Category Archives: Personal Development

Posts offering information, thoughts and ideas related to the development of personal skills and behaviors.

Leadership Lessons from My Father

Posted on June 17, 2013 by donmcalister

    Since today, Sunday, 16 June 2013 is Fathers Day in North America; I decided to share a few things I learned about leadership from my father. I’m pretty sure that my leadership style and whatever I’ve accomplished as … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Better Thinking, Heroes, Leadership, Life, Love & Courage, Personal Development, Program & Knowledge Management | 1 Comment

Project Managers Must Know When to Break the Rules

Posted on June 5, 2013 by donmcalister

One of the major challenges, faced by Project Managers is achieving a workable balance between compliance with company policies, procedures and standard practices, and being responsive to external customer requests that require “bending” those rules. In theory, standard policies, procedures … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Better Thinking, Leadership, Personal Development, Program & Knowledge Management, Project Baseline Management | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Building Leadership Skills – A “Novel” Approach

Posted on April 17, 2013 by donmcalister

I’ve always been, even as a young child, an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction. I admit to enjoying fiction novels more than non-fiction books and articles, although I do read a lot of the latter. In the past, … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Better Thinking, Leadership, Personal Development, Program & Knowledge Management | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Art of Project Baseline Management

Posted on April 9, 2013 by donmcalister

Scope, schedule, organization, risk and cost baselines are the fundamental elements of a Project Plan, defining the What, When, Who, and How of everything necessary for successful project execution. The direction, tempo, resources and deliverables of our projects are driven … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Better Thinking, Leadership, Personal Development, Program & Knowledge Management, Project Baseline Management | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

The Project Manager Politician

Posted on March 20, 2013 by donmcalister

    The dictionary definition of politics is, “the art or science of influencing people.” One might argue that Project Management is also the art or science of influencing people, albeit for different purposes. So, does this mean that Project … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Better Thinking, Leadership, Personal Development, Program & Knowledge Management | 3 Comments

The Myth of the Powerless Project Manager

Posted on January 28, 2013 by donmcalister

It’s not uncommon to hear from worried Project Managers (PMs) that although they are held accountable for the success of their project, they aren’t given the necessary authority to control it. They say their Sponsors are no-where to be seen … Continue reading →

Posted in Better Thinking, Leadership, Personal Development, Program & Knowledge Management | 8 Comments

Better Thinking About Project Management Practices and Tools

Posted on January 9, 2013 by donmcalister

This is the first of a series of blogs I’ll be posting on the subject of Project Management Practices and Tools. In this post I offer my thoughts on how better thinking about Project Management (PM) Practices by Project Managers … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Better Thinking, Leadership, Personal Development, Program & Knowledge Management | 3 Comments

Project Decision Making – Simpler Is Not Always Better

Posted on December 16, 2012 by donmcalister

Some years ago I bought my first scanner. In trying it out for the first time I used a document master that included text, a sketch and a signature. When I selected the “Scan” button, I was prompted to select … Continue reading →

Posted in Leadership, Personal Development, Program & Knowledge Management | Leave a comment

Project Management Decisions – Logical or Emotional?

Posted on October 11, 2012 by donmcalister

For those of us who pride ourselves on making logical, data-driven decisions, recent neuroscience research says we’re kidding ourselves. A recent discussion posted by Paul McFadden in the LinkedIn Group, “NeuroLeadership in Project and Program Management Leadership” captured my attention. … Continue reading →

Posted in Leadership, Personal Development, Program & Knowledge Management | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Ideas for Better Project Metrics

Posted on September 16, 2012 by donmcalister

Project metrics are a suite of parameters that we choose during the planning phase and then monitor and analyze during execution to help us make course corrections. They inform us of our performance against the plan and trigger us to … Continue reading →

Posted in Leadership, Personal Development, Program & Knowledge Management | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment