https://www.pm-podcast.com/529

This is a preview of our premium episode. Full access is available only to premium subscribers. Visit https://www.pm-podcast.com/premium for details.

Genocide survivor, educator, and leadership consultant Dr. Emad Rahim joins host Cornelius Fichtner to share the S.A.L.T. model—Survive, Adaptation, Love, Transformation—a framework he forged while rebuilding his life from the Khmer Rouge killing fields to the executive boardroom. Rahim explains why acknowledging a “survival state” is the first step toward meaningful change and how project managers can move beyond firefighting into strategic growth by embracing adaptation through value-based decisions. He highlights the critical role of supportive networks (“love”) in sustaining momentum and shows how transformation becomes attainable when leaders combine clear goals with short- and long-term wins.

The discussion offers practical coaching advice and ethical insights that translate directly to project environments. Listeners learn to reframe risk, communicate with empathy, and cultivate resilience to navigate scope shifts, stakeholder conflict, and fast-changing markets. Rahim’s personal journey illustrates how empathy, integrity, and a focus on people drive high-performing teams, while his anecdotes—from coaching reluctant experts to managing virtual communication breakdowns—provide actionable techniques you can apply immediately. Whether you need fresh ideas for earning PDUs or a roadmap for turning adversity into project success, these lessons will strengthen your leadership toolkit.

https://www.pm-podcast.com/528

This is a preview of our premium episode. Full access is available only to premium subscribers. Visit https://www.pm-podcast.com/premium for details.

Project managers know that clear schedules and smart strategies cannot guarantee success. Jackie Barretta, award-winning CIO and author of Primal Teams, shows how emotion sits at the heart of team performance and why leaders who understand this outpace those who ignore it. Drawing on twenty-five years in Fortune 500 IT leadership and consulting, Jackie explains how authentic emotional awareness activates sharper thinking, faster creativity, and stronger collaboration, turning ordinary groups into high-performance engines.

Host Cornelius Fichtner guides a practical conversation that ranges from the “Stop, Breathe, Activate” technique for managing stress in real time to using spontaneous play to ignite innovation. Jackie shares ways to reduce fear, handle chronic negativity, and cultivate coherence—an energy state that boosts cognitive power for everyone in the room. You will hear stories of transforming “permanent complainers” into productive contributors, learn how mirror neurons help you sense hidden tension, and see why small changes in emotional habits ripple outward to clients and stakeholders. If you want to earn PDUs while gaining actionable insight on emotionally intelligent leadership, this interview delivers fresh tools you can apply on your next project.

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Earn PDUs for This Episode: Visit https://www.pm-podcast.com/earn-pdus to see how many PDUs you can claim for your PMI certification renewal.

Constant change, evolving stakeholder needs, and dispersed teams can twist even the best-planned projects into knots. Leadership expert Kevin Eikenberry (Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group and author of Flexible Leadership) joins Cornelius Fichtner to unpack a practical roadmap for staying effective when everything around you shifts. Drawing on three decades of coaching leaders in more than 50 countries, Kevin explains why rigid command-and-control approaches snap under real-world pressure, how “flexors” help you bend without breaking, and where to start if your calendar already looks like a game of Tetris.

Key takeaways you can apply immediately:

• Several leadership flexors that let you pivot style without losing consistency.
• Real stories of project managers who used flexibility to rescue schedules, calm chaos, and keep sponsors smiling.
• Why remote and hybrid environments amplify the need for agility, and how to meet that challenge head-on.

If the word “flex” conjures images of gym selfies, don’t worry because this episode sticks to mindset over muscle. Eikenberry walks through some of his nineteen “flexors”, which are behaviours like curiosity, humility, and decisiveness, which let leaders stay consistent while still adjusting to the moment. He explains how to read the room, choose the flexor that best fits the situation, and communicate that choice so the team sees a clear through-line rather than mood swings. Real examples from his consulting work show how applying the humility flexor turned a tense status meeting into a collaborative problem-solving session, while a quick shift to the decisiveness flexor kept a software rollout from stalling when scope turbulence hit.

By the end, you’ll have a clear action list for assessing your current flexibility, choosing one flexor to practice this week, and measuring the payoff in team engagement and on-time delivery. Grab your earbuds, a notepad, and maybe a stress ball, because leading change just became a little easier.