The Everyday PM: Project Management Principles for Your Everyday Life

Welcome to episode 23 of The Everyday PM Podcast where I welcome back to the podcast Jennifer H. Elder, CSP, CPA, CVP (Certified Virtual Presenter), CEO of the sole proprietorship, The Sustainable CFO, to talk about Pre-Mortem: What is it and How to use it effectively. Consider the saying, an "apple a day keeps the doctor away. What is that actually telling us? That preventative measures like getting in your daily fruits intake will help you stay healthy. Interestingly enough, we know this nagging feeling in the back of our minds that we should be doing theses things to prevent health risks later on, but it's hard for us to be motivated until it's too late. These risks aren't surprising to us. We see it coming. The same is true for any project manager working on a complex project with several moving pieces. As you move through each project, it takes much effort to wade through the massive list of to-dos. You spend time firefighting while tasks pile up—things your gut instinct is telling you will lead to big problems down the line, but it's not urgent... yet. These risks can become significant and it's partially your doing. This is where the idea of pre-mortem can be of utmost value to ensuring successful project execution. While a post-mortem comes into play at the end of a project, a pre-mortem happens at or around project kickoff. A conversation around what could have been can flip to what can be. Just like that, you have time back that you were likely to lose should you have continued down the spiraling path depicted above. In this episode, Jennifer and I breakdown the pre-mortem exercise and discuss the following: What is pre-mortem? Why should we conduct pre-mortems? How do you conduct pre-mortems? Are you familiar with pre-mortem? Is it something that has benefited you in the past? Share your thoughts on pre-mortem exercises and whether or not it has contributed to the success of your projects. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below! **** Follow Our Hosts on LinkedIn: Ann Campea, MSPM, MPH, PMP Worldwide Readiness Program Manager, Apple, Inc. Program/Project management professional with 10 years of experience in product development, physical retail launches, and health care industries. Jennifer H. Elder, CSP, CPA, CVP (Certified Virtual Presenter) CEO◊Presenter◊Virtual Emcee◊ For more than 25 years, I have been helping organizations and individuals become future-proof by transforming good technical professionals into great leaders with top-notch communication skills, strategic leadership, and a future-focused mindset.

Welcome to episode 22 of The Everyday PM Podcast where I welcome Peter Margaritis, CSP, C.P.A. Peter is an improv virtuoso, consultant, coach, podcaster, and the author of Improv Is No Joke, Taking the Numb Out of Numbers, and his upcoming book, ‘Off Script: Mastering the Art of Business Improvisation.' Project Managers are improvisors when you really consider what we do for a living. Whether it's adjusting our script on the fly or building on top of new concepts that are introduced as part of our discussions with stakeholders, project managers have the ability to turn on our improv skills. Join Peter Margaritis, CSP, C.P.A. and I discuss improvisation and why this skill is critical to being successful as a project manager. A quick anecdote - Peter and I never met or had a conversation prior to the recording of this podcast, which was an experiment in how well we could improvise a conversation on this very topic. We go through some fun improv exercises that he learned as a professional improvisor and I hope you can takeaway something that can be utilized in your interactions both professionally and personally! I also encourage you to give Peter's podcast, Change Your Mindset a listen! Did you enjoy this interview with Peter Margaritis? Share your stories on times when you had to lean on your improvisation skills to get the job done. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below! **** Follow Our Hosts on LinkedIn: Ann Campea, MSPM, MPH, PMP Worldwide Readiness Program Manager, Apple, Inc. Program/Project management professional with 10 years of experience in product development, physical retail launches, and health care industries. Peter Margaritis, CSP, C.P.A. Certified Virtual Presenter, Keynote Speaker, Improv Virtuoso, Author, Podcaster, Educator, and Humorist Peter is a licensed, non-practicing, CPA in Ohio. Peter has worked for companies such as Price Waterhouse, Victoria’s Secret Catalogue (not as a model), and Ohio Dominican University. Peter has earned the highest credential of a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) from the National Speakers Association.

