In this podcast episode, hosts Merv Jersak and Tim Jerome explore effective project management techniques with a focus on the human aspects crucial for success. They emphasize the importance of integrating human behavior into project management to enhance communication, leadership, and team collaboration, especially in remote work scenarios. Through personal anecdotes and practical tips, the hosts discuss leveraging emotional intelligence, active listening, and continuous learning to foster a positive project environment. Additionally, they advocate for adapting communication styles to different audiences and minimizing distractions, illustrating these concepts with real-life examples and suggesting resources like Daniel Goleman's 'Working with Emotional Intelligence' for further learning.

Main Take-Aways

1)    Some example tips, tools, and techniques with regard to three human aspects of managing projects, namely communication, emotional intelligence, and leadership.

2)     Stay tuned for further elaboration of these three and many other human behaviors that we must master to be successful in our project management careers.

Show Notes

Today’s Project Managers Coffee Chat: Harnessing Human Behavior in Project Management

00:27 Diving into the Fourth Show: Tips, Techniques, and Tools

As Tim and Merv share some of their practical uses of tips, techniques, and tools learned over the course of their careers, their caveat is that every project, every team, every circumstance is different. What might work in one situation may not work in another. What worked for them may need to be tweaked for your situation.

This show is a precursor of shows to come, and our hosts offer three examples with some random ideas to give you a taste of practical application of just these project management techniques: communication, leadership, and emotional intelligence.

Just three, but stay tuned - these and many others will be fully elaborated in future podcasts.

02:37 Mastering communication in project management

• Creating engagement in conversation and meetings
• Creating engagement in a virtual environment
• Engage in a group that enhances public speaking skills

07:04 Leadership skills for project managers

• Put yourself in the position of the people you are leading as you communicate and take action on the project
• Create a collaborative learning environment; think servant leadership
• Discipline is good, it protects the team from outside distractions
• Learn to communicate differently to the different project audiences

10:38 Embracing emotional intelligence in projects

• Emotional intelligence, leadership, communication (and other such human behaviors) all interrelate to make you more effective
• Active listening, powers of observation, assess human behavior
• Use the pause in conversation to gather additional information, to assess the individual on how to collaborate with them

16:23 The continuous journey of learning and improvement

• Learn how to learn, and never stop learning

18:07 Merv recounts how he used a Toastmasters experience to continue to learn and improve his presentation skills

20:51 Looking ahead: fun stories, war stories, and conversations over coffee