Do you work in a supplier organisation? Or as the recipient of a supplier’s services? This is the giveaway for you. Project Management for Supplier Organizations by Adrian Taggart is designed to help harmonise the project owner to supplier ...See More relationship. Covering everything from dealing with a clash of cultures to dealing with changes, and from selling to handling the endless customer requests for information, it’s a guidebook to making the supplier relationship work. And if you sit on the other side, as a customer, reading it will help you understand the workings of your suppliers more effectively, so you can work with them better. I have a copy of the book to give away. To be in with a chance of winning, simply click here and answer the (really) easy question. Then we’ll draw a name at random. The giveaway closes on Monday 26 September. Good luck! P.S. Here’s the link to enter again: TAKE ME TO THE GIVEAWAY You'll also like: Healthcare Project Management: Giveaway Winner Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway this month for a copy of Healthcare Project Management. Names went into the hat and the winner was…... Giveaway winner: NLP for Project Managers Last month’s newsletter giveaway winner was Fiona from Edinburgh. She wins a signed copy of NLP for Project Managers: Make Things Happen with Neuro-Linguistic Programming... Giveaway – last few days! Have you entered the giveaway for a copy of Women in Science, Engineering and Technology yet?  If not, you have three days left: the draw... The Value of Contract Management Fundamentals for Every Project Manager This is a guest post by Rick Graham, an instructor with ESI International. During the late 1910s and early 1920s, the Ford Motor Corporation constructed... Project Management: the next 10 years The CBI launched a report at the end of last year forecasting the future of the UK business arena for the next ten years.  What...

Play Now: ...See More Get PMP Exam Prep on your mobile device with The PM PrepCast: Bruce Harpham, PMP Does your project rely on virtual teams? If yes, then it means that working remotely is the norm for your project team members. Are they doing their work effectively and efficiently? And even if you answered yes, there is always room for improvement, right? Good, because how to make remote work productive is our topic today. Our interview guest is Bruce Harpham (https://ca.linkedin.com/in/bruceharpham and http://projectmanagementhacks.com) who has written about remote workers and how to increase all our effectiveness. He argues that working virtually is simply the reality on many projects and project teams these days. And so in order to help us improve remote work he recommends the following four steps: Evaluate your current tools Review communication preferences and strengths Analyze the project’s requirements Adjust your communication practices We’ll go through each of these in detail with lots of examples from his own experience. Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Coming Soon... Above are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Please subscribe to our Premium Podcast to receive a PDF transcript.

This episode is reserved for subscribers of the Premium Podcast. Learn how to subscribe to the Premium Podcast to access this interview and transcript... Get PMP exam prep on your phone with The PM PrepCast: ...See More Bruce Harpham, PMP If you are a regular listener to The PM Podcast then you heard me say on many occasions that projects are the mechanism by which companies turn their vision and strategy into a reality. And it is us -- the project managers -- who are asked to bring these projects to a successful completion so that the business needs are met. This means that we project managers need a great deal of business acumen and business awareness. But many of us are accidental project managers, who at some point in our career found ourselves to be quite shockingly thrust into the position of a project leader. We were taken by surprise back when that happened and now they suddenly tell us that we also need all this awareness? Well, fear not because Bruce Harpham (https://ca.linkedin.com/in/bruceharpham and http://projectmanagementhacks.com) is here to tell you how to grow your business know-how as a project manager. In this interview we review what foundational skills you need, how to access internal business knowledge from your organization and how to look for information and trends in the broader environment outside the four walls of your company. Our goal is to help you grow the situational awareness that you need day after day on your projects by adding business awareness. Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Coming Soon... Above are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Please subscribe to our Premium Podcast to receive a PDF transcript.

