PMI Houston Katy: "Choose Your Fighter: Leading In Today's Business Environment"

Pre-Dinner Presentation: Choose Your Fighter: Leading In Today's Business Environment 

 

Julia C. Rock

Julia C. Rock is an employment expert and career coach who is passionate about transforming workplace dynamics to create collective success between organizations and their employees.

As a senior finance and accounting leader in the oil and gas sector, Julia has personally overcome workplace burnout, disengagement, and inequality to coach and empower 1000+ employees to build meaningful careers. She has been featured in several major publications and platforms, including: Fortune, Business Insider, and xoNecole.

Julia is also a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Employment Interview Professional (CEIP). She is also a published Author, co-authoring two books focused on helping athletes achieve greatness after sports: The Six-Figure Athlete, and Athlete to Entrepreneur Vol II. When she is not working, Julia enjoys exercise, traveling, writing, and adding to her ever-growing sneaker collection.

Effective leadership is paramount for an organization's profitability and sustained success. Workplace surveys echo a resounding truth: employee trust in leaders is not just a metric; it's a cornerstone. To build and nurture this trust in our diverse workforce landscape, leaders must be willing to adapt. They must adeptly navigate not only the unique needs and expectations of different generations, but also determine the right leadership approach to change, uncertainty, and unprecedented workplace challenges.

This session delves into the crucial need for leadership adaptability in today’s dynamic business landscape and delivers insights into the benefits of fostering a culture that embraces organizational change.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn how to adapt their leadership style to different workplace scenarios and challenges
2. Discover practical techniques to build personal and team resilience, shifting mindsets to view challenges as opportunities for growth
3. Enhance skills to communicate with clarity and empathy, fostering trust and understanding with teams and colleagues

PDU Triangle: 

     

Dinner Presentation: Human Development – the Catalyst for a Successful Project Management Career

Akin Oni, CCP, PMP, CPTM, DTM

Akin Oni is a Global Programs Practice Leader with expertise in Transactions (Mergers, Acquisitions & Divestitures), Capital Investments Governance, Mega EPC Projects Delivery, Project Management Services, and Engineering Project Management Training in multi-industry environments – Oil, Gas and Mining, and across continents. Akin currently serves as Senior Director within Cheniere Energy Inc’s Engineering and Construction Group.

Akin holds a bachelor’s degree, with distinction, in Mechanical Engineering, an executive MBA in Project Management and various practice credentials. Akin is a member of professional groups such as the PMI, AACE International, SPE, ASME, Toastmasters International, etc. He is a 2-Time Distinguished Toastmaster awardee, with District-level Chair roles, and sits on the AACE International Education Board.

As a professional, he enjoys working with senior business executives and project leadership teams to bring strategies to live, in a manner that culminates in value creation and measurable growth. He also authors and delivers papers at conferences, mentors up-and-coming project management professionals, toastmasters, cost engineers, facilitates roundtables, and participates in global industry forums.

His cross-continental engineering project management career, for more than 3 decades, is further enriched by his undeniable passion for people, planning and performance, and their overall impacts on the society.

Whether at work or away from it, Mr. Oni’s values remain Respect, Authenticity, Integrity, Service, and Excellence (R-A-I-S-E).

When not at his engineering project management desk, Mr. Oni enjoys spending quality time with his family, travelling, photography, volunteering, writing, wellness and all things SOCCER!

Topic Synopsis:

What is human development in the context of an organization? What are its component parts? Why discuss human development in the project management practice arena? Do values have a role in all this? What values motivate your actions? How may values and the evident behaviors catalyze career growth, especially for the always time-and-dollar-conscious project manager?

Human development encompasses the process of broadening people’s minds, choices and opportunities for the primary purposes of understanding themselves and improving their overall well-being; whereas values are the principles, beliefs, and standards that guide and influence a person’s behavior, decisions, and actions in various situations. There is no denying the fact that behaviors showcase values that one holds dearly. For example, someone with “excellence” as one of their values will not approach whatever they do with a lackadaisical attitude.

Whether in their culture or values definition, business and project organizations promote human development attributes, for good reasons. Consequently, working in an environment where the team’s human development focus areas align with a person’s values is a recipe for not just career growth but also for living a life of meaning.

This presentation assesses organizational and project team’s human development maturity in general, emphasizes the impacts of alignment with individual values and behaviors, isolates the value of respect, and discusses the link between genuine human development practices and project management career progression.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explore key themes, definitions and viewpoints with respect to human development, behaviors and values from an organizational or project team viewpoint, using publicly available information
2. Brainstorm certain human development-centric, behaviors and values, and discuss “Respect as a Value” within business and project teams
3. Define and assess genuine values-driven behaviors that drive career growth for project professionals, especially PMI members
4. Wrap it all up with the must-have take-aways on the core attributes for winning in the workplace.

PDU Triangle: