People And Projects Podcast: Project Management Podcast

Improving Your Ability to Lead We often joke in our project management workshops that participants have signed up for a leadership class cloaked as a project management class. So much of our ability to deliver projects comes down to our ability to lead people and teams—regardless of our title or whether team members report to us directly. That’s a core premise of the People and Projects Podcast--that we’re all leaders—and I’m constantly on the lookout for resources to help you and me develop our ability to lead. Darren Reinke reached out to me last year to talk about his book The Savage Leader: 13 Principles to Become a Better Leader from the Inside Out. After browsing a copy of the book, I knew this was a guy I wanted to talk with. His passion for leading is clear and his advice is practical. Learn more about Darren at TheSavageLeader.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 o

Can You Change Other People? We’re continuing a series of episodes on the topic of change. Back in episode 339 we talked with Katy Milkman about her book How to Change, which provided some helpful insights into the behavioral science of change. Then we talked with Gary Lloyd in episode 343 about his book Gardeners Not Mechanics to get practical insights on how to lead change in organizations. I wanted to add one more episode in the series to focus on a key aspect of what we need to do as leaders: help others to change. Peter Bregman and Howie Jacobson have written a remarkable new book entitled You Can Change Other People: The Four Steps to Help Your Colleagues, Employees—Even Family—Up Their Game. Did you catch that title? You can change other people. Isn’t there something about the phrasing that just seems wrong? Isn’t it true that you can’t change other people—you can only change yourself? Peter and Howie are going to challenge that idea today. They’ll share why changing others might just be the most impor

Leading in an Ecosystem We’re continuing a series of episodes on the topic of change. Back in episode 339 we talked with Katy Milkman about her book How to Change, which provided some helpful insights into the behavioral science of change. But what if you are planning to lead a change initiative. Beyond what Katy brought us from behavioral science, I wanted to bring you a process—something that is practical, memorable, and tested across industries. And I’m glad to say I found it! In this episode I’m excited to introduce you to Gary Lloyd, author of Gardeners Not Mechanics: How to Cultivate Change at Work. I’m not a gardener but I find Gary’s approach to be practical for changes you want to lead at work and in your personal life. I can’t wait to share the discussion with you. Learn more about Gary at GardenersNotMechanics.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, de

Little Changes Can Make A Big Difference It’s interesting to me how little changes can have outsized benefits. For example, how something is said. There’s a difference between a boss saying, “You can hit this date, right?” and “Here’s what we need to get done. How much time do you think this would take? What do you need from me to make that happen?” Sometimes it’s just little shifts in what we say. How we make an ask. How we look at a situation. And with just a little shift, we can sometimes reap enormous benefits in our relationships at work and at home. I’m excited to introduce you to Krister Ungerbock. Krister is the author of one of my most gifted books recently. It’s entitled 22 Talk SHIFTs: Tools to Transform Leadership in Business, in Partnership, and in Life. It's a book I probably would have never picked up, but I'm so glad the publisher reached out to introduce me to it. I look forward to introducing you to Krister and his work! Learn more about Krister at Krister.com/. Join our Global LEAD52 Commun

Help For Leading and Delivering Projects Part of leading and directing projects is influencing--ethically using the tools and techniques at our disposal to deliver the intended results. Could it be that, at times, we might even need to be a bit pushy? That's something that my guest mentions here in episode 341. I’m excited to be joined by Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez to talk about his new book, the Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook. In addition to being an author, Antonio is a practitioner and consultant with a heart for teaching and raising up a new generation of project leaders. He’s the former chairman of the Project Management Institute and is a highly respected researcher and management consultant. Learn more about Antonio at AntonioNietoRodriguez.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

80-20 Is Everywhere You’ve certainly heard of the Pareto Principle, right? It’s the 80-20 rule that says, for example, 80% of the value of our projects comes from 20% of the scope. Why do I bring this up? Because most of us know about 80-20 but we don’t leverage it to our advantage. And today’s guest is going to challenge us on that. Perry Marshall is joining us to talk about his book Detox Declutter Dominate. Learn more about Perry at PerryMarshall.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   Drifting in Time by chilledmusic Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/7539-drifting-in-time- License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license It's Funky by F

How to Change There's a change you’ve probably been wanting to make. It could be that you know what to do. The problem is doing it. Remembering it. Following through. And perhaps not beating yourself up because you haven’t made progress. Whatever it is that you’d like to change, we have good news for you in this episode. Katy Milkman joins us to talk about her fantastic new book How to Change. If you enjoyed our conversation with James Clear about his book Atomic Habits, you're going to love this conversation with Katy--this book shares the underlying research behind popular books on habits. Learn more about Katy at KatyMilkman.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!

