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This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP® Exam:

Susanne Madsen (www.susannemadsen.com), who is an expert on project manager coaching and mentoring, is back on the show today to talk about many of the leadership concepts she puts forward in her new book titled The Power of Project Leadership. And we have a lot of great tips for you -- all taken from the book.

Here is a quote about Susanne’s book:

Managing projects is exciting and fun. But there comes a moment in every project manager’s career when you realize that there must be more than just bringing tasks to completion. This is the moment when you realize that you want to go from project manager to project leader, which is when you have to pick up The Power of Project Leadership. Susanne Madsen’s book is an in-depth road map that shows you exactly how to re-invent yourself and go from managing your projects at the task level to leading them through vision and empowerment.

So in our interview you can look forward to hearing Susan recommend what she would like you to do differently in regards to leadership, how you can transform your leadership style, discover three of the seven keys to strategic project leadership from the book, and as always we close this one of our leadership podcasts with a number of tips for you to implement right away.

Leadership is one of the core elements of the PMI Talent Triangle and the professional development you do to learn more and improve your leadership skills will count towards the 60 PDUs for PMP renewal that certified project managers need to earn every three years. This is one of our PMP PDU podcast episodes (meaning you can earn PDUs by listening) and it gives you some practical advice and will also help you understand how to develop professionally as a leader. Leadership is essential for project managers working in all disciplines, whether you have the role of project manager in SAFe agile, or work in a hybrid, iterative or predictive environment.

Project managers today need to have so many skills. There are so many opportunities to learn as well, via social media for project managers so I'm delighted to have this opportunity to bring you today's interview.

Just a note on PDUs as you are listening to this episode: Podcasts are a great way to earn free PMP PDUs so make sure you write down that you listened to this podcast, and what you took away from it. There are some amazing tips that will make great learning points for you to reflect on in the future!

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Individuals make up our project teams, and we project managers, all too often, are gauged based on what these teams can accomplish, which is why building and maintaining high-performing teams should always be a priority for you and me.

How to do this was recently described in an article titled Four Ways to Build and Maintain High-Performing Teams. And so I’m very pleased to welcome Maria Kozlova (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/maria-kozlova/9/76/336) from Comindware on the show today to discuss these four ways.

Oh… and spoiler alert… one of them is collaboration.

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This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP® Exam:

Are you managing projects in marketing? If yes, then… perfect. Because this interview is for you with tips and tricks and insights. And if your answer is no, then… it’s still for you!

And that’s because because marketing projects and the approaches used are not that different. Maria Kozlova (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/maria-kozlova/9/76/336) from Comindware speaks to this at the very start of the interview when she emphatically says that the ideas we talk about translate quite well.

And so even though we focus on marketing projects, by the end of the discussion you will agree that project management offers powerful capabilities of organizing how your team, department or company is working. As with any other business management solution, the methodology and the software need to be selected to best fit your specific business case and objectives like improved team performance, process transparency or financial savings.

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This interview with Joy Gumz (www.projectauditors.com) and Pam Welty was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona.

This interview is based on the case study presentation "Managing the Devilish Details: A Case Study on Using BIM". In both the presentation and our interview Joy Gumz and Pam Welty discuss how BIM is being used during the design and construction of an office building in San Francisco, California.

We review what BIM is (according to the BIM Handbook it is "a modeling technology and associated set of processes to produce, communicate, and analyze building models"), we hear how it was used during design and construction, and we discuss why BIM was a major factor in the overwhelming success of the project.

We recommend that you watch the Bim In Action Video before listening to this interview because BIM is a very visual approach. And by spending 2 minutes to watch the video first you will have a better understanding of what BIM can do.