Professional
Project LeaderThe Leadership Layer
Above the Tools.
This is hands-on project leadership from the masters — WBS creation, product backlogs, sprint planning, project charters, MS Project, and Excel mastery in practice. Plus the leadership layer that makes every technical skill actually lead. Not a cram session. A residency.
The PMP teaches you what to manage.
This teaches you how to lead.
Most technical training teaches tools and techniques in isolation — cramming frameworks without the context of real project pressure. The Professional Project Leader program does something different: it teaches the full technical toolkit through hands-on, real-world practice, then layers the leadership discipline that determines whether those tools actually produce results.
You will build WBS structures, product backlogs, sprint plans, project charters, and full project plans from scratch — guided by practitioners who have run these in the world’s most demanding environments. Then you will learn to lead the people doing that work.
How to hold a team together when the project is hard, the stakeholders are demanding, and the plan no longer reflects reality.
How to grow the people doing the work — not just manage their output. The discipline that multiplies team capability over time.
How to build the trust, connection, and psychological safety that produce performance authority alone cannot compel.
How to commend contribution with the specificity that shapes culture — and why leaders who don’t commend lose their best people quietly.
Where human judgment is irreplaceable, where AI extends your reach, and how to use the time AI saves for the work only a leader can do.
Five disciplines. One complete leader.
Developed by Phill Akinwale, the 5C Framework is the intellectual architecture of this program — a leadership model that sits above every methodology. Non-linear, cyclical, concurrent. It applies in Agile sprints, predictive phases, hybrid environments, and every human leadership moment in between.
Three hours a week. A career transformed.
This is a residency-style program — immersive, relational, and built on real-world pragmatism drawn from Phill Akinwale’s experience at NASA, the FBI, the US Army, the US Air Force, Honeywell, and Citigroup. Each session combines leadership teaching, live application, team workshop, and personal reflection.
You will build these from scratch — not watch someone else build them.
Every technical deliverable in this program is created live, in session, under the guidance of practitioners who have built them under real-world pressure. You leave with the artifact, the skill, and the leadership understanding of why it matters.
Taught by leaders who lived the curriculum.
John Maxwell Certified Coach · Creator, 5C Framework
Phill has trained project leaders at NASA, the FBI, the US Army, the US Air Force, Honeywell, and Citigroup. As the creator of the 5C Leadership Framework and founder of the Project Leadership Institute, he has spent decades building the bridge between technical project management excellence and the human leadership that determines whether projects truly succeed.
As a Founding Member of Maxwell Leadership and a certified John Maxwell Coach, Phill brings the discipline of one of the world’s foremost authorities on influence and leadership development into every session — grounded always in real-world stories and the conviction that leadership is the most learnable skill a project professional can develop.
Agile Trainer & Practitioner
Roy brings deep practical expertise in Agile methodologies and business transformation. A seasoned trainer and business professional, Roy has guided organizations through complex transitions — building high-performing teams, embedding Agile thinking at scale, and developing the adaptive leadership that thrives when change is the only constant.
Roy’s teaching grounds the 5C Framework in the lived reality of Agile environments: how to sustain team health across sprints, how to facilitate retrospectives that produce genuine behavioral change, and how leadership disciplines elevate every ceremony from a process event into a genuine human development opportunity.
Everything you need to commit with confidence.
Certification (PPL)
The PPL credential signals to employers, clients, and collaborators that you do not just manage projects — you lead people. You have completed rigorous, applied leadership training built on real-world experience across government, defense, and the private sector. You bring the layer above.
Not theory. Transformation.
Ready to become the leader above the tools?
Eight weeks. Twenty-four hours. One framework that will change how you lead every project, every team, and every conversation for the rest of your career.
Cohort sizes are intentionally limited to ensure the depth of engagement this residency requires.
PDU eligible for active PMP and PMI-ACP credential holders.