The ROI of Kindness Is it possible to be too nice? Is niceness the same as kindness? In today’s discussion, we’re going to drill in on that idea. I’m excited to introduce you to Brian Biro who wrote a book entitled The ROI of Kindness. In today’s discussion, Brian will talk about the difference between being nice and being kind. He’ll explain what a Kindness Value Proposition is and why you might want to consider developing one. We have an extended conversation about one of the kindest things you can do, which is to be present with other people. And make sure you stay around for the outtakes because Brian was a friend with legendary basketball coach John Wooden. Outside the official interview, Brian shares some inspiring insights about who many consider to be the Greatest Basketball Coach of All Time. Learn more about Brian at BrianBiro.com. John Wooden TED Talk In the outtakes of this episode, Brian and I talk about Coach John Wooden. Here's an insightful TED Talk that highlights some of Wooden's perspective

Managing Projects and Teams One of my favorite voices in the world of leading and delivering is Johanna Rothman. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Johanna for a couple of decades now and throughout that time she’s been a clear voice in how I think about managing teams and projects. And her writing, coaching, and consulting have helped project teams around the world. In this episode, she joins us to talk about her new book series entitled Modern Management Made Easy. It’s a series of 3 books that address some pervasive myths about management. Learn more about Johanna and her book series at jrothman.com/modern-management-made-easy-a-three-volume-set/. Additional Resources In this episode, I refer to these other interviews that you might find helpful: My discussion with Johanna in episode 207 about her book Create Your Successful Agile Journey My discussion with Annie Murphy Paul in episode 335 about her book The Extended Mind Join our Global LEAD52 Community Ready to take your leadership skills to the next lev

How to Deliver Projects Let’s say a boss comes up to you and says, “Hey, our senior leadership team just authorized this big new project. I’m assigning it to you and need it delivered in the next 14 weeks. We’re counting on you. Good luck!” What’s going through your mind at this point? Maybe you’re excited about the opportunity, which is great. But a lot of times people are thinking, “How in the world am I supposed to deliver all of that, in that timeframe, when I’m already overbooked with other projects! And so is everyone else I’ll need!” So what do you do? Clint Padgett joins us again to talk about his new book entitled How Teams Triumph: Managing By Commitment. If you're looking for insights on how to deliver challenging projects, this is a book you'll want to read. Learn more about Clint and his book at ProjectSuccess.com. Additional Resources You can find my previous discussion with Clint in episode 29. Join our Global LEAD52 Community Ready to take your leadership skills to the next level? LEAD52 is yo

Much Of How We Think About the Brain is Wrong Today we're having a discussion about the brain. Actually, it’s more than that--we’re going to talk about how a lot of what we think we know about the brain might just not be so! Science writer Annie Murphy Paul joins us today to talk about her remarkable new book entitled The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside The Brain. It’s a book that has expanded how I think about the mind and I can’t wait to introduce you to what I consider a must-read book. Learn more about Annie and her book at AnnieMurphyPaul.com. Additional Resources In my comments after the interview, I mention a follow-up interview you may want to check out. It's with Dr. John Medina, author of a series of books called Brain Rules. You can find my discussion with John in episode 188. 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

Preparing for the Next Rogue Wave We’re continuing a series of episodes on the topic of the future. It’s hard to imagine that we can be effective at leading others if we’re not forward-thinking. But after getting slammed by the COVID tsunami and subsequent recurring waves, the future can feel so unsure. So how do we prepare ourselves and our teams for the future despite the challenges of understanding it? To help us with that, we’re joined in this episode by Jonathan Brill, author of a new book entitled Rogue Waves: Future-Proof Your Business to Survive and Profit from Radical Change. Jonathan is the former Global Futurist at HP and has led companies that have substantially improved the world in many domains. Not to mention he invented a machine that makes frozen coffee slurpees! Learn more about Jonathan and his book at JonathanBrill.com. Additional Resources In the outtakes of the episode, Jonathan mentions an HBR article that he wrote with Dorie Clark about how to future-prep your career. You can find tha

How much fun would you say you and your team have as you go through your day-to-day work? When you look back over the pandemic experience thus far, there are plenty of reasons for the word fun to not come to mind. There has been great loss, much fear, and though working from home may have its advantages, it can definitely have an impact on how a group of people experience the idea of being a team and having fun together. In this episode, you'll hear from Dr. Bob Nelson and Mario Tamayo, authors of a new book entitled Work Made Fun Gets Done. It's an insightful book on trust that I look forward to sharing with you. Learn more about Dr. Bob and Mario and their book at DrBobNelson.com/. If you found this episode helpful, here are some recommended follow-up episodes: Episode 316 with the authors of the book Humor, Seriously Episode 109 with Peter McGraw about his book The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny Join our Global LEAD52 Community Ready to take your leadership skills to the next lev

Leading Virtual Teams That Work Though many people are slowly starting to return to the office for at least part of the week, there’s reason to think that we’ll be leading teams and projects with stakeholders that are not co-located. And though we’ve gained some experience with that now since the global pandemic began, I continue to hear from people about the challenges they experience, both as a leader of teams and as members of teams. I’m excited to introduce you to the work of Kevin Eikenberry and Wayne Turmel. They are authors of the books The Long-Distance Leader and The Long-Distance Teammate. Both are insightful books on how to navigate leading virtual teams and I look forward to sharing ideas from the books with you. Learn more about Kevin and Wayne and their books at KevinEikenberry.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, ta

