

Manage This - The Project Management Podcast
Velociteach
Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. Every first and third Tuesday of the month we have a conversation about what matters to you as a professional project manager. Andy Crowe and Bill Yates, both well respected thought leaders in the project management industry, cover subjects such as project management certification and doing the job of project management, as well as get inside the brains of some of the leaders in the industry and also hear your stories. Subject Matter Experts join the cast to discuss topics ranging from advice for someone just starting in project management, leadership tips, to how to manage the unexpected, manage project teams, and much more. Whether you’re a professional project manager, a PMP, or on the road to becoming one, tune in to hear real advice and relevant information on all things Project Management. If you have questions, we have the project management experts to answer them! Claim 0.5 free PDUs per episode.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 17, 2020 • 0sec
Episode 111 – Setting the Pace – Bringing Balance into Project Management
In times of uncertainty, project managers can be the pacesetters that keep organizations on the right path and bring balance into their projects. June Mustari discusses real-life issues in project management. Hear practical tips and advice to find the right balance of discipline and flexibility for successful project delivery.
Table of Contents
01:05 … Meet June 02:36 … Telecom Career and TruNorth Consulting 05:47 … COVID-19 Impact and Bringing Balance 08:39 … Emotional Engagement 10:52 … Collaboration Tools 12:31 … Knowing the Technical Aspects of the Industry as a PM 14:20 … Past Project Story: Virtual Desktop Interface Migration 18:16 … Breakthrough Moments and Resistance on the Project 21:54 … Breaking the Rules 25:54 … Words of Advice and Encouragement 31:22 … Get in Touch with June 31:58 … Closing
JUNE MUSTARI: It’s
all about trust. And I think more than
ever trust is our cornerstone in our business.
And when you can show up in a way that makes people feel secure, it’s
our purpose.
WENDY GROUNDS: You’re
listening to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project
managers. I’m Wendy Grounds, and with me
is Bill Yates. This is the show where we
sometimes like to delve into the project stories of project managers who are in
the trenches. In today’s episode, we get
to sit down with June Mustari. Why don’t
you tell us how you met June, Bill.
BILL YATES: Yeah, it
was such a chance meeting. June and I
were sitting at the same round table at a breakout session, I think Steve
Townsend was speaking, at PMI Global Conference 2019 in Philadelphia. So I don’t know, there were just a handful of
us sitting at a round table, and June had really good questions for
Stephen. And some of the things that
June shared, I’m like, this is my kind of person. So we talked during the session and just
stayed connected after.
JUNE MUSTARI: Yeah.
WENDY GROUNDS: Well,
June, thank you so much for being here today.
JUNE MUSTARI: Oh, it’s
my pleasure. I’m very happy to be here.
Meet June
WENDY GROUNDS: I want
to find out a little bit about your career background. How did you get into project management?
JUNE MUSTARI: Yeah,
when people ask me this, I like to say I didn’t get into project management; it
got into me. I really started my career
just taking things on that took shape as projects – you know, the beginning,
middle, and with an end goal, an outcome that was very clear. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I was
managing projects. So then when I
actually started to see that there were other people in my network who were formal
project managers, I was like, oh, this is a thing, and I really like this
thing.
And so I decided to get a little educated in it, and I said
I was going to take the PMP exam 10 years before I actually took it. So people say, “I’m going to take the PMP
exam.” And I said that for so long. But you don’t actually take it until you
schedule it. Like, that’s when it’s
real. So I did eventually get the PMP,
and I appreciated the discipline of that.
I’m a rule follower, so like that was a dream for me. And I passed on my 37th birthday. So it was like, I got into my car, and I was
like, yes. That’s a little side note
about me being a PM and getting started with that.
So it just kind of took off from there. Once I had that credential, I felt
confidence. I don’t think it’s about the
credential. I just think it’s about the
confidence. I took formal project
management roles right after that, where it was like my title was Project
Manager.
TruNorth Consulting
and Telecom
BILL YATES: And June,
you’ve been in telecom for a long time; right?
