People And Projects Podcast: Project Management Podcast

There's a big appetite these days for advice for introverts. Lisa Petrilli's e-book shares some helpful insights. I trust you found the interview with Lisa was helpful, whether you consider yourself an introvert or if you lead a team that has one or more members. In this premium episode, I'm going to share some additional thoughts to help us personally apply this learning. Check your Premium Feed for the People Styles material that I mention in this cast. Let me know what questions you have. Thank you for being a premium subscriber to The People and Projects Podcast!  

People Don't Listen To Me Some years back I was sitting across the table from a coaching client. We were talking about what she thought was her inability to influence as effectively as she wished. In her soft-spoken manner, she said, "I just feel like people don't listen to me." I have to admit that the mischievous side of me wanted to say, "Um, what was that you said?" Now, of course, I didn't say that, but let me ask you this... Since she is quiet it's rather obvious she's an introvert, right? And it's probably fair to say that introversion is likely to hold her back from climbing the ladder, wouldn't you say? Well, how about this? The coaching client was a C-level executive in a highly successful organization. Though she very well may be an introvert, making that assessment so quickly without learning more is an easy mistake to make.   Can Introverts Be Effective Project Managers? Can introverts be effective project managers and leaders? In this episode, we talk about that with Lisa Petrilli, author of The

Total Duration 24:39 Download episode 69 In this episode I continue my interview with Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson, author of Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals and Nine Things Successful People Do Differently. If you happened to miss the first part of the interview, I definitely invite you to check that out as well. In this episode Heidi shares insights on the difference between Be Good and Get Better Goals. Also, she addresses some myths regarding willpower, visualization, and positive thinking: topics that are often miserably mishandled in popular self-help books. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the evidence-based insights that Heidi brings to these topics. I highly recommend your next steps include getting a copy of her Harvard Business Review e-book single entitled Nine Things Successful People Do Differently. It's a very quick read and enormously practical. It's under $4 on Amazon in a Kindle format (and if you don't have a Kindle, you can download one on your computer or other device to read

Total Duration 25:04 Download episode 68   Additional Episode My interview with Heidi is split between two episodes. Make sure to listen to the second portion where we cover additional practical insights to help us reach our goals this year. For my premium subscribers, you're extra coaching episode will be published along with the second half of the interview. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!

The Gift That Keeps on Giving This is a season when giving gifts takes center stage for most of us. Many of us have the gift of some time off before a new year begins. And when that new year gets into full swing, what is one of the biggest gifts you can give those you lead? I'll give you a hint: it doesn't require shiny wrapping or a pretty bow. One of the best gifts to those we lead is the gift of Respect. Encouragement. Clear goals. Autonomy. The resources they need. Creating environments where people love to work is a gift that keeps on giving. And my gift to you this Christmas is an interview with the co-author of one of the most respected business books of 2011. The book is entitled The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work, and the author is Steven Kramer. I actually gave a copy of The Progress Principle as a Christmas gift to a close friend, and I recommend you get yourself a copy as well. Learn more about the book at their website http://www.progressp

In this episode I'm going to share a conversation I had recently with Wayne Breitbarth, author of The Power Formula for Linkedin Success: Kick-start Your Business, Brand, and Job Search. Wayne is my favorite expert on LinkedIn and I know you'll enjoy his insights. You can learn more about Wayne and his book at http://www.powerformula.net/. I strongly recommend you sign-up for Wayne's free newsletter with tips and tricks. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!

In this episode, I talk with Justin Menkes, author of Better Under Pressure: How Great Leaders Bring Out the Best in Themselves and Others. Let's learn together from Justin as we talk about leading under pressure. You can learn more about Justin and his book at http://www.BetterUnderPressure.com. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week! P.S. Here's an entertaining and informative video on how stress impacts how the brain works, from Dr. John Medina. Enjoy! {youtube}S6Xq7CMOH1k{/youtube}

Total Duration 27:37 Download episode 64 One of my favorite writers and voices on the topic of productivity is Peter Bregman. Peter recently released his newest book entitled 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done. I had the opportunity to spend some time with Peter recently and look forward to sharing that discussion with you in this episode. You can learn more about Peter at his website http://www.PeterBregman.com. Quick note: I'm always encouraged to hear from listeners and received this recently from Cheryl, who said, "I've been listening to your informative and inspiring podcasts and have found value in each one. I like your passion and sincerity. I benefit from the coaching delivered through your discussions with your engaging guests regarding leadership attitudes, skills and practices. I love that you call it the People and Projects podcast. My personal #1 rule is to take care of the people, and your podcasts cover the many dimensions of pursuing that objecti

Total Duration 20:58 Download episode 63 In our last episode I started a conversation with Jim Kouzes about their newly revised book Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It. We continue that conversation in this episode, where I ask Jim for insights such as "How do you keep your credibility when being asked to support a decision you don't agree with?" You can learn more about Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner online at http://www.leadershipchallenge.com/. Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!

Total Duration 21:06 Download episode 62 I'm recording this episode on the road this week, delivering a keynote on leadership at a Project Management Institute Professional Development Day. Since I have leadership on the brain today, let me ask you: Think of one of the best leaders you've ever had the privilege of working with.... What was it about that person that made them such an effective leader? Though the details of your answer could be different from what others might say, chances are we would all agree that the best leader that came to mind for us shared one thing in common: credibility. Credibility is fundamental to being a leader, and in this cast I'm excited to share the first of two episodes from a conversation with Jim Kouzes. Jim, along with his co-author Barry Posner, are some of the foremost researchers and voices on leadership, including works such as their best-selling book The Leadership Challenge. In these next two episodes, I talk with Jim about their newly updated book Credibility: H

Total Duration 7:11 Download the premium episode (NOTE: This Premium Episode is being included in our free podcast stream this week. It gives you a sense of the extra coaching that is available each episode for our premium subscribers. Learn more about becoming a Premium Subscriber at http://bit.ly/PremiumSubscribe). There are many things I love about hosting this podcast. One of them is the opportunity to interact with the experts we interview. You probably notice that I normally include some behind the scenes cuts at the end of interviews to try and give a sense of who these people are. Most are very gracious. There's something about Michael Roberto that truly stands out though. He has great energy, a quick wit, and is everything I would have wanted in a college business professor. In this premium episode I want to highlight some points from the interview with Michael to help you put the learning into action. First, filtering isn't bad, right? We need it for efficiency. People say we need to over-communic

Total Duration 22:23 Download episode 61 Have you ever heard this quote?"There's an inverse relationship between your level in a company and your ability to see reality." We joke about that at times when it seems like the people above us are out of touch. But why is it more difficult to see reality, the higher you get in an organization? Sometimes it's just because the people higher up are focusing on longer term issues. By virtue of their scope of responsibility, they're not in the day-to-day. But that's not always it. I was facilitating a project management workshop at a company a couple years ago discussing this very topic. A participant said it this way: "Around here, it's crap down at our level but it's fertilizer up there! It's not a problem, it's an opportunity!" Information gets filtered as it travels up and down and around an organization. What gets through and why can make all the difference between making good, informed decisions or barreling over a cliff with what we thought was an accurate map.

Check out this quote from Daniel J. Boorstin. He said,"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge." How often have we kidded ourselves that we knew something only to get more data or evidence later that made it clear we didn't have the full story? It happens all the time. Probably more than we realize. I find a related observation when it comes to attention. We think we see the world or situations or people clearly but inevitably it's all being filtered through lenses. It could be argued that we have an illusion of observation. Have you ever seen the famous video that asks you to count the number of times a basketball is passed between a group of college students? Check it out: {youtube}vJG698U2Mvo{/youtube} Interesting, eh? Selective attention is alive and well, and for all of us who desire to lead and deliver, we need to be acutely aware of how it works. In this premium episode I want to take time to highlight some points from the interview with Cathy to help you p

In our last episode, you heard the first portion of my discussion with Cathy N. Davidson, author of Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn Cathy's book is just coming out this week and has already been named one of the top 10 science books of this fall season. Is technology making it more difficult to focus? Cathy and I talk about that in this second portion of the interview.   Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!

