People and Projects Podcast: Project Management Podcast

You're a Salesperson. Seriously. So, when you think of a salesperson, who comes to mind? For many people, it's someone closer to Kenny the Sales Weasel from Dilbert (see the video below). Good thing you and I aren't salespeople! We're project managers. Team leads. Department heads. Scrum Masters. But salespeople? No way! Or are we? Though we may not be salespeople by title, we spend concerted time on a weekly basis trying to move people--influence people--getting them to take action or agree to something or sign off on a document or hire you or show up for a meeting, or finish a task on time. To Sell is Human Our guest in this episode is Daniel Pink, author of the new book entitled To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others. Dan's new book can help us all be much more successful at helping move people without resorting to sleazy tricks. Help Getting Your PMP®Certification Whether you need contact hours for PMP®certification or PDUs, we can help! Our e-learning is engaging, informative, and even fun. Go to http://courses.i-leadonline.com/courses/advanced-project-management to get 20 PDU's for a great price. If you need contact hours to prepare for your PMP, check our PMP®Prep e-learning at http://courses.i-leadonline.com/bundles/pm-certification-exam-prep. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week! Total Duration 38:58 Download episode 88   A Little Fun In Dan's book he refers to the Dilbert character Kenny the Sales Weasel. Here's a video version of the cartoon! {youtube}C3iTHHhgezY{/youtube} In the book, Dan talks about the benefits but also limitations of psyching yourself up. Interrogative talk is more powerful. The discussion on positive affirmations reminded me of my favorite Stuart Smalley skit on Saturday Night Live. Enjoy! Finally, here's Dan with one of my favorite past podcast guests, Dr. Adam Grant. Adam and Dan provide a great 20 minute summary of To Sell is Human. {youtube}J6EjBwrdHgE{/youtube}   ANYTHING BUT THE TRUTH by Phil Reavis is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. IF I COULD CHANGE YOUR MIND by Sloan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

Let's Talk About.... The Future Well, it's time to say good-bye to this year and welcome a new one. So, how do we wrap what's been a very busy year? We're going to talk about... the future. Ah, yes. The future. The start of a new year is a great time to reflect. It provides an opportunity to look at where you've been heading and consider what changes you'd like to see in the year ahead.   Project Managers as Futurists In many ways, project managers and leaders are futurists. We try to anticipate what's ahead and navigate our projects in a way that allows us to successfully deliver. But how do you do that? How can you think like a futurist? In this episode, I speak with Cecily Sommers who an author and futurist Ever wonder how someone becomes a futurist? Well, you'll find out! Cecily just recently published an intriguing book entitled Think Like a Futurist: Know What Changes, What Doesn't, and What's Next. The book is on a lot of must read lists for executives so we're giving you a taste of the book in this episode. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast!    STARS, GALAXIES AND UNIVERSES and GLIDING....SOMETIMES, both by Jared C. Balogh, are licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

Team Turnarounds, Part 2 In the last episode I started the conversation with Joe Frontiera, co-author of Team Turnarounds: A Playbook for Transforming Underperforming Teams. If you haven't already listened to Part 1 of the interview, I invite you to do that first. In this episode we talk about how Domino's Pizza went from admitting their pizza tasted like cardboard and did a team turnaround. We also talk about team culture and how you can increase your odds of turning it around. And we start out with an important conversation about threats and opportunities. You can learn more about Joe and his organization at menoconsulting.com.   Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!    

Time to Reflect As we near the end of the year, it's a great time to reflect. What's going well with your teams? What's not so stellar? As you consider the year ahead, what changes do you want to see? What needs to be turned around?   Time for a Turnaround? Joe Frontiera and Daniel Leidl released a book this year entitled Team Turnarounds. It's a helpful playbook for taking an underperforming team to a new level. I had the opportunity to talk with Joe and look forward to sharing that interview over the course of two episodes.   What Do These Have in Common? In this episode we talk about the power of denial and how that holds us back from team turnarounds. We also talk about the value of tough goals. But we start the conversation with this: What do Domino's Pizza, Indianopolis Colts, State of Michigan, and the Broadway Musical Spiderman have in common?   Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!  