Welcome to episode 21 of The Everyday PM Podcast where I have the honor of interviewing Yad Senapathy, Founder and CEO of the Project Management Training Institute (PMTI). How many of you have considered obtaining your Project Management Professional (PMP) certification? Not sure how to get started on the journey? Join Yad Senapathy, Founder and CEO of PMTI and I discuss his journey to founding PMTI and becoming the PMP Jedi Master, PMP certification, and this year's project management trends. Yad's mission through the PMTI is to help you become the best project manager equipped with valuable skills based on your unique strengths. He wants to give you the safety net enabling you to use the expertise, build your career, and: ✔ Become PMP certified. ✔ Be more marketable. ✔ Build a comprehensive skills-verified resume. ✔ Find open doors to several job offers and upgrade your career. ✔ Be a force in the project management industry. ✔ Find excellent opportunities to network with peers and experts. 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗝𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗚𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗧𝗨𝗧𝗘 (𝗣𝗠𝗧𝗜)? PMTI was established to help Fortune companies, government agencies, small businesses, and individuals to grow. It is an approved premium PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP) and offers PMI-approved training content. It helps you successfully pass PMP Certification exams by leveraging a highly vetted question bank. PMTI offers a wide range of courses: ➤ PMP Certification ➤ PMI-ACP Certification ➤ CAPM Certification ➤ Project Management Essentials ➤ Advanced Risk Management ➤ Advanced EVM and Earned Schedule ➤ MS Project Fundamentals ➤ OPM® Fundamentals ➤ Six-Sigma Green Belt Certification World-class companies like Amazon, L3Harris, Grubhub, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics, the US Air Force, and many others trust PMTI. Did you enjoy this interview with Yad, the PMP Jedi Master himself? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below! **** Follow Our Hosts on LinkedIn: Ann Campea, MSPM, MPH, PMP Worldwide Readiness Program Manager, Apple, Inc. Program/Project management professional with 10 years of experience in product development, physical retail launches, and health care industries. Yad Senapathy, PMP Jedi Master Founder and CEO of PMTI Yad's mission is to help project managers become emotionally intelligent leaders and develop critical decision making abilities to function effectively in ever disrupting industry environments.

Welcome to episode 20 of The Everyday PM Podcast where we discuss focusing on the end goal always and tips for staying on-track throughout the course of your project. Let's face it, staying focused in a world full of distractions is challenging. In our everyday lives, we have that singular goal for the day. Maybe it's optimizing our production to be better than the day before. But what happens throughout the day? You get distracted and the biggest, ugliest frogs you should have eaten first thing in the morning (for those of you wanting to know more about this reference, check out my blog post on Eating that Frog!), is left undone by the end of the day; thus, keeping us from being as productive as we intended to be. Same goes for our professional lives. As project managers, we are the ones tasked with keeping to the agenda and ensuring that we do not lose focus on our end goal whether it be for a meeting or a project. Helping me drive this conversation is Star Dargin, Executive and Leadership Coach and author of Leading with Gratitude: 21st Century Solutions to Boost Engagement and Innovation. How do you manage to stay focused on your end goal? Any tips and guidance to share? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below! **** Follow Our Hosts on LinkedIn: Ann Campea, MSPM, MPH, PMP Worldwide Readiness Program Manager, Apple, Inc. Program/Project management professional with 10 years of experience in product development, physical retail launches, and health care industries. Star Dargin, PCC, CPCC Executive and Leadership Coach, Star Leadership LLC As an executive coach, Star loves making a difference through 1-on-1 partnerships, as it’s a great way to help middle managers improve their leadership skills. A key part of her approach is from a place of gratitude. Her engineering background allows her to translate tech speak and she can easily shift between logic and emotions to help you communicate and operationalize your vision (or idea) and turn it into reality.

