Get a 40% Discount on The Strategic Project Leader
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In the past I have recorded several podcast episodes with Jack Ferraro, PMP about his book The Strategic Project Leader. The book and his approaches resonated very well with me. In fact at one point I was thinking to myself "this guy has written my book!" because our ideas were so similar. That is why I decided to work with Jack to bring you his book at a substantial 40% discount:
To order please go to http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9780849387944 and use the discount coupon code LVL21. Note that you must input this code on the very last page of the checkout process or else you will pay full price. The coupon is valid for the hard copy of the book only.
More about the book and the concepts you will learn about
Industry experts expect 1.2 million project management positions will need to be filled each year through 2016. Before you get too excited you need to know this: Your project management services compete on a global basis. Yes, project management is a service. Project management is also a tool, of course, but your application of it is a service to your customers. And-here’s where it gets sticky-your service is becoming, if it is not already, a commodity for organizations to purchase when and where they want it.
Think about it: a service is an economic activity driven by interaction between producers and consumers. Consumers - your stakeholders - are willing to purchase this activity, and producers - project managers like you and me - are willing to render it, for a fee.
One trend driving the commoditization of project management is the conversion of individually-held tacit knowledge into organizational knowledge by means of standard terminology and processes. Such standardization is a Catch-22 for project management. On one hand, it means the discipline is spreading like wildfire and is increasingly accessible. On the other hand, standardization and accessibility make project management less mysterious-and project managers more easily replaceable.
Another driving force is globalization, with the resulting availability of low-cost, highly educated workers, as well as cheaper, faster communication methods that redefine how we interact with our stakeholders.
The demand for project management is strong and growing stronger - certifications have grown exponentially, over 500,000 PMP® certifications world-wide, and project management is more recognized as a critical organizational capability. Concurrently, the number of projects a project managers runs concurrently has increased, work weeks have expanded, salary increases have been held in check by the great recession. Raise your hand if you have entered burn out city!
The squeeze has been on: project managers are viewed as a bureaucratic cost of managing change and they have organizationally trained to complete templates and manage a process.
This is not what C-level executives want or need. Executives are looking for specialized project leadership capabilities that can drive their backlog of strategic projects. They are not looking for a commodity, process managers, but exceptional talent that can lead. As practitioners providing a service, we must ensure that our services provide unique value in style, content and/or quality and differentiate us from the commodity that organizations can easily procure.
This is our defining moment as practitioners! We better figure out a way to rise up, fill the talent gap, and provide value to our customers that far exceeds their expectations!
Our first step is to embrace our role as the spearhead of change in our organizations. If you have had any success in project management, you are in the best position to initiate and sustain transformation through the alignment of the human and social needs of stakeholders. This is the role of the service-based project leader.
As a service-based project leader you align personal aspirations, needs and your transformative insight (beliefs) to not only satisfy the overall objectives of the project, but also leave behind permanent benefits for stakeholders, including more capable, autonomous team members. Yes, team members more capable of leading and serving on other projects. This is how organizations will survive the rapid pace of change, chaotic upheaval in world markets, and economic uncertainty. Explore the role of service-based project leadership in Jack Ferraro’s book, The Strategic Project Leader – Mastering Service-based Project Leadership.
Get your 40% discount here
To order please go to http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9780849387944 and use the discount coupon code LVL21. Note that you must input this code on the very last page of the checkout process or else you will pay full price. The coupon is valid for the hard copy of the book only.