Leadership is not a Title!
Interview with Andy Kaufman
Award- winning Project Management & Leadership
Keynote Speaker, Author & Coach, President of the Institute for Leadership Excellence & Development Inc
Interviewed by Yasmina Khelifi
International Correspondent, PM World Journal
Paris, France
Introduction to the interviewee
Andy Kaufman, PMP is an international speaker, author, & executive coach, and President of the Institute for Leadership Excellence & Development Inc. Andy works with organizations around the world, helping them improve their ability to deliver projects & lead teams.
His keynotes, workshops, and executive coaching services have reached tens of thousands of people from hundreds of companies over the years, helping them deliver their projects, become more confident leaders, take focused action, and deliver results. He brings a rich background of over 25 years of experience in executive management, technology, team leadership, project management, consulting, coaching.
He is a certified trainer and author of “Navigating the Winds of Change: Staying on Course in Business & in Life”, “Shining the Light on The Secret”, and an e-book entitled “How to Organize Your Inbox & Get Rid of E-Mail Clutter”, all published by Zurich Press. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®) and a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI®).
He is the host of “The People and Projects Podcast” (http://PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com or any podcast app) which provides interviews and insights to help listeners lead people and deliver projects. The podcast focuses on the intersection of People and Projects–where work gets done in the real world.
He is a recognized expert on topics related to leadership, project management, managing conflict, networking, relationships, time management, team building, and delivering results.
Read more and get in touch with Andy at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/buildleaders/
Join Andy’s community: LEAD52 https://GetLEAD52.com
Interview
Q1: First of all, thank you for accepting an interview request from PMWJ. You have several hats. Let’s begin with your fantastic podcast People and Projects Podcast you’re running since 2009. What are the data today about your podcast? Why did you start a podcast when podcasts were not famous at all? It’s a lot of work and dedication; why do you go on doing it?
Andy Kaufman (Kaufman): Great question, Yasmina! I started my career as a software developer so in many ways, I’m a geek at heart. In 2009, I was interviewed for a podcast. After we were done recording, I asked the podcast host questions about his workflow and how podcasts worked. The geek in me thought, “Hey, I can do that!” So I started it as an experiment. It felt like it would be a way to have conversations with interesting people and add value to the project management community.
What I didn’t know then was what a learning adventure it would be. As of this interview, we have published over 365 episodes and over those years, guests have consistently challenged me to think differently about leading and delivering.
The People and Projects Podcast has a global audience and is regularly in the Top 50 in the Apple Podcasts directory for the Management category in many countries. It is unquestionably a lot of work, but it’s a labor of love that keeps me and my team happily learning!
Q2: What was the initial aim of your podcast? Has your goal changed over the years?
Kaufman: Most days I’m teaching project management or leadership at organizations around the world. I knew up front that I didn’t just want to take our workshop content and turn it into podcast episodes.
I wanted to bring world class thought leaders into a discussion that would be practical and engaging. In many ways, I wanted to create a podcast that I would want to listen to. A lot of effort goes into trying to make it entertaining while being truly helpful.
That overall goal hasn’t changed over the years. I strive to be a better interviewer and host each year, and our production quality is much better. But the same goal remains of providing discussions that are truly of value to our project community.
Q3: Along with the podcast, there is a community LEAD52. What’s the aim? How does it work?
More…
To read entire interview, click here
How to cite this work: Khelifi, Y. (2022). Leadership is not a Title, Interview with Andy Kaufman, PM World Journal, Vol. XI, Issue XI, November. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/pmwj123-Nov2022-Khelifi-Interview-with-Andy-Kaufman-2.pdf
About the Interviewer
Yasmina Khelifi
Paris, France
Yasmina Khelifi, PMP, PMI- ACP, PMI-PBA is an experienced project manager in the telecom industry. Along with her 20-year career at Orange S.A. (the large French multinational telecommunications corporation), she sharpened her global leadership skills, delivering projects with major manufacturers and SIM makers. Yasmina strives for building collaborative bridges between people to make international projects successful. She relies on three pillars: project management skills, the languages she speaks, and a passion for sharing knowledge.
She is a PMP certification holder since 2013, a PMI- ACP and PMI-PBA certification holder since 2020. She is an active volunteer member at PMI France and PMI UAE, and a member of PMI Germany Chapter. French-native, she can speak German, English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and she is learning Arabic. Yasmina loves sharing her knowledge and experiences at work, in her volunteers’ activities at PMI, and in projectmanagement.com as a regular blogger. She is also the host and co-founder of the podcast Global Leaders Talk with Yasmina Khelifi to help people in becoming better international leaders.
Yasmina can be contacted at https://yasminakhelifi.com/ or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasminakhelifi-pmp-telecom/
Visit her correspondent profile at https://pmworldlibrary.net/yasmina-khelifi/
