is a mobility expert and his responsibilities as team leader for a special warfare combatant-craft crewman team include insertion and extraction of forces. Through the half-hour presentation, he shared a variety of concepts for successful teams:
- Effective communication is vital to teamwork
- There must be absolute, authentic trust within the team
- Every team member must have clear knowledge of their assignment and task with complete trust in and dedication to the team
- It is important as a leader to know the skills of every member of the team in order to utilize the team to the best of their abilities
- A culture of learning is important as you must adapt to a changing environment
- A leader should improve skills and help boost morale
- You don’t have to like everyone on your team, but putting aside any personal issues is essential to attaining your goal
- Establishing accountability for each team member creates better morale
- In business, rectify problems and make sure that they don’t happen again
- Post-event reviews allow everyone to reflect upon their experiences and spread knowledge to others
Schaefer also contributed his thoughts. “Communication is the oil that keeps the machine going whether it is in project management or naval special warfare,” he said. “If you can effectively communicate, you can form strong relationships, strong families, strong companies and strong nations.
“You’ve got to manage people’s roles. We don’t always act how we are supposed to. A good leader addresses when someone is acting differently than their norm.”
The School prepares the next generation of PM practitioners through academic programming in project management in undergraduate and graduate degree programs. It also provides continuing education for PM professionals through the Project Management Training portfolio of the Executive Education division.