Agile Project Management Agile project management continues to gain momentum around the world, especially with regards to software development projects. Yet moving to agile is more than just adopting a bunch of new processes. It's as much a mindset as it is a set of tools and techniques, and the challenge of dealing with the human side of agile is often overlooked. The Human Side of Agile Well, to address that today you're going to hear from Gil Broza in this episode. His book The Human Side of Agile: How to Help Your Team Deliver was just released a couple weeks ago and it is packed with practical insights on this important aspect of leading agile projects. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week! Total Duration 27:01 Download episode 84  

Too Much To Do, Not Enough Time To Do It! Can you relate to that? This is a common theme that I hear from participants in our keynotes and workshops as well as the participants in our Leadership Fast Track Program.   What is the Scarcest Resource? In my interview with Cathy Davidson last year regarding her book Now You See It!, we talked about the scarcest resource. What would you say is the scarcest resource? Most people respond with time--that the most constrained resource we have to deal with is the clock on the wall. Or sometimes I hear people respond that money is the scarcest resource. In Cathy's opinion, it's neither. Rather, it's attention. We all get the same 24 hours. It's what we do with those 24 hours--what we put our attention to--that makes all the difference.   The Attention Habits of the Highly Productive So, what is most worthy of our attention? How can we use the limited time that we have to be most productive? I'm really excited about a new book released just this week. It's entitled Extreme Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours. I caught up with the author Bob Pozen last week and look forward to sharing that interview with you in this episode. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!

Contented Teams OK, I have another confession to make in this episode! Once again, you'll have to listen to this premium episode to catch it. Beyond what I think about Bill and Richard's book title, this premium episode includes additional coaching on topics from the book and the interview. Enjoy! Make sure to let me know if you're interested in the free license to our Advanced Project Management workshop!   Join our Facebook Page I invite you to stop by our podcast Facebook page! "Like" it and then join the discussion. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!

Could You Use Some Extra Hands On Deck? Could you use some extra staffing on your teams these days? I’m glad to say that I'm seeing more organizations hiring, which is a refreshing change from when our economy was at its worst a few years ago. But even those who are hiring typically aren’t planning on doubling their staff any time soon. So what if you need more staffing but your company isn’t hiring? How can you keep up with the demands when the capacity of your team seems to be tapped out?   Contented Cows Give Better Milk What about tapping into the discretionary effort reserve that most people have but leave untouched in the day-to-day grind of work? What is discretionary effort and how does that relate to the capacity of your team? In this episode I share a recent discussion with Bill Catlette. This last summer Bill and his co-author Richard Hadden released their new book entitled Contented Cows Still Give Better Milk, Revised and Expanded: The Plain Truth about Employee Engagement and Your Bottom Line, and there are some lessons for all of us about how we can better engage our teams.   Join our Facebook Page I invite you to stop by our podcast Facebook page! "Like" it and join the discussion. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!

Everything's a Project OK, I have a confession to make! You'll have to listen to this premium episode to catch it. Beyond the confession, this premium episode includes additional coaching on topics that Ben and I discussed during the interview. Enjoy!   Join our Facebook Page   I invite you to stop by our podcast Facebook page! "Like" it and the join the discussion.   Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!  

Everything's a Project Everything's a Project.... That's not only a great name for a book--which it is--but it's also a great way to look at many things at work and in life. Looking for a job? It's a project. Need to create a report for your boss? It's likely a project. Looking for ways to develop your skills? You guessed it--your personal development is a project. Now, of course, not everything is a project. But most leaders would benefit if we thought of our work as projects and applied lessons that we've learned from the world of project management. Well, Everything's a Project: 70 Lessons From Successful Project-Driven Organizations is the title of a book published earlier this year by my friend and colleague Ben Snyder. In this episode I look forward to sharing with you a recent discussion I had with Ben about his new book. Don't miss the normal end of episode outtakes!   More About Ben To learn more about Ben and his organization, check out http://www.systemation.com.   Keynotes for Your Company Meeting Hey, I have a quick idea for you: Many organizations hold department or company meetings in the last half of the year or to kick off a new year. It could just be that someone in your company is planning one of those right now! I invite you to recommend one of our keynotes or workshops for that meeting. We have a series of sessions designed to help you and your organization lead and deliver. They are practical, interactive, motivating, and ultimately results-oriented. If you like what you hear on this podcast, it's even better live! And if you reserve a session before the end of September, I'd be glad to extend a 20% discount to the fee for podcast listeners. Visit https://www.i-leadonline.com/documents/AndyKaufmanBrochure.pdf to learn more.   Join our Facebook Page I invite you to stop by our podcast Facebook page! "Like" it and the join the discussion. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!