Five questions to answer before seeking a project management mentor
From the Easy in theory, difficult in practice Blog
by Kiron Bondale
My musings on project management, project portfolio management and change management.
I'm a firm believer that a pragmatic approach to organizational change that addresses process & technology, but primarily, people will maximize chances for success.
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Whether it is in one of LinkedIn's project management discussion groups or in PMI's Projectmanagement.com community, one of the more frequent requests made by members is for mentoring. Sometimes the mentee has done a good job of articulating their needs which will increase their odds of finding a suitable mentor but this is the exception, not the rule.
Project management mentors are usually senior practitioners who tend to be quite busy, hence providing limited information almost guarantees that the request won't be fulfilled in a timely fashion.
So before you post a request for a mentor, take the time to answer these five questions:
What are my objectives for the mentoring relationship?
This is a good case of where the S.M.A.R.T. test for objectives should be used - are they specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timebound?
This question will help you answer the next one.
Is the mentoring relationship I'm seeking short or long term?
This will help prospective mentors decide whether they are willing to commit for a longer period of time and will serve as a good sanity check on the achievability of your objectives.
The answers to these two questions might help you answer the next question.
Will I be better served with a mentor whom I can meet in person?
Depending on your objectives, you might find that geographic or temporal distance will significantly reduce the mentor's ability to help you succeed such as intimate knowledge of the local business environment. Thankfully many PMI chapters have well established mentoring programs which might help you to connect with a local practitioner.
How much effort will my mentor need to commit to help me achieve my objectives?
You might think that you have found the perfect practitioner from a personality and experience perspective but if they are too busy to effectively support you, you may need to connect with someone that has more time but less experience or you might need to adjust your expectations of the mentor's time commitment.
Finally, while many mentors provide their services on a voluntary basis, others might treat it as billable work.
Am I willing to pay for mentoring support, and if so, what is my budget?
If you don't know what you want to get out of a mentoring relationship, no mentor can help you achieve your goals.
Posted on: August 21, 2023 09:00 AM |
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Comments (14)
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Solid questions Kiron. Totally agree with you!
Luis Branco
CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª
Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Kiron
Very interesting the theme that brought to our reflection and for debate
Thank you for sharing and for your pertinent questions.
Great article. Simple ideas, but so important!
Well said Kiron. Simple and to the point. Thanks for sharing this.
Great article, Kiron
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!!
Brilliant article, thanks!
I suggest you to procced with a new article named "after the choice of the mentor", which considers the opinion of the mentee and his/her own feelings when working with the mentor.
In my experience, when I had to choose a mentor in a company I was working for, I had the chance to work with two different ones.
From the first one, I learned a lot and had very good relationships and many common ideas and topics of discussion, both work and not-work related. He left the company and we finished the mentor-mentee relationship, which otherwise would have lasted longer on both sides.
With the second one, which was a good person, I found that her skills were not adequate to answer my questions, even though she apparently had all the interpersonal skills to be a good mentor. The technical skills were missing and for this reason I did not rely on her advice and guidance.
Zohaib Qadir
System Administrator Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS)| Peshawar Institute of Cardiology
Peshawar, Kpk, Pakistan
Thanks a million for sharing this Kiron.
Dear Kiron
Very interesting “ Five questions to answer before seeking a project management mentor “
Wise words and Excellent guidance! mentoring is a safe space for growth and development.
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