Welcome to episode 19 of The Everyday PM Podcast where we discuss Change Management principles, tool and techniques. Change, whether it is in our personal lives or professional lives, can be daunting. Most people do not like change. Why? Perhaps it is the uncertainty that it carries. That is why it's important for us as project managers to be the champions of change to help expel the worry and anxiety that is often associated with change. Helping me drive this conversation is Michael Hamilton, PMP, MSPM, Direct Sales Representative at Abbott, and fellow graduate of USC's Masters Program in Project Management. Not only do we discuss change management tools and techniques, but 10 principles to change management, as outlined in the article "10 Principles of Change Management" published in Strategy-Business.com. How do you manage change in your professional and everyday lives? Any tips and guidance to share on how you can be the champion for change? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below! Reference Jones, J., Aguirre, D. & Calderone, M. (2004). 10 principles of change management. Online post: https://www.strategy-business.com/article/rr00006?gko=dab72 **** Follow Our Hosts on LinkedIn: Ann Campea, MSPM, MPH, PMP Worldwide Readiness Program Manager, Apple, Inc. Program/Project management professional with 10 years of experience in product development, physical retail launches, and health care industries. Michael Hamilton, PMP, MSPM Direct Sales Representative, Abbott Experienced Owner with a demonstrated history of working in the sports industry. Skilled in Working with Surgeons, Capital Equipment, Product Launch, Cardiology, and Market Development.

Welcome to episode 18 of The Everyday PM Podcast where I look back at the age old debate of degree versus experience. As the project management industry continues to grow and evolve, as does its' candidate pool. The rigid dichotomy between degree versus experience presents a question mark for everyone competing for project manager roles. Those candidates who are fresh out of college lack the experience employers are looking for, while other candidates who have been in project management for many, many years are supplementing their experience with certifications and degrees. According to Linsey Knerl (2018), author of Northeastern University Graduate Programs blog post on "Education vs. Experience: Which Do Employers Value More?", a recent survey of 50,000 employers reveals that there's a desire for both education and experience. Ultimately, what employers want to see is real-life application of academics, which means students will want to use their learnings on current projects and veterans of the industry will want to evolve their foundational knowledge by staying abreast on emerging trends in project management. What are your thoughts on the debate between degree versus experience? Where do you stand in this debate? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below! Reference Knerl, L. (2018). Education vs. Experience: Which Do Employers Value More? Blog post on Northeastern University Graduate Programs: https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/education-vs-experience/ **** Follow Our Hosts on LinkedIn: Ann Campea, MSPM, MPH, PMP Worldwide Readiness Program Manager, Apple, Inc. Program/Project management professional with 10 years of experience in product development, physical retail launches, and health care industries.

Welcome to episode 17 of The Everyday PM Podcast where we discuss making the connection between project work and business strategy. Making this connection in our everyday lives starts at a young age. As early as we can start talking, outside of what's your name and can you say your ABCs, we're asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And very early on, we are being asked to start thinking about our vision for the future. It's interesting to think that at such a young age, we are essentially charting out our strategic initiatives for our everyday lives. Similarly, as project managers, it is essential that we make this connection between business goals and strategic initiatives and project management. Jennifer H. Elder, CSP, CPA, CVP (Certified Virtual Presenter), CEO of the sole proprietorship, The Sustainable CFO, joins me in this week's episode to discuss making the connection between project work and business strategy. The foundation for overall business success and project work starts here, making it critical for executive leadership to be lockstep with project leadership even before the project kicks off. By having corporate and project leadership in sync, project success is likely to increase, and in turn, fulfill company-wide strategic objectives. Connecting project management with business strategy can improve the achievement of organizational goals, strategies, and performance. What are your thoughts on making the connection between project work and business strategy? Any tips to share on how you've aligned executive leadership with project leadership? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below! Visit The Everyday PM for more content and project management-related services! *** Follow Our Hosts on LinkedIn: Ann Campea, MSPM, MPH, PMP Worldwide Readiness Program Manager, Apple, Inc. Program/Project management professional with 10 years of experience in product development, physical retail launches, and health care industries. Jennifer H. Elder, CSP, CPA, CVP (Certified Virtual Presenter) CEO◊Presenter◊Virtual Emcee◊ For more than 25 years, I have been helping organizations and individuals become future-proof by transforming good technical professionals into great leaders with top-notch communication skills, strategic leadership, and a future-focused mindset.

