Project Managers, Stress and PTSD

On the Digital PM Slack channel there was some discussion recently about Project Managers' having PTSD. In this podcast, Carson Pierce, Senior PM at DDB Edmonton; Registered Psychologist, Dr. Krista Pierce (who is also Caron's wife); and I got the chance to discuss the topic of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the stress PMs' experience at work and the relationship between the two.



Show Notes:

Krista and Carson Introductions 0:15

Introduction to the topic of Mental Health and Project Management 1:58

The Stress Project Managers Experience vs. actual PTSD 3:30

Living with failure but expecting success 5:30

Are we making too much of it 6:19

We are a dysfunctional bunch 8:00

The role experience plays in helping you cope 9:55

Lacking self-awareness 12:40

How to cope with being assertive 13:42

Bringing the bad news and being at ease15:58

Role playing the tough conversations18:26

Personal risk management 19:39

Recommendations for coping with the stress of being a PM 21:00

Setting boundaries for yourself (and sticking with them) 24:15

Carving out the self-care space  and finding balance 25:55

Mindfulness 28:42

Talking with your client (and team) about personal boundaries 29:49

Owning the burden you choose to carry 32:32

Letting go of the things you can do (Inbox 1,708) 33:03

Parting advice for coping with stress 36:45

Getting in touch with Carson and Krista 39:50

The Digital PM Summit 2016 40:28

Contact Info:
Getting in touch with Carson and Krista

Kristi can be reached at http://kristapiercepsychologist.com

Carson can be reached at carsonpierce.com or via email at carson@carsonpierce.com

If you'd like access to the Digital PM Slack Channel, just email Carson

The site for the 2015 Digital PM Summit  can be found here: http://bureauofdigital.com/summits/digital-pm/

Should Project Managers Be Trained in Social Engineering? (with Rachel Gertz from LouderThanTen)

Click here to go straight to the podcast

In celebration of the fact that the 2014 Digital PM Summit is less than a week away... some DrunkenPM / LouderThanTen podcasty mashup goodness... Rachel Gertz and I discussing the question of whether or not project managers should go through social engineering training to better enable them to understand more of what people are sharing with them and also to help them be better able to tailor how they are messaging the information they are sharing.


Click here for the podcast

If you will be in Austin for the conference next week, Rachel is co-presenting with Carson Pierce on Monday, October 6 at 2 PM. Her session is called PM First Aid: Bring Your Projects Back From The Dead and my session on Personal Kanban will be on Tuesday at 11 AM.

The Aikido book referenced in the podcast is Aikido: Principles of Kata and Randori by Nick Lowry. You can pick it up here.

A DigitalPM Podcast interview with Carson Pierce from YellowPencil

One of the folks I had pleasure of meeting at DPM 2013 was Carson Pierce. Carson is the Director of Project Management at Yellow Pencil, an end-to-end service provider for web development based in Edmonton and Vancouver.  He’s also one of the folks who are helping the DPM community take root and grow.

Carson and I discussed DPM2013, the challenges facing the digital PM community with respect to the Agile vs. traditional question, and the group he has formed of folks in this space who are actively trying to find the collaborate on finding the optimal way to solve the unique each of them faces.

You can find the interview here!

You can follow Carson on Twitter here.

You can find Brett Harned on Twitter here.