The Project Leader Manifesto
Through my work leading large transformation projects for clients, and coaching and training project leaders and teams, I know how…
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Project Leaders – Empathy In Action
Recently I talked about what I called “𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻“ for executive leaders and project sponsors. It was a great…
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Executive Level “Empathy In Action”
I agree with this Forbes article that empathy is essential. However, too many leaders “talk the talk” without “walking the…
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In Debt to the Eyeballs: How Project Teams Suffer From Emotional and Operational Debt
Many teams are in debt up to their eyeballs. And it’s not just a matter of “technical debt” — the…
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6 Ways to Get More Mileage From Your Project Retrospectives
Hindsight is 20/20. So why don’t we take better advantage of it? I’ve written in the past about the importance…
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Project Closeouts: How to End on a High Note
Here’s a funny little fact about human psychology: What we remember from any experience is dictated largely by the most…
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Lashing Out: How Your Stress Response Produces Bad Behavior (and How to Tame It)
Are you leaking stress? We’ve all been in rooms with people who seem needlessly angry, confrontational, or controlling. Or with…
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Leading From Behind: Creating the Conditions for Team Success
Can a project launch be… boring? I recently led a team through a large systems implementation project. We launched successfully,…
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Why Your Stakeholders Are Asking for More Last-Minute Changes (And How to Handle It Without Making Yourself Crazy)
My husband and I recently remodeled our bathroom. (By which I mean, my husband remodeled our bathroom.) Among other things,…
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4 Secrets to Setting Better Boundaries at Work
“Do you ever say yes when you want to say no?” This question stopped me in my tracks when I…
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Core Values Out of Whack? Why Values Alignment is Key to Enjoying Your Job
I sat in my car, in the parking lot, in tears. I needed to go to work. After all, my…
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Tune Up Your Work Life With a Values Realignment
If you’ve ever gone to bed with a stiff neck after a day of cell phone and computer usage, then…
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Are you a Human Being or a Human Doing?
Recently, I hit a metaphorical wall and realized that my well was depleted – I have been giving all my…
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The Team Charter: Your Key to a Happier, More Cohesive Team
What matters more than the project budget, more than timelines, more than leadership, and more than organizational strategy? Your team.…
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Avoid the Blame Game
Ever been in a meeting whose only purpose seems to be to assign blame? I recently attended a meeting like…
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Make Your Message Work: How to Get Better Results From Your Communication
Ever feel like you say the same things to the same people… over and over and over… without ever getting…
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Communicating Upward: How to Build Trust, Gain Influence, and Get the Recognition You Deserve
It was like someone dropped a grenade on the meeting. I had just called out a risk that was a…
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Right-Size Your Project Management with Lean Principles
Is your project management process derailing your project? Heavyweight tools can help with large or complex projects… but you and…
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Team Coherence: The Secret to True Collaboration
Have you ever watched a flock of birds that glide and turn at the same time? Even though there’s no…
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Team Agility: Why Mindset Matters More Than Tools
In the world of project management, the most common definitions of “agile” have become surprisingly… rigid. Google “agile team” or…
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Context Is Key: How to Create More Understanding, More Goodwill, and More Alignment In Your Communication
Every person in the virtual meeting room felt the mood shift. It was as though someone had popped a balloon. …
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No More Bad Meetings: 3 Ways to Take Charge and Get Productive
23 hours per week. That’s how much time the average executive spends in meetings nowadays. No wonder so many employees…
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Project Management Skills for Everyone (Part 5)
In project management, some of the most important work comes at the beginning. That’s why we’ve spent the last several…
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Project Management Skills for Everyone (Part 4)
Over the past few weeks, we’ve talked about why every professional should bring project management skills to the table… …how…
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Project Management Skills for Everyone (Part 3)
If I had a dollar for every time a team skipped key steps in the project planning process… well, I’d…
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Project Management Skills for Everyone (Part 2)
Something was wrong. The software was almost complete — in the testing stages, in fact — but the end users…
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Project Management Skills For Everyone (Part 1)
I never planned (or wanted) to be a project manager. In fact, my first experience managing a project team was…
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Where Do You Want to Go? Take Responsibility For Your Own Professional Development (Part 3)
In the past week, we’ve talked about two prerequisites to becoming a great leader: developing a growth mindset and learning…
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Where Do You Want to Go? Take Responsibility For Your Own Professional Development (Part 2)
Do you consider yourself a manager… or a leader? Your answer to that question will likely influence the skills you…
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Where Do You Want to Go? Take Responsibility For Your Own Professional Development (Part 1)
Do you have the foundations you need to attain your goals for 2021? As we head into the new year,…
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Are YOU the Problem? 4 Ways to Help Your Team Sprint Ahead in 2021
Are you holding your team back? A few weeks ago, I published a series of articles about what I called…
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Duct Tape Leadership: Bridging the Gap Between Execution and Strategy (Part 3)
Is your team held together with duct tape? I’ve been talking for the past few weeks about “duct tape leadership”…
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Duct Tape Leadership: Bridging the Gap Between Execution and Strategy (Part 2)
Projects live and die in the gaps between strategy and execution. The more alignment, the better the results. Unfortunately, most…
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Duct Tape Leadership: Bridging the Gap Between Execution and Strategy (Part 1)
We tend to believe that the relationship between strategy and execution looks something like this: a clean, clear path building…
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Better Every Day: Level Up Your Project Leadership Skills With this 4-Step Review
How will next year be different for you and your team? Now is the perfect time to start thinking about…
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Cultivate the Characteristics of Leaders: 3 Steps to Transform How You Show Up in the World
Who do you need to be, in order to accomplish the things you want to do? Last week, I talked…
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Be The Leader You Wish You Had: Take Control of Your Professional Life and Lead Your Team to Success
Most people I meet in my work feel that they’re advancing against a rising tide. They’re inundated by a sea…
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3 Essential Skills for New Project Managers
Being a new manager is a BIG challenge. In my first project management role, I was thrown into the deep…
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How a “Go-No-Go” Dashboard Can Help You Avoid Delays and Disruption
Last year, my family and I visited Cape Canaveral, hoping to see the SpaceX launch. We arrived, got situated, and…
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Fuzzy Metrics: Are You Measuring the Right Things?
