People and Projects Podcast: Project Management Podcast

Influencing Skills for Project Managers One of the constant challenges for those of us who lead teams and projects is influencing people around us. Whether it’s a boss, our team, clients, or other stakeholders, we’re often in situations where we’re trying to influence an outcome, yet running into a brick wall while doing so. In this episode, we continue a series of discussions we’ve had over the years on the topic of influence. We’re joined by Rene Rodriguez, author of a new book entitled Amplify Your Influence: Transform How You Communicate and Lead. In this episode, Rene discusses what we often don’t get right about influence. He shares a simple way to learn more about influence just by paying attention to the people around us. You'll get an understanding of how the brain can help us be more effective at persuading or others--and how ignoring it can get in the way. And relates ideas from his AMPLIFII process to give us a taste of how we can communicate more effectively while persuading those around us. I’m looking forward to sharing this discussion with you! Learn more about Rene and his book at MeetRene.com/. For more insights related to this episode, check out: Episode 157 for my conversation with Dr. Robert Cialdini about his books on influence Episode 194 for my conversation with Tim David about his book on influence Episode 347 for my conversation with Zoe Chance about her book Influence is Your Superpower   Do You Have a High School or College Age Student in Your Family? If so, check out our e-learning program entitled Getting Stuff Done: Project Management for Students. It provides practical skills to reduce the stress of their school work and help jumpstart their career. Learn more and get access at https://i-leadonline.com/GettingStuffDone. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Power Skills   The following music was used for this episode: Music: Lofi Chill Hip-Hop by WinnieTheMoog Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/6347-lofi-chill-hip-hop License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Artist website: https://linktr.ee/taigasoundprod Music: Crime Time by Frank Schroeter Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9136-crime-time License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Artist on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frank.schroeter.52

Accountability on Project Teams In this episode, we’re taking on the subject of accountability. And though fostering accountability among our team members is something we’ll talk about, you’re going to see that developing a culture of personal accountability might have a lot more to do with us than we realize. My guest today is Michael Timms. He’s the author of a fantastic leadership book entitled How Leaders Can Inspire Accountability: Three Habits That Make or Break Leaders and Elevate Organizational Performance. In this episode, Michael helps us get a better understanding of what accountability is--and isn’t. He explains how looking at accountability through the lens of systems thinking can help us better understand why we’re getting the behaviors we’re experiencing. Michael shares his litmus test of whether or not someone is a leader. And he introduces us to some habits that, when done well and consistently, can develop transforming levels of impact on you, your team, and your organization’s results. Learn more about Michael and his book at MichaelTimms.com. For more insights related to this episode, check out: Episode 213 for my conversation with Christopher Avery about his book The Accountability Process Episode 20 for my conversation with John G. Miller, author of The QBQ   Do You Have a High School or College Age Student in Your Family? If so, check out our e-learning program entitled Getting Stuff Done: Project Management for Students. It provides practical skills to reduce the stress of their school work and help jumpstart their career. Learn more and get access at https://i-leadonline.com/GettingStuffDone. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Power Skills   The following music was used for this episode: Music: Soft Interlude by Alexander Nakarada Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/7766-soft-interlude License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Artist website: https://www.serpentsoundstudios.com/ Music: Road Trip by Frank Schroeter Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9761-road-trip License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Artist on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frank.schroeter.52 “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” Scene – Spider-Man (2002) Movie CLIP HD On YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuS5NuXRb5Y

Career Advice for Women (and Men) Most days you can find me working with a group of leaders, helping them learn how to improve their ability to lead and deliver. This last Thursday I looked around the room that was filled with people in a project management exam prep program. Interestingly, all of the participants were women. That’s characteristic of a trend we see week in and week out--project management is a rewarding and accessible career path for women to pursue. And though that is true, there are barriers that women encounter that can hinder their ability to maximize their career potential. I’m excited to introduce you to the work of Christie Hunter Arscott. Christie is the author of a new book entitled Begin Boldly: How Women Can Reimagine Risk, Embrace Uncertainty, and Launch a Brilliant Career. In this episode, Christie talks about what she means when saying we should reimagine risk. She talks about her research-based, highly practical framework for navigating career risks in a balanced, even agile way. We discuss why the phrase “Good things come to those who wait” is a myth--and why a different way of looking at that phrase can make an enormous difference in your career. Christie talks about courage--being bold--including what it means to take micro-acts of courage. It’s an engaging discussion that I’ve been so looking forward to sharing with you for many weeks. Learn more about Christie and her book at ChristieHunterArscott.com. For more insights related to this episode, check out: Episode 314 for my conversation with the authors of the book Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace Episode 347 for my conversation with Zoe Chance about her book on influence, which includes content for women   Do You Have a High School or College Age Student in Your Family? If so, check out our e-learning program entitled Getting Stuff Done: Project Management for Students. It provides practical skills to reduce the stress of their school work and help jumpstart their career. Learn more and get access at https://i-leadonline.com/GettingStuffDone. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Power Skills   The following music was used for this episode: Music: Love by Ketsa Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/7581-love License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Artist website: https://ketsa.uk/ Music: Tuesday by Sascha Ende Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/2992-tuesday License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Artist website: https://www.sascha-ende.de