Like I’ve done a lot of work with Verizon, and you were actually
employed by Verizon for a long time, and you continue to kind of go down that
industry path.
JUNE MUSTARI: Yeah,
my M.O. is parachuting into situations, trying to solve problems, and then
getting out; right? So I had like four

Aug 3, 2020 • 34min
Episode 110 – A Project Story – Pivot without Mercy
In our current environment, many project managers are being forced to pivot, shift, change plans, and start over. In this episode, John Houser walks us through what happened with his company, Spectrum Healthcare, as they were wrapping up an adoption of a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) just as COVID-19 started to impact their operations. John begins by briefly describing what SAFe is and what led Spectrum to implement SAFe.

Jul 20, 2020 • 0sec
Episode 109 – Mentoring and Coaching – Supporting Professional Growth
Susanne Madsen shares how mentoring and coaching are quite different, yet both emphasize a distinct approach to helping people realize their full potential, and how serving as a coach will make you a better project leader. Our work environment has changed significantly and abruptly; have you considered taking on a role as a coach or a mentor to encourage others to stay engaged and productive?
Table of Contents
01:01 … Meet Susanne
01:44 … Coaching vs. Mentoring Definitions
03:05 … Are Project Managers Good Coaches?
04:08 … Who Should Mentor?
04:59 … Deciding on a Coach or a Mentor
06:25 … Good Coaching Skills
07:57 … Limitations of Internal Coaching
11:27 … Mistakes Made in the Role of a Coach
12:43 … Asking Good Questions
15:36 … Making Time to Reflect and Review
18:08 … Don’t Ask Why
19:49 … Enhancing Problem-Solving Skills
22:20 … Benefits of Becoming a Coach
24:54 … Can You Self-Coach?
26:15 … Choosing the Right Mentor
27:31 … Time Spent on the Relationship
28:52 … Who Sets Expectations?
29:33 … Benefits for the Mentor
31:03 … Organizational Coaching or Mentoring?
32:50 … Contact Susanne
33:47 … Closing
SUSANNE MADSEN: So
when you study coaching, you become so much more conscious about your own
beliefs, about how you come across. And
you just get better at building rapport and having conversations with others,
empathizing with others, and not just talking about yourself all the time.
WENDY GROUNDS: Welcome
to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. If you like what you hear, please leave us a
review on our website or wherever you listen to our podcast. We always love hearing from you. I am Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio
is Bill Yates. Welcome, Bill.
BILL YATES: Hi,
Wendy. I’m excited about our
conversation today. This is going to be
on a topic that I think a lot of project managers will benefit from. I think there’s a lot of confusion, too,
about coaching versus mentoring. So we
hope to really clarify for people, what’s the difference? Are they the same? And what advice do we have for both those who
want to be a coach or receive coaching; be a mentor or receive mentoring.
Meet Susanne
WENDY GROUNDS: Right, right, so I was thinking, let’s do a podcast on coaching/mentoring. And the more I looked into it, the more we realized those are two very different things, and so we hope that our guest today can elaborate and give us some clarity. So her name is Susanne Madsen, and she’s a project leadership coach, trainer, and consultant, and we’re very excited to have Susanne with us in the studio today.
BILL YATES: It’s going to be outstanding, and so I’m going to be the one with the boring accent. We have two wonderful accents, and then there’s me.
WENDY GROUNDS:
Yes. Susanne was telling us she
lives in the U.K., but she’s Danish. So,
yeah, pick up some of that accent. It’s
pretty cool.
BILL YATES: Yes.
WENDY GROUNDS:
Susanne, welcome to Manage This.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
SUSANNE MADSEN: Thank
you for having me. It’s a real honor.
Coaching vs.
Mentoring Definitions
WENDY GROUNDS: Coaching
versus mentoring. Could you give us a definition
of both of them and just how they relate to projects?
