REPORT
By Ipek Sahra Ozguler
International Correspondent
Istanbul, Turkey
Interview with Nurdan Ozdemir
Executive Coach
Ipek Sahra Ozguler (Ozguler): Nurdan Ozdemir, thank you for accepting the interview invitation of the PMWJ. Please introduce yourself for our readers.
Nurdan Ozdemir (Ozdemir): First of all, I want to thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts about Emotional Intelligence for project management.
I’m electronics engineer with over 25 years of experience in defense sector. I took various roles in electronics production, software development, team leading, project and program management fields. I worked for defense companies like ASELSAN, AYESAS and METEKSAN Savunma during my career. I have 15 years of experience in project management during which I also enjoyed establishing and managing a project management office in addition to managing prominent defense projects. I have ICF approved Professional Coaching and Executive Coaching certificates together with Six Seconds Brain Profiler and Emotional Intelligence Assessor certificates.
My noble goal is to inspire transformation of leadership. Shaping my roadmap and daily activities with this goal I am coaching leaders and managers for emotional intelligence and leadership. I coach business people whose goals are to inspire others, to build relationships based on trust and to shine with success. I organize emotional intelligence workshops for project managers and other business leaders.
Having values of sharing and contribution to the society, I take part in social responsibility projects. In this respect I am coaching entrepreneurial women, university students and young women as well as mentoring young colleagues in PMI’s mentoring program. I’m one of the volunteers of Association for Coaching Turkey branch.
Ozguler: You are one of the mentors in PMI’s mentoring program and organise emotional intelligence meetings and workshops for project managers. Could you briefly discuss the emotional intelligence (EI)?
Ozdemir: In short, emotional intelligence is being smarter with feelings, as defined by Six Seconds organization. EI is listening both our logic and emotions and use them intelligently to reach our goals in life. It is a set of competencies that allows you to apply thinking and feeling to make optimal decisions. We couldn’t use the power of emotions in business world because we taught that we should leave the emotions at the door. It has been quite long that we have realized emotions are essential to effective decision making and motivation. If you use your EI effectively you’ll be better able to influence others, to communicate, and to stay focused on the critical path. We see some people who just get along with other, respond carefully even in the face of challenge, and truly connect with people. They are proactive, balanced, operate with integrity, and have great insight into themselves and others. All these come from emotional intelligence skills.
Ozguler: What is the relationship between project management and EI? Why is EI so important in project management?
Ozdemir: When you look at the soft skills a project manager should possess, like relationship development, team building, negotiating, collaborating, influencing, motivating, coaching, one may think of a person with superhero powers. Today’s fast changing and VUCA environment require project managers to be like a LeaderMan. As you may guess LeaderMan is a kind of super hero who is an exceptionally skillful person. This term, LeaderMan, is first used by my dear friend Gülşah Göktekin for business leaders. Project leaders’ face even more challenges because they have to manage and motive people from various departments and disciplines most of whom are not direct reports.
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How to cite this report: Ozguler, I.S. (2019). Project Management Update from Turkey, PM World Journal, Vol. VIII, Issue X, November. Available online at: https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pmwj87-Nov2019-Ozguler-Nurdan-Ozdemir-interview-report-from-Turkey.pdf
About the Author
Ipek Sahra Ozguler
Istanbul, Turkey
Ipek Sahra Ozguler graduated from the Istanbul University with the Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering and from Middle East Technical University with an MSc degree in Software Management. She became a certified PMP in January, 2012 and a certified SCRUM Master in 2014. She works as international correspondent at PMWJ. Before joining PMWJ, she worked for global multinational companies and leading local companies such as Coca Cola, Deloitte, Turkcell Superonline,Havelsan and TAV IT. Over the years, she has gained extensive experience in managing various medium and large scale projects, programs and portfolios.
Her article named “When I Decided to Develop Multi Processing Project Manager’s System” was published in the book “A Day in the Life of a Project Manager”. She has published several articles in the PM World Journal and one in PMI’s PM Network magazine. Ipek is actively involved in sailing, writing and discovering new cultures. She can be contacted at ipeksahra@gmail.com.
To see other works by Ipek Sahra Ozguler, visit her author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/ipek-sahra-ozguler/