Welcome to episode 16 of The Everyday PM Podcast where we introduce a new segment called "Retrospective." Retrospective episodes will look back at recent project project management hot topics. For the inaugural retrospective, I am looking back at Citizen Development. What is Citizen Development? Simply put, it's taking non-IT trained employees and training them to become software developers. I first caught onto this idea when I came across an article published on Wired in July 2019 that stated Amazon, the tech giant, pledged $700 million to teach its' workers to code. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when Yad Senapathy, Founder and CEO of PMTI, a company that specializes in helping you pass various exams including the PMP®, posted his quick thoughts on the potential of Citizen Development. Listen in as I discuss the positives and negatives of this emerging trend. Only time will tell if this investment will pay dividends for companies like Amazon, who cannot seem to keep up with the speed at which they need to hire a highly-skilled and capable workforce. What are your thoughts on the emerging trend of Citizen Development? Are these large companies doing the right thing by investing within? I would love to hear your thoughts! Follow Our Host on LinkedIn: Ann Campea, MSPM, MPH, PMP Worldwide Readiness Program Manager, Apple, Inc. Program/Project management professional with 10 years of experience in product development, physical retail launches, and health care industries.

Welcome to episode 15 of The Everyday PM Podcast where we discuss team member personalities and provide tips on how to manage them. A huge part of our role as project managers is to deal with people. In Episode 14, Ryan and I discussed the process of stakeholder management. We continue the conversation in Episode 15 as we walk through various team member personalities as described in an article written by the PMHut Team over at pmhut.com. A citation and link to the full article can be found below. In this article, five of the most "common" types of team member personalities is detailed, from 'Grumpy Grant' to 'Emailing Emma.' Tt's important to remember that no matter which personality types you have on your team, that they are still just people. As we do in our everyday lives, we must learn how to work with them, adjust our communication styles, and gain each other's trust as we invest in our mutual relationships. What are your thoughts on each of the unique team member personalities? Any tips to share in regard to working with and managing people? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below! Reference: PMHut Team (2011, November 16). Stakeholders - Personality Types and Tips. Online article: https://pmhut.com/stakeholders-personality-types-and-tips **** Follow Our Hosts on LinkedIn: Ann Campea, MSPM, MPH, PMP Worldwide Readiness Program Manager, Apple, Inc. Program/Project management professional with 10 years of experience in product development, physical retail launches, and health care industries. Ryan Myers Operations Manager/Senior Project Manager, Haven Agency Experienced Operations and Senior Project Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the internet industry.

Welcome to episode 14 of The Everyday PM Podcast where we discuss stakeholder management and dealing with various personality types. A huge part of our role as project managers is to deal with people. Stakeholders are defined as a person or party with an interest in your project. The process of stakeholder management starts with identifying who has an interest in the project and what their needs are. Once you have this understanding documented, you will plan for various tasks like status reporting and approvals to engage each of your stakeholders. Proper stakeholder management is key to the success of any project. For this reason, Ryan Myers and I discuss this very topic and guidance on how best to manage them. Whether you're managing people as part of your project or daily life, it's important for us to understand each person's role. Doing so will not only help in our daily interactions, but in satisfying our collective expectations and needs for the project (we call life). What are your thoughts on the stakeholder management process? Do you have any best practices to share in regard to working with and managing people? Just remember that at the end of the day, stakeholders are just people like you and I. **** Follow Our Hosts on LinkedIn: Ann Campea, MSPM, MPH, PMP Worldwide Readiness Program Manager, Apple, Inc. Program/Project management professional with 10 years of experience in product development, physical retail launches, and health care industries. Ryan Myers Operations Manager/Senior Project Manager, Haven Agency Experienced Operations and Senior Project Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the internet industry.