I have been a bit lax with project management reading recently but one book that I have made time for is The Conscious Project Leader: How to Create a Culture of Success for Your Projects, Your Team and Yourself. Colin Ellis I was lucky enough to ...See More find Colin D Ellis through talking to Ellen Maynes. It didn’t take much browsing on his website to realise that it was going to be my kind of book. Ellis writes eloquently and with humour, and it was a pleasure to read, even while I was stuck on a train with a headache. What is a Conscious Project Leader? “I’d argue that there are only two reasons for project failure: poor project management and poor project sponsorship,” Ellis writes. The book is light on methods and tools and heavy on stakeholder engagement, authentic leadership and emotional maturity. Ellis explains early on that the triple constraint as a yardstick for projects is no longer effective. He talks about the characteristics required to lead projects successfully. These are: Culture Methods Leadership Where these characteristics overlap you get agility, ability and stability, which is summed up in the diagram below: his Conscious Project Leader model. Keeping You Accountable The book is made up of 52 chapters so that you can read and work on those skills them over time. Either dip in and pick something for this week, or work through it over a year. Or 52 days, if you are feeling ambitious. Each short chapter ends with a ‘next steps’ box, but it’s set out in a very user-friendly way. He includes suggestions that you can Do, Read and Watch, but also includes pre-written social messages that you can share with your networks including the hashtag #CPL. I think that would help keep you accountable, and research shows that you learn better if you do something with what you have read. Dealing With What’s Important The book covers what I think is important about project management: leadership and culture. There’s loads of tips for working with other people on your projects, hiring for cultural fit, creating vision, having those difficult conversations and more. Ellis’ book isn’t going to teach you how to estimate or manage risk – although there are chapters on that. You get a taste of the methods, and the meat of the book is stakeholder engagement and developing your personal style to be more effective. Don’t let short-term decision-making bring your project to its knees @colindellisClick To Tweet In Conclusion… The Conscious Project Leader is nicely written, nicely laid out, and I really liked the tone and style. Especially the pictures. More management books would have illustrations, if it was up to me. It’s personable and effective without being preachy, which is what might have happened in a book where one of the chapters is about mindfulness. It’s also a pleasant change for me to read something by a British author, albeit one who now lives in Australia. I get the references to Python, The Voice, football, Morecambe and Wise. There are no baseball analogies, and I’m grateful for that. A great choice for project managers wanting to up their game. See all my project management book reviews here. You'll also like: 4 Steps to becoming a better project leader: Book Review: The Shift from One to Many According to Chrismon Nofsinger, there are 4 steps on the journey to being a great leader, but most people only get halfway. “Leadership is about... How to be a PMO Leader: Book Review of Leading Successful PMOs Project managers have to be project leaders as well, at least some of the time. But what happens when you want to take the next... What makes a brilliant project leader? What makes a brilliant project leader? I spoke to Mike Clayton, author of Brilliant Project Leader, about the key skills and talents of people who... Leadership Toolbox for Project Managers [Book Review] Leadership is so important for project managers. Arm yourself with a toolbox of tricks from the book Leadership Toolbox for Project Managers by Michel Dion.... Book Review: Leading with Honor “Our culture desperately needs courageous servant leaders – men and women who have clear vision and strong character, who instill confidence and inspire excellence, who...

