The Podcast for Project Mangers Table of Contents 00:50 … Meet Mike 03:12 … Active vs Passive PM 09:14 … Micromanaging Teams 11:14 … Managing Multiple Projects 12:59 … PM Tools and Processes 17:21 … Setting Expectations 21:40 … Communicating Solutions 23:24 … Keeping Projects on Task 27:16 … Know When to Pull the Plug 30:24 … Closing MIKE PONDISCIO:  Absolutely.  For an active project manager, you really want to be one or two steps ahead of your team.  In other words, bowling analogy:  You need to clear the lane, set up the pins so that your team can knock them down. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Every two weeks we get together for the express purpose of talking about what matters to you as a professional project manager.  We interview guests who can speak from experience.  We share in their successes and learn lessons from their challenges. I’m your host, Nick Walker, and with me are the resident experts, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates.  And Andy, this time around I think we’re going to be able to speak to where a lot of our listeners, perhaps even the majority of them, live every day. ANDY CROWE:  You know, Nick, a lot of project managers are managing multiple smaller projects.  It can get chaotic.  It can be frenetic.  And there’s a lot to learn there.  So I’m looking forward to this episode. Meet Mike NICK WALKER:  Well, our guest today is Michael Pondiscio, who has 20 years of experience in project management.  Since 2013, Mike has been a solutions consultant and product manager at Avtex Solutions.  He’s a seasoned project manager who delivers creative solutions to tough technical challenges, and he does it on time and within budget.  Listen to this list of his current expertise:  engagement management, delivery management, bulletproof management, business analysis, consulting, process mapping, and RFP response management.  Mike, welcome to Manage This. MIKE PONDISCIO:  Well, thank you very much for having me.  I’m excited to be here and share what I can. NICK WALKER:  Well, that’s a long list of things that you’re involved in.  Obviously, you’ve been doing this at least for a little while.  Tell us how you got into this business. MIKE PONDISCIO:  I started out in this business working in a small telecommunications company.  And as you would find in a small company, everybody has multiple roles.  So one of my roles was engineering, and the other role was project management.  And naturally I moved to the project management role because, as I was watching the projects be delivered, I realized that I could do a better job of it. So I said, “Let me go ahead and start helping these people out.”  And I sort of, just by natural propensity, ended up going down the project management path, but still managed to do some of the technical experience work as well – engineering, solution engineering, and going out with sales teams.  But that’s how I really started out was getting into telecommunications, starting in a smaller company, and then just growing with the field as it became Voice over IP solutions. ANDY CROWE:  I believe that going out with a sales team, being a presales engineer, is like the greatest job in the world because you don’t actually really have to deliver it.  You just kind of make a bunch of promises. MIKE PONDISCIO:  Yeah, you just promise it. ANDY CROWE:  I hook ‘em, you get to fry ‘em; right? Active vs Passive PM NICK WALKER:  Is that what we mean by “active project management” rather than “passive project management”? ANDY CROWE:  Probably not. NICK WALKER:  Well, that’s an important thing, though.  Obviously you were an active participant from the get-go.  How does that compare with maybe others who take a more passive approach? MIKE PONDISCIO:  Well, there’s very much a difference between an active and passive project manager.  And those are my terms, of course.