Topic Teasers Vol. 41: Mindful Mentoring

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I think I’m a pretty decent project manager and now I’ve been asked to mentor three new hires that are also going to be in our department. They are CAPMs, but this is their first job out of college so management wants me to prepare them for our environment. I don’t want to scare them or discourage them, so how honest can I be about the project manager’s role?

A. Working with CAPMs will take precious time away from your own project. Ask someone from human resources if they can step in and do this organizational orientation for the new people. That’s what they get paid to do.

B.  CAPMs, or even some PMPs, will know the processes and the formulas of the job, but not the peripheral tasks that often determine success or failure on a project in your organization. Find a straightforward way to make them aware of the additional responsibilities they will encounter, but don’t make it list of horror stories from your own past.

C. In order to keep this training positive, you may be too close to the negative parts of the company process surrounding projects to be effective. Ask your lead team member to work with these three and have him/her recount objectively what you do on a daily basis.

D. Despite management’s concerns regarding the new hires, anyone with a CAPM is prepared to hit the ground running. It will sap time from…

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