The Power of Trust A key aspect for us to grow in our ability to lead and deliver comes down to trust. It’s difficult to follow someone we don’t trust, right? Yet trust can be one of those topics that can be difficult to get our arms around. We know it when we see it and we know it’s important. And we certainly know when it’s lost. But how do we intentionally develop trust in an authentic and lasting way? That’s what we’re talking about today. Harvard Management Professor Sandra Sucher joins us in this episode to talk about her new book The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It. It's an insightful book on trust that I look forward to sharing with you. Learn more about Sandra and her book at ThePowerOfTrustBook.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

The Working Project Manager Mom A common struggle I see is the challenges and expectations faced by working moms. I think it’s challenging for any working mom, but since many of our listeners are in project-related roles, I wonder if it’s even more difficult for you? Your days are filled with planning, task management, getting things done, being efficient, and my guess is that mindset doesn’t shut off when it comes to parenting. In many ways, that mindset probably helps you in your parenting. But it also might leave you exhausted as you wrestle with trying to do it all--trying to be all--when the demands of work and life make that an impossible fairy tale. In this episode, we’re talking with Dr. Whitney Casares, author of a new book entitled The Working Mom Blueprint: Winning at Parenting Without Losing Yourself. It’s a book packed with wisdom that I can’t wait to introduce you to. Learn more about Whitney at ModernMommyDoc.com/. Join our Global LEAD52 Community Ready to take your leadership skills to the nex

Preparing for the Convergence It's hard to imagine that we can be effective at leading others if we’re not forward-thinking. But the future is so unsure--clouded at times by apocalyptic visions of machines taking over and life ruled by algorithms. So how do we prepare ourselves and our teams for the future despite the challenges of understanding it? To help us on this journey, we're joined today by Deborah Westphal, author of a new book entitled Convergence: Technology, Business, and the Human-Centric Future. In this episode, Deborah will talk about what it means for us to be human-centric as we look to the future. She’ll challenge how we use the term stakeholder when we’re leading our teams and projects. She’ll expose some of the obsolete ideas and models that we too easily hold onto. And she’ll give us some perspectives to think differently about what it means to be a human-centric, future-focused leader. Learn more about Deborah and her book at DeborahWestphal.com/convergence-book/. Join our Global LEAD52

Strategic Project Management There's a good chance that right now, as you listen to this episode, you’ve been tasked with delivering something that feels big. Perhaps even intimidating. Even if this isn’t you right now, it will be eventually, and today I can’t wait to introduce you to an approach that can help lead you out of the fog. Terry Dean Schmidt is the author of Strategic Project Management Made Simple. Though that title might sound like it’s over-selling--that strategic projects can be made simple--I think you’re going to find Terry’s approach to be something that is straightforward and can apply to just about any type of project and life cycle. Learn more about Terry and his company at https://www.managementpro.com/about-us/meet-terry/. Let's Stay In Touch! I hear from listeners almost every day and I love it! How about you and I connect on LinkedIn? Go to https://PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com/LinkedIn and Follow me (I've maxed out the connections but if you Follow me, I'll Follow you back!) Thank yo

Sustainable Project Management Insights One of my favorite voices on how to lead projects is Rich Maltzman. Rich contributed to A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) Seventh Edition in the areas of sustainability and value delivery. In this episode, Rich talks about what sustainable project management is (and isn't). Perhaps more importantly, he talks about what we can do at our level, especially when we feel we don’t have much influence to make a difference. And Rich shares some project and career lessons that he’s gleaned over the years. It’s a great discussion with a guy I consider a friend. Here are some resources that Rich mentions during the interview: His book Green Project Management, co-authored with David Shirley His book How to Facilitate Productive Project Planning Meetings: A Practical Guide to Ensuring Project Success, co-authored with Jim Stewart His blog on projectmanagement.com Let's Stay In Touch! I hear from listeners almost every day and I love it! How abo

Lessons in Project Leadership One of my favorite voices on how to lead projects is Kiron Bondale. He joined us back in episode 92 for an In the Trenches episode, and I’ve been a fan of his writing ever since. Kiron recently launched a new book entitled Easy in Theory, Difficult in Practice: 100 Lessons in Project Leadership. It's a book packed with insights to help you lead and deliver. Learn more about Kiron and his work at https://kbondale.wordpress.com/. Let's Stay In Touch! I hear from listeners almost every day and I love it! How about you and I connect on LinkedIn? Go to https://PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com/LinkedIn and Follow me (I've maxed out the connections but if you Follow me, I'll Follow you back!) Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Leadership   Tranceverse by Sascha Ende® Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5223-tranceverse License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/3788-funkor