So let me guess.... While you're listening to this cast right now, I'm guessing you're also doing something else as well, right? Maybe driving a car or checking e-mail or working out. Or perhaps you're checking out what's going on with your Facebook friends. Hey, if you're doing that, look up The People and Projects Podcast on Facebook and Like us! Oops. Sorry. I got a bit distracted there for a moment!   Anyway, there is seemingly an endless number of stimuli that are vying for your attention right now. Which do you focus on? Why? There are many great minds that are putting a lot of effort into these questions for it could reasonably be argued that time is not the scarcest resource anymore: it's attention. As we strive to focus on a world clamoring for our attention, I wanted to share one of my favorite books that is just coming out this week. It's entitled Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn, by Cathy N. Davidson. I had the opportunity to talk

Dee Hock is one of my management heroes. Dee founded VISA years ago and had many insights on how to be an effective leader. If you've sat through one of our leadership workshops, you might be familiar with one of my favorite Dee Hock quotes. Dee says: "If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself -- your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers. Use the remainder to induce those you 'work for' to understand and practice the theory. I use the terms 'work for' advisedly, for if you don't understand that you should be working for your mislabeled 'subordinates,' you haven't understood anything. Lead yourself, lead your superiors, lead your peers, and free your people to do the same. All else is trivia." There's a lot to chew on in that quote, isn't there? Too often we think managing is about managing down--our so-called subordinates. Dee puts much more focus on managing ourse

One of the lessons that eventually becomes clear is that managing is not just managing down: leading those people who report to us. In fact, the higher I got in organizations, the more I found I needed to manage up: in many ways, to lead my boss. That's a lesson I don't remember being taught in a textbook. Whether you're a project manager, team member, or senior leader, we all have a boss, and learning to lead that boss is a key skill that must be developed. Earlier this year I had a conversation with leadership expert John Baldoni. John is the author of many books, including Leading Up: How to Lead Your Boss So You Both Win. In this episode, you'll see what John has to say about how you can more effectively lead your boss.   You can learn more about John by visiting http://www.johnbaldoni.com/. John recommended you check out his previous book Lead by Example: 50 Ways Great Leaders Inspire Results. Also, I recommend you check out the other book John mentioned in the interview: Lead Your Boss: The Subtle Art o

There's nothing easy about rescuing a problem project. There's a reason why they're called problem projects! Todd's book is reasonably good at outlining a framework for how to approach the problem project when you inevitably will be tasked with doing so. In this special premium edition, I want to share some coaching for you based on lessons from Todd's book. First, let me encourage you to not back away from the problem projects. I talked with Todd about that early in the discussion. Though it may not be fun, per se, there's something engaging about the problem-solving of a problem project. If you can develop a reputation of taking on the chaos, bringing it under control, and delivering the project, it really is your chance to shine. It used to drive me crazy when I'd hear people say, "It's not a problem, it's an opportunity!" Let's call it what it is: it's a problem! However, it is an opportunity as well. Remember that when you're tempted to try and dodge a recovery effort. Second, I have to ask: Do you have

Lead projects long enough and eventually you'll have to deal with the problem project. Whether you were involved with the project from the beginning or inheriting problems from someone else, the reality is we need to be able to rescue the problem project. That's not only true--it's also the name of a new book from Todd C. Williams, PMP. In this episode, I talk with Todd about ideas and recommendations from his book Rescue the Problem Project: A Complete Guide to Identifying, Preventing, and Recovering from Project Failure. You can learn more about Todd by visiting http://ecaminc.com/. His blog Back From Red can be found at http://ecaminc.com/index.php/blog.   Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!

One of the great challenges of business is how to go from idea to delivery. It's easy to talk about ideas but turning those into a finished product requires much more than talk. It can be daunting to deliver. There's the risk of failure. There's the fear of unknowns--of surprises that can create obstacles to success. Going from idea to delivery is truly challenging! Ultimately project management is about how to deliver results but leaders of projects and teams need more than just work breakdown structures and Gantt charts. One of my favorite books of this year provides great insights for all of us who seek to lead and deliver. I recently had the real privilege of spending some time with Peter Sims, author of a great new book entitled Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries, and look forward to sharing that discussion with you in this episode. You can learn more about Peter by visiting http://petersims.com.   Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcas