Research would indicate that they may be less engaged than you think, which is why we're spending time in this episode with Brad Federman. Brad is the President of Performancepoint, a leading performance improvement company. Brad recently authored Employee Engagement: A Roadmap for Creating Profits, Optimizing Performance, and Increasing Loyalty. I had the opportunity to talk with Brad recently and look forward to sharing that interview with you in this episode.
Thanks for joining us for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!
If you've followed this podcast or attended one of my keynotes on project management or leadership, you've likely caught onto my bias that the biggest successes, the biggest joys, the biggest failures, and the biggest stresses often come down to the same thing: people. Project management is ultimately people management.
Success with people management--and thus project management--can significantly depend on our effectiveness in areas such as communication, influence, and building relationships. One of the freshest voices on the people side of project management is consultant Dave Po-Chedley, PMP, author of Client Relationship Management: How to Turn Client Relationships into a Competitive Advantage. I had the opportunity to catch up with Dave recently and look forward to sharing that interview with you in this episode.
One last thing: I received a message from a listener that I wanted to share with you:
Hi Andy,
I attended your 1-day tutorial at Better Software in June. That session was worth the price of the whole trip. Great, transformative stuff! I have since changed my listening habits in the car: I listen to management podcasts now. I decided to propose the Outlaw Team idea to my boss who leads an entire division in my company. He liked the idea and had me present it to his weekly leadership meeting. All the VPs liked the idea, with some suggestions. I then suggested action items to move it forward. My boss volunteered me to carry the ball. Yikes! Now I have to try and be the Andy Kaufman of our company. Nah. I'll just be me and see where we get. Never thought I'd go from eager student to mentoring others in leadership skills.
Thanks for your great work! Charlie
Well, congratulations to Charlie for taking action on the learning!
Thanks for joining us for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!
We previously had a Premium Podcast stream only available to subscribers. We've now removed that restriction. Over time we are releasing those former episodes, including this one.
Attached you will find a file you can use to facilitate a discussion about the interview with Dr. J. Richard Hackman. I recommend you have your team listen to the podcast episode ahead of time for maximum benefit. Please don't hesitate to contact me at with any questions. Thank you for being a premium subscriber!
I can easily recall the days before I became a manager.
I started my career as a software developer, which by nature of how software gets created, usually meant work being done in teams. When my team leader or manager would mess up in some way, I would occasionally think, when I finally get to lead a team, I'm going to do things differently! How hard can this be?
Then I became a manager! It was then that I truly realized that it's one thing to talk about leading teams--it's a whole different deal when you have to be the leader and your team members aren't necessarily as motivated as you want them to be, or priorities change, or your senior management seems dim-witted, and you feel overwhelmed.
The truth is that leading teams well is difficult work, often under-estimated by those who haven't had to hold the reins. One of my favorite experts on this topic is Harvard professor J. Richard Hackman. In this cast I look forward to sharing a recent discussion I had with Dr. Hackman based on his book Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances. In addition, check out Dr. Hackman's book Senior Leadership Teams: What It Takes to Make Them Great.
It's so easy to get into a rut. Whether it's on a personal basis, a project team, or even an organization, it's easy to keep doing things the way we've always done them.
Actually, the brain kind of likes it when we go on auto-pilot. This allows the brain to focus on the more important matters before us, like the stare your boss is giving you when you're trying to reply to a message on your Blackberry during her staff meeting!
Each year we learn more about how the brain works and how we can use that knowledge to better meet the challenges we face. In this episode I interview Madeleine Van Hecke and Brad Kolar, co-authors of the book The Brain Advantage: Become a More Effective Business Leader Using the Latest Brain Research. Make sure to check out the website for their book at www.TheBrainAdvantage.com.
One way to snap out of the old way of doing things is to bring new thinking into your organization. Do you have an upcoming company meeting or retreat? We have keynote presentations that can inspire and motivate your teams to successfully deliver the projects and lead their teams. Give us a call at (866) 884-5323 to learn more.
I invite you to join me next time when I talk with Harvard Professor Dr. Richard Hackman. Richard is world renowned expert on how teams work, and we'll discuss his excellent book entitled Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances. Thanks for joining us for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!