If you are like many Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification holders, you might be finding it hard to source enough quality learning materials for your Leadership PDUs. Panic no more, I have all the details you need below.
In this article we’ll look at what Leadership PDUs are and how many you need, and what activities count towards your PDU total in the Leadership category.
What are Leadership PDUs?
Leadership is one side of the PMI Talent Triangle, along with Strategic and Business Management and Technical skills.
Leadership PDUs form part of the Education requirement for recertification.
The table below shows how many Leadership PDUs are required for each PMI certification.
Make a table of how many Leadership PDUs required for each certification, add in CAPM which is 2
| Certification | Leadership PDUs Required |
|---|---|
| PMP | 8 |
| PgMP | 8 |
| PfMP | 8 |
| PMI-PBA | 8 |
| PMI-ACP | 4 |
| PMI-RMP | 4 |
| PMI-SP | 4 |
| CAPM | 2 |
What does ‘Leadership’ mean?
The PMI Continuing Certification Requirements handbook defines Leadership like this:
But what does that actually translate to, as tasks we can do for PDUs?
The PMP® exam content outline has some more information on what leadership looks like. In fact, I’d say that the 2021 PMP exam has been aligned to structure perfectly to the Talent Triangle, with everything in the People section being fair game for Leadership PDUs.
What project management tasks count as leadership
Let’s take the exam content outline for the PMP as that’s a good guide to what PMI thinks Leadership means.
Here’s the list of activities in the People domain.
- Manage conflict
- Lead a team
- Support team performance (this is about appraisals, team development, giving feedback and identifying areas for individual improvement)
- Empower team members and stakeholders
- Ensure team members and stakeholders are adequately trained
- Build a team
- Address blockers for the team
- Negotiate project agreements
- Collaborate with stakeholders
- Build a shared understanding (this is about facilitating conversations to reach consensus)
- Engage and support virtual teams
- Define team ground rules
- Mentor relevant stakeholders
- Promote team performance using emotional intelligence.
That’s quite wide-ranging, and there’s a lot in there you can turn into Leadership PDU opportunities.
Examples of qualifying activities for Leadership PDUs
We all use leadership skills in project management which means there are plenty of opportunities to claim PDUs in this area as long as you are learning about related topics.
To be honest, I enjoy developing my leadership and interpersonal skills more than I do learning technical techniques. However, much of project management education is based on technical skills, so you do have to keep an eye out for qualifying activities that count towards your Leadership PDU total.
For example:
Any kind of formal or informal training, webinar or podcast on the topics of:
- Conflict management
- Negotiation skills
- Influencing
- Collaboration techniques (reading my book on collaboration tools would also count)
- Knowledge transfer tools and techniques
Any reading, research time or learning about:
- Managing virtual teams
- Emotional intelligence (start with this book)
- Team engagement and team building activities like a scavenger hunt
I have a resource to get you started with building team engagement across virtual teams , that you could also adapt for teams working in the same location.
Team Engagement Tactics
Step-by-step instruction guide and training videos on two different ways to engage and have fun with your team! Learn how to create an interactive team map AND how to set up an online countdown calendar.
The easiest way to earn Leadership PDUs
If all that seems too difficult, then the easiest way to earn your Leadership PDUs is simply to buy a bundle of curated training materials specifically designed to meet the PMP certificate’s requirement for 8 hours of professional development in that field.
There aren’t many resources specifically designed purely for Leadership PDUs, so the one I recommend is The PDU Podcast Leadership Package .
I like it because:
- It instantly means you earn 8 relevant PDUs (of course, you have to watch the webinars, but you can do that over a lunchbreak, on your commute or in the evenings)
- If you don’t need 8 PDUs in the Leadership domain, you can carry them forward to the next recertification cycle
- The PDUs are already pre-approved as they come from OSP International LLC, a recognized and approved PMI training provider
- They come with a spreadsheet that shows you exactly how many PDUs you earn per webinar, so you save time entering your claim into the Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) system.
PDU Podcast
Earn PDUs by listening to these podcasts on your phone, mobile device, or computer. Learn from 25 project management experts when it is convenient to you.
Next steps
Ready to earn those elusive Leadership PDUs?
Here are your next steps:
- Make sure you have a copy of the CCR handbook so you can double-check exactly what you need
- Log into the CCRS and see what you’ve already logged against the Leadership side of the Talent Triangle – it might be more than you think!
- Work out how many more PDUs you need
- Make a plan to earn them using the resources discussed above.
See, simple! You can do it – as we’ve seen, as long as you identify the right learning opportunities, you’ll soon have a full quota of relevant claim codes to add into your record.
Pin for later reading