SUSANNE MADSEN: Yes, and it’s good that we start with that because so many people use those two terms interchangeably. And I think we should say that there’s a lot of overlap, that both help us to relate to another person and help that other person move forward. But we do that in different ways, whether we are coaching or mentoring.
So coaching, as a coach, we like to say that we don’t give advice, and that’s one of the big differences between the two. When we coach somebody, we like to help somebody move forward by encouraging that person to find the answers for themselves, and there’s a number of ways we do that.
With mentoring – and so I’m looking here at the black-and-white ...

Jul 6, 2020 • 32min
Episode 108 –Building a Strengths-Based Project Team
What is the project manager’s role in talent development? Instead of focusing on the negatives, shouldn’t we focus on what people do best? After all, projects are more successful when we play to the strengths of the team. Our guest, Connie Plowman, co-authored a book Developing Strengths-Based Project Teams with Martha Buelt. Connie defines the difference between a talent and a strength as she introduces the concept of a strengths-based project team.

Jun 15, 2020 • 0sec
Episode 107 – Business Recovery as a Project
VELOCITEACH – Manage This – Episode 107
As businesses and project managers start to strategize about
the post-crisis world, Mike Goss explains what makes business recovery a
project. How can we respond to this crisis from a business standpoint, and how
that can be a project?
Table of Contents
01:58 … Meet Mike 03:08 … Everything in Life is a Project 03:49 … Responding to Crisis as a Project 05:00 … Redefine your Business: The Why and the Who 09:24 … Business Recovery as a Project 11:26 … Personal Experience with Business Recovery 13:33 … What Parts of a Business will Benefit? 16:05 … Building a WBS 18:45 … Facing Risks in Business Recovery 20:50 … Staying on Course 22:15 … A Project Plan for all Scenarios 23:49 … Overcoming Communication Challenges in Business Recovery 25:37 … A Plan for Businesses of all Sizes 26:06 … Strategizing in a Post Crisis World 27:23 … Advice for Resilience during Business Recovery 32:37 … Mike’s Course on Business Recovery 34:12 … Closing
MIKE GOSS: If we had a scale of one to 10, yesterday you
were at an eight. Then COVID-19 show
up. Now you’re at a one. Your objective is not to get back to
eight. Your object is to get back to 10,
where you’ve never been before. On your
way, you’re going to build in the tools and the processes that make sure you
never hit one again, no matter what happens.
That’s a project.
WENDY GROUNDS: Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. This is our opportunity to meet with you and talk about issues that project managers are facing today. I am Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio is Bill Yates. So today we’re talking in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, businesses are starting to think about the post-crisis situation. For some organizations it’s really been near-term survival is what’s on the agenda.
BILL YATES: Right. I agree, Wendy. There are so many companies that are just
fighting to stay in business right now.
I’m a part of a CEO roundtable, and just seeing the impact that this is
having on people locally and globally is huge, I think. I just saw some statistics today. Now, just to let listeners know, this is May the
4th. And so far 30 million people in the
United States have filed for unemployment, just since the COVID-19 got really
serious in March, up until today. We’re
here in the Atlanta, Georgia area. So
just for our state of Georgia, one in four workers have filed for unemployment.
WENDY GROUNDS:
Unbelievable.
BILL YATES: So it’s
huge. And obviously our federal
government is taking great steps to help fight through the economic impact of
this as we all figure out what does the new normal look like. So just thinking about what is business
going to look like when we can get going again.
So I think it’s helpful for us to have this conversation, and we’re
fortunate to have Mike Goss here to talk through some of this with us.
Meet Mike
WENDY GROUNDS: He was
telling us that his career has taken more twists and turns than most.
BILL YATES: Yeah. So he started out as a stereo equipment salesman.
WENDY GROUNDS: And a
computer store owner.
BILL YATES: An
elevator salesman.
WENDY GROUNDS: And
then he became a software developer.
BILL YATES: Senior VP
at a bank.
WENDY GROUNDS: And
the author of “Breaking
Through Walls,” a business novel about overcoming life’s obstacles.
BILL YATES: And then
a college instructor.
WENDY GROUNDS: And
then a radio personality.
BILL YATES: And of
course he fit a military career in there, as well. He’s a veteran in the U.S. Air Force, serving
in Thailand during the Vietnam War.
WENDY GROUNDS: He has
been on a podcast before with us, and he tells us more about that in his
previous episode. Since 2014, Mike has
also taught PMP exam prep boot camps in Oregon, Washington, and South Carolina.
BILL YATES: Quite a
diverse, I’d say, yeah, he is definitely shaking the tree.

Jun 3, 2020 • 0sec
Episode 106 – The Ocean Cleanup Project
Manage This by
Velociteach
The podcast by project managers for project managers. The Ocean Cleanup organization is tackling the largest clean-up project in history. Henk van Dalen shares his passion for the project as he describes the origin of The Ocean Cleanup organization and outlines this bold project to clean the vast amounts of waste from our oceans.
Table of Contents
01:55 … Understanding the Problem 03:19 … How The Ocean Cleanup Began 05:31 … Henk’s Involvement in the Project 06:48 … Ocean Garbage Patches 08:26 … Facing Setbacks 11:21 … The Highs and Lows of Lessons Learned 14:48 … Lessons from Wilson 16:39 … Not Taking it Personally 20:57 … Plastic Size and Barrier Specifics 25:44 … Quantity of Systems Needed 28:00 … Safety for Other Vessels 30:49 … What Happens to the Collected Plastic? 32:07 … Tackling the Problem at the Source 33:50 … Cleaning up the Rivers 37:00 … Leadership Lessons 40:24 … Biggest Surprise on the Project 42:38 … Learn More about The Ocean Cleanup 44:28 … Closing
HENK VAN DALEN: ...the
Garbage Patch out there is so big and persistent, that’s not going to away by
itself. It’s almost looking at your
house, and you say, “I have a dirty house; but if I close the doors, then, you
know, it’s going to be fine.” You still
need to clean it up, as well.
So for us doing that part is essential, and we believe that
the power and the impact that the Ocean Cleanup can make is really in
technology. Develop technology. Be able to move quickly to address the
problem that’s there already. But also,
you know, it’s us also getting the awareness out there that people start
thinking by themselves what it is. So if
the Ocean Cleanup looked at, but what are we good at and where can we make an
impact, it’s creating that awareness, backing it up by science and showing how
big this problem is and cleaning up the mess that is already out there.
WENDY GROUNDS: Welcome
to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. We’re glad you’ve joined us for a
conversation about what matters to you in the field of project management. I’m Wendy Grounds, and here in the studio
with me is Bill Yates.
BILL YATES: Wendy, we’ve
got an interesting theme that you’ve hit on.
I love this. We’ve talked about saving
the rhinos. We’ve talked about tracking
orbital space debris. We’ve looked
at community
gardens and food banks; sustainability. And man, have we got a great conversation
today.
WENDY GROUNDS: I am very excited about this one. I have been following this project for a few years now and have been trying to find someone who will talk to us. And we were very fortunate to find Henk van Dalen. Henk is the Director Ocean Project of The Ocean Cleanup. This is a project that is looking to clean up the ocean.
BILL YATES: That’s
it, five trillion pieces of plastic that we want to remove from the ocean. That’s a big project.
WENDY GROUNDS: Yeah,
we’re very excited to hear Henk’s story.
Understanding the
Problem
BILL YATES: Henk,
thank you so much for joining us today on Manage This, from your remote
location.
HENK VAN DALEN: Thank
you. Thank you for having me, guys.
BILL YATES: One of the
first things I want to do is just help our listeners understand the
problem. Can you define the problem for
us?
HENK VAN DALEN: So within The Ocean Cleanup, we’re focusing to clean up the oceans, and that first of all means we need to close up the inflow of the oceans, taking the plastic out of the rivers, preventing it going in. But there’s also the element of a lot of plastic being out there in the ocean itself, and that’s been accumulating there over decades. And our focus primarily is now on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. So that is the area of the ocean located between Hawaii and California, and there is a plastic soup, you could say, floating around which is twice the size of Texas.