Your Kids Are Project Managers As I’ve often joked on this podcast, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an 8-year-old child telling their parent, “Mommy, someday I want to be a project manager!” On the contrary, it’s something that they got into almost accidentally. They were good in their particular area of expertise and were given the opportunity to lead initiatives in that area. But what if we learned about project management earlier? In fact, what if high school and college students developed expertise in leading and delivering projects? What difference could that make in their schooling and early careers? That’s what we’re talking about in this episode. I’m joined by Grant Johnson, who also happens to be a team member at the company I run. Finding a way to help develop project management capabilities for high school and college-aged students is something he has been tasked with over the last year. And he’s learned a lot in the process. In today’s discussion, Grant talks about why students in this age group should even care. He talks about examples of projects that students take on and how they can start those projects with momentum. Grant shares some tips he’s learned about project management as someone in his early 20s and how it has helped him personally. It’s a discussion I’m looking forward to sharing with you. And let me add that if you’re the parent of someone in this age group, you’re invited to have them listen along with you--or send them a link so they can benefit from this episode as well. Learn more about Getting Stuff Done: Project Management for Students at PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com/GettingStuffDone. Podcast listeners can use a coupon code of gsd100 to save $100 USD. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Technical Project Management   The following music was used for this episode: Music: Funky Upturn by chilledmusic Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/7472-funky-upturn License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Music: Funky Life by WinnieTheMoog Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/6040-funky-life License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

A New Way to Think Over 300 episodes ago we were joined by Roger L. Martin to talk about ideas from his book The Opposable Mind. In the years since I have personally benefited from Roger’s insights in books such as The Design of Business and Creating Great Choices. Roger joins us again in this episode to talk about his newest book entitled A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness. If you just glanced at the book, you might think it’s only relevant to CEOs and other top leaders. But there are ideas in this book that anyone leading projects and teams would benefit from. In this episode, Roger discusses the value and pitfalls of following popular models. He shares insights on why we need to get closer to the customer and how one of his friends and co-authors did that as CEO of Proctor & Gamble. You’ll hear Roger explain why the familiar solution usually trumps the perfect one and why we just might make better decisions if we focus on what must be true instead of what is true. We talk about all that and more--it’s a conversation I’ve been looking forward to sharing with you for many weeks. Learn more about Roger and his books at RogerLMartin.com. For more insights related to this episode, check out: Episode 54 for my previous conversation with Roger about his book The Opposable Mind Episode 47 for my conversation with Henry Mintzberg, the revered and curmudgeonly expert on management   Join our Global LEAD52 Community Ready to take your leadership skills to the next level? LEAD52 is your 5-minute weekly pass to leadership intelligence. You get 52 weeks of learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it's all for free. Join us at https://GetLEAD52.com. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Leadership   The following music was used for this episode: Music: Hip Hop Flute Chill(loopable} by chilledmusic Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/8531-hip-hop-flute-chillloopable License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Music: Funky Life by WinnieTheMoog Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/6040-funky-life License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Staying Motivated to Get Things Done How do we stay motivated when we’re pursuing our goals? And what can we learn from motivational science to help us both at work and at home? We’re joined today by one of the most important voices in motivational science, Dr. Ayelet Fishbach. Ayelet is the author of a new book entitled Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation. In this episode, Ayelet will talk about some of the biggest myths or misunderstandings about motivation--some that I think you’ll recognize. She’ll talk about the importance of how we frame goals and how putting a number to them makes a big difference. She’ll explain the planning fallacy and how that impacts us individually and with our projects. Ayelet will help us better understand if we should reflect on the progress we’ve made--or how far we have to go yet. And throughout the discussion, we’ll apply the learning to goals like project delivery, team motivation, earning a certification, exercising, losing weight, and even parenting! It’s a conversation I’m looking forward to sharing with you. Learn more about Ayelet and her book at https://AyeletFishbach.com/.   Join our Global LEAD52 Community Ready to take your leadership skills to the next level? LEAD52 is your 5-minute weekly pass to leadership intelligence. You get 52 weeks of learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it's all for free. Join us at https://GetLEAD52.com. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Leadership   I Am Running with Temporary Success from a Monstrous Vacuum in Pursuit by Chris Zabriskie Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heo0oXDa8ck License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Early Riser by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2315niU5WBY License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

