Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast. PDU for PMP:: Ron Black This interview with Ron Black (www.linkedin.com/in/ronblack) is based on chapters two and three of his new book Leadership - The Everyday Superhero's Action Guide to Plan and Deliver High-Stakes Projects. Here is how Ron introduces the need for a project plan: You're going to need a plan. No matter how urgent the moment may appear—stopping killer comet collisions, derailing evil tyrants from world domination, or dashing through security, grabbing a latte, and boarding your 5:31 AM flight in time to stow your roll-aboard in the last available space—you'll be more successful, more of the time, if you have a plan. Leadership by Ron Black In our discussion, Ron and I will focus on introducing you to his "Super Power Points". These are poignant one-liners (i.e. "To finish faster, start a little slower") that he offers at the end of each chapter to summarize the message. We review each of the 15 points from the opening chapters and Ron gives us his insights and recommendations that show why even the best project leader needs a plan. 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 #347.  This is The Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com and I'm Cornelius Fichtner. Thank you for listening in. Before we start, I wanted to mention that we are listener-supported podcast. So if you enjoy our interviews then please visit www.pm-podcast.com/premium. Your subscription will help keep us going. And now onto our topic which is "Every Project Leader Needs a Project Plan". Our interview is based on Ron Black's book "Leadership - The Everyday Superhero's Action Guide to Plan and Deliver High-Stakes Projects". And yes, he does indeed call those like you and me who work in project leadership superheroes and you will hear why very early in the discussion. Ron has also given us one print copy and 9 electronic versions of his book to give away. The print version and 4 ebooks, they are for our premium subscribers and the other 5 ebooks, they are for everyone. So if you want to participate then please go to www.facebook.com/pmpodcast and look for the book giveaway announcement. I will repeat this again after the interview. And now, put on your superhero cape and let's fly. Enjoy the interview. Podcast Interview Female voice: The Project Management Podcast’s feature Interview: Today with Ron Black, Author and Keynote speaker. Cornelius Fichtner: Hello, Ron! Welcome to The Project Management Podcast™! Ron Black: And hello, Cornelius! It's a delight to be here with you today. Cornelius Fichtner: Well, thank you for joining us here. In our interview, we are going to do a review of some of the main points from your book: "Leadership - The Everyday Superhero's Action Guide to Plan and Deliver High-Stakes Projects". But before we get to that, would you please give us sort of the 10,000‑foot high level introduction to the book? What is it about and who did you write it for? Ron Black: You know, Cornelius, it's clear to most of us who have been in this game of project management for any time at all that knowing the tools, the knowledge of project management methodologies is essential. And yet when I go out into the field and I see projects going on and sometimes you see that projects don’t always go as well as they could and I think that oftentimes, it is because there is perhaps a latent or a lack of leadership if you will in some cases or a resistance to step up and speak up at times. When I wrote this book, this is my third book on project management, I really wanted to focus on how to use project management tools as tools of leadership to facilitate high levels of team work. So the 10,000-foot level is this book is dedicated t