So that is an immense amount of plastic,

May 18, 2020 • 0sec
Episode 105 – Managing Up for Project Success
VELOCITEACH Manage This
The podcast by project managers for project managers. Dana Brownlee shares tools for managing up that challenging boss or stakeholder, while creating alignment and clear communication.
Table of Contents
00:58 … Meet Dana
02:18 … The Inspiration for The Unwritten Rules of Managing Up
03:54 … Managing Up Research Study
07:02 … It Begins with Self Awareness
08:20 … A Definition of Managing Up
10:05 … Managing Up Mistakes
11:30 … Six Difficult Boss Personality Types
14:32 … A Closer Look at the Clueless Chameleon
19:03 … A Closer Look at the Meddlesome Micromanager
22:40 … A Closer Look at the Tornado
25:22 … The Compliment, Document, and Pivot
27:37 … More Taming of the Tornado
29:32 … Self-Analysis for the Project Manager
31:28 … Get in Touch with Dana
32:24 … Closing
WENDY GROUNDS: Hello,
and welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project
managers. I’m Wendy Grounds and with me
in the studio is Bill Yates. Bill, I
have a question for you today. How often
have you experienced a difficult stakeholder or a difficult boss? What’s your experience?
BILL YATES: Oh,
man. This is such a loaded
question. You’re going to get me in
trouble. Andy...
WENDY GROUNDS: Yeah,
we don’t have to talk any current.
BILL YATES: Okay, good, yeah. I was going to say, Andy Crowe’s not in the room right now, but he will definitely listen to this. So, got an outstanding manager now. But yeah, I mean, this is just a part of life; right? We have managers who – sometimes our boss, our manager is super supportive and great. Other times there are challenges, and so fortunately we have Dana to talk with us about some of those challenges.
Meet Dana
WENDY GROUNDS: So our guest today is Dana Brownlee, she is a PMP, and she founded Professionalism Matters, which is an Atlanta-based corporate training company. Her business expertise has been featured in Forbes.com, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, to name a few. And Dana likes to give project managers tools they can use. Dana, welcome to Manage This.
DANA BROWNLEE: Thanks
so much for having me.
WENDY GROUNDS: Dana,
won’t you first tell us just a bit about yourself and how you entered the
project management field?
DANA BROWNLEE:
Certainly. Well, I started my
company back in 2003. I’m dating myself
a little bit, can’t believe it’s been that long. But I started in project management I guess
in the early ‘90s. And in fact I
remember it was so long ago, I remember applying for my PMP in handwritten
paper.
BILL YATES: Oh, okay.
WENDY GROUNDS: Wow.
DANA BROWNLEE: Like printing it off and writing it out and actually mailing it in, putting a stamp in, so I’m officially old. But I worked in corporate for a number of years, and then I started my own training company, and I went out, and I teach training classes and give speaking events. But I do think that I’ve always been wired kind of as a project manager, I dot my I’s; I cross my T’s. In fact, my husband laughed. He said, you know, “This is definitely for you. You’ve got a knack for telling other people what to do.” So some of it is kind of in my blood. But I love it.
The Inspiration for The Unwritten Rules of
Managing Up
WENDY GROUNDS: Dana
has written an excellent book that Bill and I have both enjoyed reading. It’s called “The Unwritten Rules of Managing
Up: Project Management Techniques from
the Trenches.” And in this book we read
about different types of bosses and techniques that you can implement when
working with these different types of managers.
Dana, what inspired you to write the book?
DANA BROWNLEE: Actually, my audiences inspired me to write the book. I never intended to speak on this topic, to write on this topic, but let me tell you what started happening. I give talks, and I provide training on a wide range of topics. So I might be out speaking about communication skills,

May 4, 2020 • 0sec
Episode 104 – Crisis Leadership – Lessons Onboard the USS Cole
The podcast by project managers for project managers. The unpredictable nature of a crisis means that leaders have little time to prepare. Our guest Matt Harper, a retired 20 year Naval Officer, talks about crisis leadership lessons he learned onboard the USS Cole during a terrorist attack.