Today, I’m handing the blog over to Leigh Espy. She might not have been blogging about project management for long, but she has made quite an impact with her personable and helpful articles. In this piece, Leigh talks about how to tailor your ...See More presentations for the top echelons of management and the rest of the world, and how to make an impact in both. As you grow in your project management career, you’ll be called upon to make various presentations. However not all presentations are the same. Presentations to executives can be very different than presenting project information to peers. Leigh Epsy The level of formality might vary depending on your organisation, but usually the focus and needs of those at the C-suite level are the same, and are very different than those at the individual contributor or manager level. By C-suite we’re talking about people who have job titles starting with ‘C’ like CEO, Chief Operating Officer, CFO or similar. The top people in your company; your Board. Understanding the different needs will help you prepare and give presentations to these different groups with confidence and grace. How C-Suite and Other Presentations are Different Let’s look first at the differences between what a C-suite audience wants and what will go down best with your colleagues. The Start Peers: You want to engage your peers with the “Why” of the project. Help them understand the benefits so that you can get their buy-in and support. Speak from a perspective that they can relate to. By connecting with a story, you can capture their interest and draw them in more. C-Suite: You will likely not have as much time if you’ve been fit into the agenda of an executive session. You need to get to the point as quickly as possible. Don’t start with stories, but rather get to the point. Lead with what you need from them. (You need to have the data available in case it is requested.) Next, the middle. The Middle Peers: Using silences in your stories and presentations can be powerful. Your audience wants to be both informed and entertained. Telling stories and explaining your points in ways that resonate with your audience is going to impact them more. Use stories that grab their attention. Your presentation should flow in a logical order. If you are presenting about a new software product, set the context for the audience and build on the information. If you are presenting new process changes that must be adopted by others, you might give a story about the challenges currently faced and how you approached the process development to get the right inputs for the changes. Then you might tell about the changes and how they will benefit others. You might follow with the rollout/ adoption plans. Ensure that your presentation flows well. If your audience veers off topic, bring them back on point to keep the presentation focused. C-Suite: Once you’ve explained your position or what you need, give a brief explanation of why this is important to the company. Give it context. Provide evidence that your position is important. Do this with high level data, and use graphs or charts if possible. Present outcomes and what the data supports. Be ready with the drilldown data if it is requested. If the executives stray from what you’ve rehearsed, be ready to go with it. You have to let the conversation flow in the direction they take it. They may need to have peripheral discussions in order to come to agreement or decisions on your topic. It’s possible you won’t have as much time as expected. Be ready to make your presentation in a shorter timeframe if needed. Being prepared with options is critical: Be clear on your goals and bottom line Be ready to provide a much shorter version of your presentation Be ready to discuss even if you must stray from your rehearsed presentation Go immediately to your bottom line. Read the room and make changes to accommodate what is going on in the moment – be flexible and ready for the direction the discussion goes. Be prepared to go straight to the bottom line in an exec presentation #projectblissClick To Tweet There’s more information on giving presentations to executives in Frederick Gilbert’s book on the subject. Read my review of Speaking Up: Surviving Executive Presentations. The End For each group, you’ll want to be clear on what is needed, and on the next steps. If someone has an action item or follow-up activities, be clear on who that is and what action is to be taken. How C-Suite and Other Presentations are the Same There are similarities that will support a successful presentation for both types of audiences. You should: Know your audience Be aware of the various concerns in the room before you present Anticipate the questions that will be asked so that you’re ready to answer or provide the detail they will be requested Do not read from PowerPoint slides Practice, practice, practice! By knowing what is needed for each type of presentation, you’ll be ready to present to both peers and executives successfully. Your team and management will trust you to represent the project with grace and confidence in a variety of situations, and you’ll step in front of each knowing you’re well-prepared. About the Author: Leigh Espy has 18 years of project management experience, with a primary focus on IT project management. She’s worked in the public and private sectors, and domestically and internationally. She loves helping newer PMs and those hoping to make the switch to project management. She blogs at projectbliss.net. You'll also like: 10 Tips for presenting information This is a guest post by Serena Grant. When presenting any kind of information to an audience, it’s always important to be as concise as... The Presentation Book [Book Review] This book review of Emma Ledden's The Presentation Book will show you the 7 rules for presentation success. It won't give you quick fixes but... My worst presentation ever (and other public speaking tips) Learn the three most important things for giving presentations, and read about how I failed spectacularly at one of them during my worst presentation ever.... 10 Ways to Present your Projects to Stakeholders Find out how to communicate your project to stakeholders with these 10 tips and ideas. Better communication results in better engagement and ultimately more successful... How PRINCE2 can change your outlook This is a guest post by Maria Burton from Focus On Training. What is it about any business proposal that makes it more important than...

This month’s free template is one you might not have come across before but it’s one of the most useful spreadsheet tabs I have. It’s a project communication plan template, but it focuses on the summary milestones to hit during the project ...See More life cycle. It’s not pages and pages of your approach to a project communications strategy. It’s a one-page, every comms event on a single screen, type planner. If you like lists and love keeping things organised on a planner, this will work really well for you. The one you’ll download (enter your email at the end of this article) has some lines in as a sample communications plan, but take those out once you see how it works and put your own events in. Things you might include through the life of your project are: Steering Group or Project Board briefings Project newsletters Presentations to other teams or town hall meetings Press releases Conferences (internal or your presentation at external events) Articles in the company-wide staff newsletter Pieces for the intranet, or a reminder to update your project intranet/social network page. I’ll send you the Project Communications Calendar Template when you enter your email address below. Through the magic of the internet, the download of the XLSX spreadsheet will start automatically, so there’s no waiting around for an email from me. Remember to delete my notes so it looks like it’s something you’ve spent hours working on yourself! As with all my free project management templates, please don’t sell it on: that’s the only constraint. Happy comms planning! Don’t need this template? Check out my other free project management templates. You'll also like: Newsletter The Girl’s Guide to PM Newsletter comes out about once a month.  If you like the blog, you’ll love the newsletter – it’s full of... Project Initiation Checklist [Free Download] Get this free checklist to help speed up your project initiation meetings. This is the document you want in your bag when you meet your... Free Template: Project Dependency Log Download a free dependency log template to use on your projects. It will help you track what's going to have an impact on your project... Stakeholder Register [Free Template] Get a free stakeholder register template. Use it to record who has the influence on your project and also to keep track of your stakeholders'... Free Template: Project Risk Log Download a free project management risk log template. Record all your project risks on this free register so you can stay on top of everything...