Our Programs team has scheduled a full day seminar for Friday, July 12, 2013 by Shobhna Raghupathy, MS, PMP, titled "Leadership & Emotional Intelligence for Successful Project Management".  If you are a Project, Program and Portfolio Manager who has leadership responsibilities within an organization, an emerging Project Manager seeking an opportunity to lead, or a consultant and Functional Manager who wants to excel in your role, you need to join Shobhna as she examines the challenges/issues presented to project managers and how emotional intelligence helps drive success.

As the project management profession continues to increase in complexity, there is a high demand for Leaders. With the changing business climate, the yardstick for measurement is the emotional competence of Project Managers and Leaders.  Leadership excellence cannot be achieved by technical competence but by character and Emotional Intelligence. Successful project management follows.

In today’s changing business environment, project managers not only need to manage global, virtual and multi-cultural projects, but also establish a direction and align with the organization vision.  Successful leadership is a dynamic process requiring both cognitive and emotional competencies.  The globalization of the workplace and the business environment puts special premium on Emotional Intelligence for project managers. Several studies demonstrate that strong leadership style and emotional intelligence leads to the success in implementing large and complex global initiatives.

The never ending demands and commitment to successfully managing a project can leave many project mangers feeling more like a “project mother”.  With Mother’s Day approaching, the significance of mothers was the resounding thought of the PMI Toastmasters group bi-weekly meeting held on May 9th at Nancy G’s Cafe in Sandy Springs.  Traffic must have been ideal across the city as many members arrived early and ordered dinner before the meeting started promptly at 6:30 pm.   The Sergeant of Arms, Dean Gudlauski led the Pledge of Allegiance followed by the reciting of the Toastmasters creed.  First-time Toastmaster of the Day (TMOD), Issaiah Banks kicked off the meeting with a lot of energy introducing the fitting theme, “Mother Jewel of the Family”.   

The Joke Master, Chris Coussens took a stab at lightening the mood with a “Zombie Apocalypse” joke alluding to the inability of satisfying demanding stakeholders.  However, it was challenging for the audience to find humor in this disturbing reality!  During the introduction of the Evaluation Team, Dean captured the audience’s attention with a new traffic light timer to assist speakers in tracking their speech time.  With the fancy new timer in place it was time to hear two dynamic speakers!

Who, what, when, where, why, and how to move big or lots of stuff? Welcome to the wild world of logistics. Mr. Page Siplon, Executive Director of the Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics, graced the stage for our May Dunwoody dinner, sharing his big picture view from state level and beyond. Named by Georgia Trend Magazine as one of 2013's "Top Most Influential Georgians," he well-qualifies to expertly speak on the topic.

"Every Supply Chain is unique—and ever-changing," proclaims Mr. Siplon, who cited the top 3 change agents: 1) Population and Demand, 2) Infrastructure Investment, and 3) Federal Policy.

US population is 310+ million, with Gen-Y comprising nearly a 1/3 of us. These are the folks everywhere always on smart phones. Exploding multi-channel delivery in the form of mobile and social e-commerce tools are quickly changing how we look at logistics. Today ...
• 91% of all purchases are made in physical stores; within 5 years it will be 76%
• In 12 years, 30% of all retail sales will be made online
• 30% of sales growth in the last 3 years is attributed to 5.5 million people who bought online for the first time in 2010

In these fast times, customers expect personalization, too. Witness Nike's highly visual, co-creative "build your own shoe" program, generating $100M+ per year. While the "faster, better, cheaper" rally cry continues, we may be wise to add "reliable" ahead of all three.

At this point, the PMI Atlanta Executive Board has decided to cancel the PDD event scheduled for Saturday, May 18.  While we had a great venue, fabulous speakers, and a great networking opportunity, we have found that registration numbers have not been enough to continue with this event.
 
I want to thank the PDD planning team for their fantastic effort to put this program together.  We are finding that other PMI chapters are seeing similar results due to the current economic climate.  Thanks to everyone for your understanding and continued support.

David Tennant
Chair, PMI Atlanta