Table of
Contents
00:37 … Meet Matt 01:38 … Matt’s Role on the USS Cole 03:55 … Background to the USS Cole Deployment 06:32 … Geographical Location of Yemen 07:58 … October 12th, 2000 10:02 … Reacting in Times of Crisis 12:24 … Events Following the Attack 14:36 … Responding Well or Responding Poorly in a Crisis 16:34 … Management vs. Leadership 20:15 … Crisis Leadership Lesson One: Understand Yourself 21:05 … Crisis Leadership Lesson Two: Be Comfortable with Uncertainty 22:40 … Crisis Leadership Lesson Three: Collaborate 24:01 … Crisis Leadership Lesson Four: Be Ready to do Anything 26:35 … Crisis Leadership Lesson Five: Lessons Learned 27:35 … Keeping Motivated in a Crisis 29:42 … Get up on the Balcony, Take a Different Perspective 33:11 … Go Beyond Your Comfort Zone 34:41 … Resolving the Problem 37:20 … Get in Touch with Matt 38:52 … Closing
MATT HARPER: ...this is the hallmark of the good leader, of
the good project manager that says, got it, that’s the way it’s supposed to be
done, but we’re in a crisis deadline or whatever the case may be. And this is how we need to do it now.
WENDY GROUNDS: Welcome
to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. I am Wendy Grounds, and with me is Bill
Yates.
BILL YATES: Hi. Hi, Wendy.
WENDY GROUNDS: Hi,
Bill. Today we’re talking about what
will we do in a time of crisis. We have
Matt Harper with us. He is on Skype from
Denver, Colorado.
Meet Matt
BILL YATES: Yeah, Matt
has had a twenty year career with the US Navy and we’ll get more into that.
Specifically though, he had a unique experience and I’m looking forward to
discussing with him and sharing with our audience.
WENDY GROUNDS: Matt
is going to tell us about his experience on the USS Cole after a
terrorist attack in Aden, Yemen, which happened in October 2000. He was
decorated for his leadership after this attack and he’s applied that to
coaching lessons in crisis leadership, and so I think he’s got a lot of good
stuff he’s going to bring to us today.
BILL YATES: Yeah,
Matt, we so appreciate your time.
Welcome to Manage This.
MATT HARPER: Well,
thanks. Thanks for having me. Looking forward to it.
BILL YATES: Any time
we can bring somebody into a conversation that has the knowledge, the training,
and the experience that you do, we know our project manager listeners are going
to appreciate it and learn from it.
Wendy and I were talking, we feel like the best way to tackle this topic
is just start from the beginning. Give
us a sense for what happened with the USS Cole and what your role was, or what
part you played in that.
Matt’s Role on the
USS Cole
MATT HARPER:
Sure. Well, thanks, thanks again
for having me. I would like to kind of
start out, having a 20-year military background, I’m sure a lot of the people listening
to the podcast will have military backgrounds.
BILL YATES: Right.
MATT HARPER: But for
most people who do not, I would like to say that anybody who spends time in the
military, what we do on a daily basis is really project management.
BILL YATES: That’s true.
MATT HARPER: It’s
something that we I think don’t do a very good job, we people in the military
or prior military personnel, we don’t do a very good job really making it clear
that that’s really what we do, probably 90 percent of our day, is really
different types of projects that all interrelate to each other. They’re all underfunded; they’re all
under-resourced.
BILL YATES: Yes.
MATT HARPER: And that’s what we do on a daily basis. So about my experience, I originally grew up in San Francisco. I always knew I kind of wanted to be in the Navy,

Apr 20, 2020 • 45min
Episode 103 – Creating a Living Building – The Kendeda Building at Georgia Tech
“Why are we throwing away perfectly good stuff?” That’s the question our guests John DuCongé and Shan Arora are asking us this episode as we join them for a tour of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s recently completed Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design.