In The Trenches With Yasmina Khelifi Every once in a while we have a type of episode that we call In the Trenches. It’s an episode that interviews someone who is actively working in a project leadership role, allowing us to benefit from the lessons they have been learning over the years. I’m glad to welcome our guest today, Yasmina Khelifi, from Paris, France. Yasmina has been a leader in the telecom industry for many years and is an active blogger on projectmanagement.com. She has extensive experience working with international teams, providing her unique insights into how culture factors into leading and communicating. Learn more about Yasmina on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasminakhelifi-pmp-telecom/ and on ProjectManagement.com.   Join our Global LEAD52 Community Ready to take your leadership skills to the next level? LEAD52 is your 5-minute weekly pass to leadership intelligence. You get 52 weeks of learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it's all for free. Join us at https://GetLEAD52.com. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Strategic and Business Management   Le Baguette by Alexander Naka Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/4784-le-baguett License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Let Me Be Free by Sascha Ende® Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/164-let-me-be-free License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Mistakes (New) Managers Make If you are currently in a management role, do you remember what it was like when you first took on that new position? Do you remember what your struggles were? Janet Polach joins us today to talk about her book The Seven Mistakes New Managers Make: How to Avoid Them and Thrive. Though it’s a book for new managers, my take is that we could all benefit from being reminded about the traps we can easily fall into as we seek to become more effective leaders. Learn more about Janet and her book at InTheLead.co.   Join our Global LEAD52 Community Ready to take your leadership skills to the next level? LEAD52 is your 5-minute weekly pass to leadership intelligence. You get 52 weeks of learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it's all for free. Join us at https://GetLEAD52.com. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Leadership   Crime Time by Frank Schröter Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/9136-crime-time License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license It's Funky by Frank Schröter Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/8061-it-s-funky License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Developing Culture Beyond the Theory You know that the culture of your team and organization is critical to your ability to get work done. But here’s my observation: most books on culture stay too theoretical. They share models for understanding what culture is. They have high-level processes for transforming culture. And despite nodding my head while reading these books, I find they’re often not sufficiently practical. How do we, in practice, develop culture over time? That’s the focus of Brad Federman’s new book entitled Cultivating Culture: 101 Ways to Foster Engagement in 15 Minutes or Less. Brad joined us way back in episode 36 to talk about engaging our team members and he’s back with a new book to help us develop our team culture. Learn more about Brad and his book at BradFederman.com. For more on this topic of culture, check out the following episodes: Episode 25 with MIT Fellow Ed Schein Episode 251 with former Facebook leader Mike Rognlien Episode 252 with Marcus Buckingham   Join our Global LEAD52 Community Ready to take your leadership skills to the next level? LEAD52 is your 5-minute weekly pass to leadership intelligence. You get 52 weeks of learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it's all for free. Join us at https://GetLEAD52.com. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Leadership   Funky Corporation by chilledmusic Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/8072-funky-corporation License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license We Have Fun by Frank Schröter Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/9161-we-have-fun- License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

What Is Compassionate Leadership? In this episode, we’re continuing a series about rehumanizing the workplace. From conversations with so many of you, I know that you desire to lead in a way that builds people up and delivers results. It’s not one or the other--it’s both. Well, that idea of leading with empathy while delivering results is the premise of a new book by Donato Tramuto entitled The Double Bottom Line: How Compassionate Leaders Captivate Hearts and Deliver Results. In this episode, Donato will talk about what compassionate leadership means--and what it doesn’t mean. He’ll talk about how empathy is part of the equation--but not enough. He’ll talk about the role trust has in compassionate leadership--and how we can take practical steps to increase trust with those we lead. Donato will talk about why he doesn’t particularly like the term feedback, but also how we can help someone improve their performance in a compassionate way. Throughout it all, you'll get to know a genuinely interesting person--someone who is making this world better through his focus on compassionate leadership. Learn more about Donato and his book at DonatoTramuto.com.   Join our Global LEAD52 Community Ready to take your leadership skills to the next level? LEAD52 is your 5-minute weekly pass to leadership intelligence. You get 52 weeks of learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it's all for free. Join us at https://GetLEAD52.com. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Leadership   Life of a Dog by Alexander Nakarada Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5130-life-of-a-dog License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Switch by Sascha Ende® Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/489-switch License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Don Quixote - Act I finale (Marianela Nuñez and Carlos Acosta, The Royal Ballet) on YouTube at YouTube.com/watch?v=5fKxzQ8ARTQ