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In the 2009 PM Podcast Listener Survey you told us that you wanted a) More product reviews and b) More PM soft skills. In this episode we combine these two requests in about 30 minutes.

I'm welcoming Margaret Meloni, PMP who has been a guest many times on our program before. And from those interviews you know that Margaret is a great teacher of project management soft skills. In January of 2010 Margaret is offering almost all of her products with up to a 50% discount. So this episode is a combination of a) product review and b) discussion of PM soft skills. We talk about Margaret's products, interjected with a lot of soft skills talk.

In particular, during our discussion Margaret answers the following questions sent in live from Twitter:

• @bba747: q for margaret: what are her top 3 techniques to quickly identify the motivating agents of project team members?
• @tcsprasan: Which is the most important soft skill a PM must have?
• @splett: is there any chance of success in project management without Knowledge - just pm by Social skills? #mm {Note:Margaret's answer to this question is at the very, very, very end of the podcast. So listen all the way to the absolute end.}

And Margaret also gives us an overview of EQ - Emotional Intellingence.

This is the very first time that we are producing a show that has a strong focus on products for you to buy and improve your skills. Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on the result.

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In this episode of The PM Podcast we are going to take a close look at something that is near and dear to myself: The PMP Exam. In particular we will talk about how to prepare for and pass the pmp exam. But there would be nothing more boring if I just began reading all the tips and tricks I have in my arsenal for this. So in order to make it more interesting, I have invited Bill Rouck, PMP to be on the program.

Bill is one of my PM PrepCast student and has passed his PMP exam just this year. So what you hear from him is pretty much the latest information in PMP exam preparation. We talk about the following topics:

• His reasons for taking the PMP Exam
• We explore if the PMP certificate is a must in today's marketplace
• Recommended PMP exam prep materials
• PMP exam study recommendations
• Tips for taking the actual PMP exam
• What happened before, during and after the exam

We also announce the winners of our book giveaway. They each win a copy of the “Project Management Communications Bible”

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How many times have you heard anyone say that “Project Management consists of about 90% communication?”

Over time, this little saying gets more and more boring but also more and more true. Project Management is all about communications and ensuring that you communicate the right information to the right people at the right time using the appropriate tools and methods.

Let’s talk about these tools & methods and also about what some of the common project management communications problems are.

To do this I welcome Bruce Taylor and Bill Dow, the authors of The Project Management Communications Bible. Together we aim another spotlight onto the importance of proper project communication.

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Communication is a critical, but often overlooked, component of successful project management. This means that we project managers must strive to becoming better communicators. But you cannot do that just by reading the PMBOK® Guide. It takes years of practice!

Enter Bill Dow and Bruce Taylor. Together they have over 60 years of project management experience and so they decided to write the “Project Management Communications Bible”. It contains many tools, techniques, and best practices in the area of project communications that you need to successfully execute projects, keep your team and customers fully apprised, and deliver crucial information in a timely manner.

Together we are going to take a look at a survey that was done in 2007 to determine the "Top 9 Reasons Why Projects Fail". Go ahead... guess... what might be #1?