This building was designed and built to the Living Building Challenge 3.1 certification standards, the most advanced measure of sustainability possible in the current built environment, with some of the most stringent building performance standards in the world.

Apr 1, 2020 • 0sec
Episode 102 – Working Remotely – Not a Crisis
The podcast by project managers for project managers. We’re facing new challenges that are changing the way that we work. Listen in as we address the specific challenge of working remotely.
Table of Contents
00:43 … Coronavirus Impact – Keep Calm and Manage This
02:23 … Working Remotely and Managing Yourself
03:57 … Establishing a Rhythm
07:40 … Dealing With Interruptions at Home
11:45 … Sticking to a Schedule when Working Remotely
15:53 … Interruptions and Communication Methods with your Team
16:51 … Turning on Video Cameras
19:33 … Making Time to be Proactive
21:27 … Turning it Off at the End of the Day
25:39 … Experiment with Collaboration Tools
27:58 … Can I trust my Team to be Accountable?
31:57 … Facing New Challenges with Grace
34:35 … Connect with Crystal
35:20 … Closing
CRYSTAL KDAKIA: It’s already a tough time. So really using this as a time to bond
together. Times of crisis are great to
emphasize a positive company culture.
So, and I think that goes both ways.
Both frontline employees, team managers, and team leaders need to have a
lot of grace in all those categories because everyone is adjusting to a new
normal.
WENDY GROUNDS: Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by
project managers for project managers. I’m
Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio is Bill Yates.
BILL YATES: Hi, Wendy.
WENDY GROUNDS: Every two weeks we get together to talk about
what matters to you as a professional project manager, and this week there’s a
lot that we want to talk about.
Coronavirus Impact – Keep Calm
and Manage This
BILL YATES: Yeah, these are very unusual times, not like
anything that I’ve ever experienced in my lifetime. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has hit,
and it’s affected everyone on Planet Earth.
It’s changing the way that we work.
And we thought, what a great time for us to address the challenge that
is new to us as project leaders. We
wanted to talk about specifically how to work remotely.
WENDY GROUNDS: Yes. I’m
sure a lot of people are worried and anxious.
Someone wise I heard saying this on Sunday is we can’t allow uncertainty
to dictate how we are going to react.
You know, we can’t change what we can’t control. But there are things we can control, and that’s
what our guest is going to speak about today.
BILL YATES: Yeah, that’s great. I think it goes right along with our tagline
of “Keep Calm and Manage This.”
WENDY GROUNDS: Absolutely.
BILL YATES: We’ve got a lot of challenges to keep calm, so we’re all wondering how do we manage this. Fortunately, we have a past guest of our podcast, Crystal Kadakia, who’s going to join us today. She’s had a lot of experience working remotely, she’s also written a lot about the ups and downs of working remotely, some of the challenges and some of the benefits of it. And she is all about creating a better workspace. So we are delighted to have Crystal join us today. Crystal, thank you so much for joining us.
CRYSTAL KADAKIA: Thanks for having me. Thanks for – it’s nice to be back.
BILL YATES: Well, it’s a spur of the moment thing, but
the times call for it.
CRYSTAL KADAKIA: I think that it’s very timely, and also just
something that I’ve been really wanting to share more and more about. So I’m really glad that we’re getting a
chance to talk about it.
Working Remotely and Managing Yourself
WENDY GROUNDS: Crystal, you wrote a blog which recently we’ve published on the website: “Does Coronavirus Have a Silver Lining? A Guide for the Newly Remote Manager.” And we’ve kind of highlighted some things in this blog that we want to talk about, can we start off with managing ourselves, what it looks like when you’re working remotely and how to manage yourself?
CRYSTAL KADAKIA: Yeah, sure. So the first thing about all this is you have to take care of yourself first, if you’re managing a team remotely, and you don’t have your own work environment together,