Episode 213: Unleash Your Project Management Potential (Free)

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This episode is sponsored by The PMP Exam Simulator:

Would you like to become the best project manager possible? Yes? Did you know that it takes just six steps to reach your Project Management and leadership goals! All you need is to follow the advice that Susanne Madsen (http://www.susannemadsen.co.uk) outlines in her book The Project Management Coaching Workbook: Six Steps to Unleashing Your Potential.

The advice she gives is based on her experience as a coach and mentor. Susanne Madsen offers a method designed to help you understand and articulate what you want to achieve—and then assists you in achieving those goals, like:

• Effectively managing a demanding workload
• Leading and motivating a team
• Building effective relationships with senior stakeholders
• Managing risks, issues, and changes to scope
• Delegating effectively

And in our discussion today, we are going to start you off on this journey by looking at four areas to consider: We have to begin with the end in mind (both for your career as well as on any project you manage), we look at the difference between leadership and management (with a strong focus on people rather than tasks), the importance of effective time management and delegation, and how to stay motivated to progress personally and professionally on such a journey by taking action and not procrastinating.

Episode Transcript

Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.

Podcast Introduction

Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome to Episode #213. This is The Project Management Podcast™ at www.project-management-podcast.com and I am Cornelius Fichtner. Nice to have you with us.

Would you like to become the best project manager possible? Yes? Well, did you know that it takes just 6 steps to reach your project management and leadership goals? All you need is to follow the advice that Susanne Madsen outlines in her book, “The Project Management Coaching Workbook – Six Steps to Unleashing Your Potential”.

The advice she gives is based on her experience as a coach and mentor. Susanne Madsen offers a method designed to help you understand and articulate what you want to achieve and then assist you in achieving those goals like effectively managing a demanding workload, leading and motivating a team, building effective relationships with senior stakeholders, managing risks, issues and changes to scope, delegating effectively.

And in our discussion today, we are going to start you off on this journey by looking at four areas to consider. We have to begin with the end in mind both for your career as well as on any project that you manage. We look at the difference between leadership and management with a strong focus on people rather than task, the importance of effective time management and delegation; and also how to stay motivated to progress personally and professionally on such a journey by taking action and not procrastinating.

And now, please look into the direction that you want to go and start walking. Enjoy the interview.

Podcast Interview

Female voice: The Project Management Podcast’s feature Interview: Today with Susanne Madsen, Project and Program Manager, Mentor and Coach.

Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Susanne and welcome back to The Project Management Podcast™.

Susanne Madsen: Hi, Cornelius! Thank you for having me back.

Cornelius Fichtner: So you have written your first book. Congratulations on that!

Susanne Madsen: Thank you very much. Yeah, it’s a big thing actually!

Cornelius Fichtner: Yeah! And you mentioned earlier on, it’s not going to be the first one or remain the only one.

Susanne Madsen: That’s right! It’s the first but not the last. I’ve definitely got the bug now. I like writing and yeah, there should be more for me.

Cornelius Fichtner: It’s called the “Project Management Coaching Workbook – Six Steps to Unleashing Your Potential”. Why did you write it other than you enjoy writing?

Susanne Madsen: Which I realized, yes, absolutely. No, I wrote it because I want to contribute, as simple as that. I’m passionate about project management having been a project manager for 15 years and I’m very passionate about coaching as well.

I do a couple of coaching degrees a number of years back and realized that there was a unique combination here between project management and coaching, for coaching project managers. It came about because I was in a place where I was very stressed out myself and I had as most people out there lots of work to do. And I had a coach myself and I realized just exactly how powerful it is.

Cornelius Fichtner: So you received coaching, right?

Susanne Madsen: I received coaching.

Cornelius Fichtner: You were coached? Okay.

Susanne Madsen: I was coached and just one session had such an amazing effect on me that I thought: “Hold on, what happened?” And that’s really what made me go into it and that’s why over the last 3 to 4 years, I have actually coached people myself side by side with my program management work.

Then what happens as you start to coach people, you see patterns. Often, it’s the same things that project managers are stressed about or find challenging and I started to find tools that could help them overcome these challenges. And that’s really where the workbook started to emerge. I found some tools and techniques and I thought: “Hold on, let me put this on paper. Why don’t I publish this so that more people can get access to it?”

Cornelius Fichtner: So who then is the audience of your book? Is it the project manager? Is the project management coach? Or is it somebody who just you know thinks six steps to unleashing your potential, I want to unleash my potential in project management so I’m going to use this to coach myself through the process?

Susanne Madsen: Well, good question. And there are actually as you indicated there, there are multiple audiences. The primary focus is the individual project manager who wants to better themselves. It’s someone who you know has the energy, and the drive and the will to make something happen and to sit down and actually go through the steps to become a better project manager or as I will talk about, a project leader.

And I actually think it has something in there for most project manager whether they are just starting out or a little bit more experienced or potentially very experienced because as we will talk about, the book focuses equally on task management and people management. And more junior people may need coaching more in the task management area where project managers with a lot of experience may need more in the leadership and people management area. So it potentially has something for all types of project managers.

And in addition, it also I would say, is targeted at the line manager, the program manager who manages all the project managers and who actually needs a tool to help them improve. We have this notion today of the manager being a coach. And certainly where I work, managers don’t receive a coaching degree or anything much education. They expected to coach on the go. So this book would actually be an extremely good tool for them to use to build up their project management team and to coach the individual.

Cornelius Fichtner: Alright! I’m sorry but I’m going to have to ask you this. When I walk into a bookstore to find this, am I going to the self-help section or am I going to business section?

Above are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete PDF transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.