Unhappy employees cost the US economy $550 billion each year. Between high turnover, loss of productivity, reduced creativity, and general…
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Are You Sabotaging Your Business? The 3 Foundational Pillars You Need to Deliver On Your Goals
A client once told me, “It’s all about the customer experience, I don’t care about the money.” That sounds great…
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“Oops, How Did We Miss That?” – How to Prevent Oversights That Can Compromise Your Projects
Every project is a learning experience… …but how reliably does your team transfer lessons learned forward to the next project?…
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7 Ways Executive Leaders Can Create Project Success (and Prevent Disruptive Disasters)
When a project goes wrong, it often goes really wrong. A study from McKinsey found that half of large IT…
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The 4 Non-Negotiable Power Skills Every Professional Should Possess
Good communication is one of the top determinants of a successful project… …and I’ve always thought good communication is also…
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Avoid The Down Escalator: How to Set Your Project Teams Up For Success
Have you ever watched kids attempting to run up an escalator that is coming down? It looks like a fun…
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Communication: The Secret to Project Success
Project management should be rebranded as communications management. Think about it. Project management is all about how to talk to…
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Too Much To Do? Take Control of Your Day With These Simple Strategies
Do your projects sometimes (or often) feel like they’re outside your control? Like the frequent requests from stakeholders will prevent…
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The #1 Attribute of Successful Teams (And How to Install It In Yours)
When I ask my students and clients what makes for a successful project team, I get all kinds of answers.…
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2 Mindset Shifts to Overcome Your Project Management Challenges
As organizations try to do more with less, their people are really struggling. Project managers in particular are often caught…
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The Initiatives That Matter: How to Prioritize the Projects With the Biggest Business Impact
At any moment, there are dozens of things you could be doing to improve your business. But the reality is,…
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Don’t Get Blindsided By Your Blindspots
Many projects have detours, delays, and failures baked right into the initial plan. Sounds like a bold statement, I know.…
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The Mindset That Makes a Difference: How To Step Up, Take Charge, and Drive Your Project To Success
As I walked in on day one of a new job, I was stopped in my tracks by the sign…
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It Starts With the Leader: 3 Ways Executives Can Set Project Teams Up For Success
“I’m overwhelmed with my current workload as it is, and now I’ve been asked to take on something new…”…
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Why Relationships Are the REAL Key to Success
As a new project manager, I relied on instinct and bootstrapped my management tools and methods. I wish I knew…
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Why Digital Transformation Projects Fail — And How to Avoid Calling for a Bailout
My teenage boys love playing the “Would You Rather” game – making me choose between one dire situation versus another. …
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How Hidden Assumptions Can Derail a Promising Project
Would you hire a contractor to renovate your home without a contract? Probably not. You would want to see them…
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What’s Your Leadership Style? How Focusing on Results Can Undermine Long-Term Success
Catabolic versus anabolic leadership. Do you know the difference? I didn’t until I heard a great presentation on the topic…
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Mind the Gap: The #1 Reason Projects Fail (and How to Prevent It)
MIND THE GAP! You can’t ride the London underground without hearing this directive repeated over and over.And I think about…
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Agile, Flexible, and Successful: 16 Essential Habits of Mind for Leading Your Business Through A Crisis
Back when schools were open, my 6th grader was learning about the habits of mind that support success. These are…
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All The Responsibility, None of the Power
How to Keep Your Team Moving Forward When You’re Not The One Calling The Shots “My manager had a ‘brainstorm’…
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Engaged Stakeholders hold the KEY to Successful Transformations
Change happens from the ground up. Which is to say, when people and behaviors change, only then do organizations change.…
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Empower, Transform & Accelerate
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