In this episode, hosts Merv Jersak and Tim Jerome share personal stories and lessons learned from their experiences, highlighting how good leaders manage these aspects both in their professional and personal lives. From a supervisor's effective discipline techniques to the importance of setting routines and self-learning, the hosts offer valuable insights and practical tips for improving project delivery. They also discuss the role of ethics, values, and principles in shaping behaviors and achieving successful project outcomes. This episode emphasizes the human aspect of project management, aiming to equip listeners with strategies to develop better habits and maintain a balance between work and personal life.

Main Take-Aways

Stories are powerful teachers. Today’s story lessons are regarding the application of discipline, time management, and prioritization both in our personal and professional lives:

• handling situations where the customer culture forbids certain activities that your organization promotes
• allowing project staff to make their own decisions and learn from their mistakes
• balancing multiple roles and responsibilities in our careers
• self-learning
• establishing personal and project routines
• establishing personal and project cadence
• living your values and principles, establishing habits, acting ethically
• developing positive health and nutrition disciplines

Show Notes

Today’s Project Managers Coffee Chat: Leadership Lessons from the Trenches of Personal and Professional Discipline

00:58 Tim leads off the podcast with a personal story of a supervisor who displayed a level of discipline in how he allowed his leads to make their own decisions while he provided nuanced coaching in the background. He allowed them to make mistakes, but not so much as to negatively affect the project.

03:51 Merv credits his father’s balancing of multiple roles and responsibilities as a dual careered farmer and teacher as his first example of discipline, prioritization, and time management.

05:35 Merv then recounts a humorous story on how during a long car trip, he required his family to keep quiet while he (selfishly) listened to audio tapes on time management and how to use a DayTimer.

07:03 Tim recommends an approach that he has found valuable in building his career, that of self-learning. Self-learning requires discipline.

11:18 As a consultant whose career required frequent travel, Merv shares how establishing a routine allowed him to stay disciplined. He and Tim both stress the importance of routine.

13:59 Tim piggybacks on this thought by reminding you of the need for living your values and principles, developing good habits, and acting ethically as part of your disciplined approach to growing your careers.

15:34 Merv provides a great story/tip in how he would meet with his customer executive to establish a project cadence, thus infusing an immediate discipline into the project for its full lifecycle.

16:33 Tim shares how he developed the discipline of exercise and nutrition, and making time for these as part of his project management daily tasks. Merv adds that as IT professionals, we often neglect our health for the sake of delivering the project – this is not good for our overall effort.

21:01 Merv concludes with a quick summary of the week’s topic on discipline, time management, and prioritization.