Lucy O'NeillProject Manager| Wellington, New ZealandWellington, New Zealand
I'm new to project management and I've been assigned an experienced project director to mentor me. Can anyone give me some guidance/advise as to how to make the best use of these mentor sessions?! Saving Changes...
Purpose of a mentor is to help you develop your project management skills and to steer you in the right direction to learn from their knowledge and expertise.
The mentor sessions topics could include:
Current project assignments - difficult issues perhaps - get advise
Career progression - training development e.g. Programme Management [whatever your aspirations might be]
Go to your mentor meetings prepared - think about what and how and make a list [mini agenda]. Some form of a structure is better than not having one at all - this way both of you can track and see progress made.
Listen to your mentors suggestions, recommendations, if necessary go and investigate, analyse and go back to the next meeting prepared. See these meetings as opportunities for your next project challenge, you have an experience project director almost at your disposal - take advantage and go for it. Your mentor is there to help you move forward.
There is a difference between mentoring and coaching… The coaching aims at developing a specific skill or providing support in addressing a specific situation that might re-occur. Mentoring has a broader scope: it guides and supports the individual’s growth.
This being said, it is excellent to have a very specific goal in mind and expect a clear roadmap when you go in coaching sessions.
If you have a mentor you are, in a sense, in a protégée role. As such the relationship is a lot more complex and it requires a certain type of compatibility… The plan you need to have is more of a strategic nature (where in a coaching situation the plan is more of a tactical type)… you need to see if you can see the mentor as a role model in some broad areas, especially where a long term career growth is concerned…
The bottom line is that most of the time one can realize one needs coaching. However, one might not necessarily realize that one needs a mentor… Same, a manager / senior practitioner might be required to provide coaching, but one cannot be forced to mentor or to be a protégée.
Saving Changes...
Coaching is part of career progression and unless organisations have in place Training career plans for individuals or Career Managers assigned to people the mentor with their indepth knowledge and PM experience can guide and steer individuals in gaining the correct training to further ones career. Mentors are usually individuals that have the know how, in many cases hold good job positions within the organisation this makes all the difference that will enable certain opportunities to open up longer term. A mentor can influence usually with excellent results.
