Let’s Direct our Potential for Creating Something
Good and Useful!
Interview with Lenka Pincot, PMP
Chief of Staff to the CEO
Project Management Institute
Born in the Czech Republic, currently residing in Paris, France
Interviewed by Yasmina Khelifi
International Correspondent, PM World Journal
Paris, France
Introduction to the interviewee
As PMI’s Chief of Staff to the CEO, Lenka Pincot supports the CEO and the Executive Team in enterprise initiative planning and execution. She heads the Executive Communications, Culture & Change, and Thought Leadership & Content teams. She also leads the Enterprise Project Management Office and Brightline Initiative.
Lenka brings extensive international experience and a proven track record in setting and executing strategic vision, digital transformation leadership, culture shifts, and enhancing organizational agility. She is highly accomplished in the practices of stakeholder and customer relationship management, leadership by influencing and facilitation, problem-solving, and building high-performing teams.
Prior to joining PMI, Lenka held leadership roles focusing on organizational transformation, Agile leadership, and relationship management. Most recently, Lenka served as the Head of Agile Transformation at the leading European bank, where she defined the organization’s transformation vision and strategy, built a high-performing transformation team, and executed the roadmap while onboarding business and IT talent. Lenka promoted customer centricity, implemented Citizen Development practices, and contributed to their digital leadership in the market.
Lenka holds a Master of Science in Computer Sciences from Charles University. She has earned a Digital Excellence Diploma from the IMD Business School of Switzerland and completed the European Women in Boards C-Level Program. She holds international certifications in project management, agile practices, and business analysis, including the following PMI Credentials: PMP, PMI-PBA, and PMI-ACP. Prior to joining the PMI organization in her current capacity, Lenka has supported PMI in multiple volunteering roles, most recently serving as the President of the Czech Republic Chapter.
Interview
Q1: First of all, thank you for accepting an interview request from PMWJ. Let us explore the different aspects of your career. How did you come to project management?
Lenka Pincot (Lenka): The first time I learned about project management was in the year 2001. I was at the beginning of my career, working as an analyst for an international management and strategy consultancy company, and I was assigned to a project for one of our biggest customers in the Czech market. We had a great start, but we suddenly had to regroup because the senior leader of the project had to leave the assignment, and it took two-three months to source another leader. I remember the moment when I was looking around myself and thinking that there must be a way, some anchoring concept, that we can lean on given the unexpected circumstances.
And there was – project management! I was intrigued by the risk management approaches and stakeholder management tools and was totally amazed by the fact that there are indeed procedures and practices available to stay calm, collected, and structured. It was 2001, I had not yet even graduated from college at that time, so everything about project management was brand new for me.
Later on, I invested my time to understand project management better. I became a junior trainer of project management for our clients and actively sought opportunities to manage larger and more strategic projects. I also pursued professional certifications to formalize my commitment and enhance my knowledge, ultimately achieving the prestigious Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification from Project Management Institute (PMI).
Project management was always a crucial part of my jobs, a skill I applied to accomplish my challenging assignments and a steppingstone towards my true passion – leading enterprise-wide transformations.
Q2: How did you come into the role of Chief of Staff to PMI CEO?
Lenka: I believe that any career move is a combination of recognizing the opportunity and at the same time, being ready to step up.
Prior to joining PMI in the role of Chief of Staff to the CEO, I was an executive transformation leader in the financial industry, working with other leaders and our board of directors to enhance our organizational agility, customer focus, and digital capabilities. During this time, I also volunteered as President of the PMI Czech Republic Chapter. Therefore, I followed the development of PMI very closely, I was part of the European chapter President community, and I participated in other global PMI volunteering initiatives, such as being part of the PMI Strategic Panel.
PMI has always been very important to me because of its purpose, mission, and dedication to the global community of project professionals and the advancement of the profession itself. PMI certification helped me to get my first enterprise-wide transformation leadership role. Through volunteering I discovered a whole new meaning of the sense of belonging and realized how much we can all achieve once we share our experience and knowledge for the greater good. So, when PMI welcomed its new CEO, Pierre Le Manh, I felt this was an excellent opportunity to support the PMI organization at a higher level than I could as a volunteer.
I met with Pierre and showed my interest in supporting the PMI organization with my transformation skills. The interview process was rigorous, but the effort paid off, and I couldn’t be happier or prouder to join the PMI Executive team.
Q3: What are your activities as a Chief of Staff to the CEO?
More…
To read entire interview, click here
How to cite this interview: Khelifi, Y. (2023). Let’s Direct our Potential for Creating Something Good and Useful! Interview with Lenka Pincot, PMP; PM World Journal, Vol. XII, Issue X, October. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/pmwj134-Oct2023-Khelifi-Interview-with-Lenka-Pincot.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/
To view other works by Yasmina, visit her author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/yasmina-khelifi/
