Learning from Project Management Mentors

Lessons Learned Mentorship

Srikana Ray

Community Champion

Project Professional, PMP

Have you had a mentor who significantly influenced your project management career? What qualities, habits or lessons did you learn from them that you still apply in your day-to-day work?

Perhaps it was something they taught you about the art and science of managing people, communicating with stakeholders, building trust, or navigating challenging situations. What lessons have stayed with you over the years?

I would like to hear your experiences and the stories behind the lessons that have had a lasting impact on how you approach project management today.

Posted: Sep 29, 2026 12:36 PM (Updated by author: Sep 29, 2026 12:37 PM)

Luis Branco CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal

Srikana, for me, that person was Stephen R. Covey.
I began studying his work when I made a major professional transition from management into project management.
The 7 Habits did much more than give me another set of management ideas.
They changed my life.
Private Victory before Public Victory became fundamental to the way I approached project management. Habit 2, Begin with the End in Mind, the importance/urgency matrix and weekly planning shaped how I thought about purpose, priorities and the use of time.
The habits of Public Victory profoundly influenced how I worked with people, built relationships and approached collaboration.
And Habit 7, Sharpen the Saw, reinforced something I have carried ever since: effectiveness requires continuous renewal.
But there is also a very personal part of this story.
I wrote to Stephen Covey about the impact his work had had on my life.
He replied, and later invited me to a celebration where I was going to share a testimony about his legacy in my life and in the lives of people I had subsequently taught and developed.
Sadly, he passed away before that could happen.
Perhaps that is the part of mentoring that has stayed with me most deeply.
The most important lessons do not simply remain with the person who received them.
They become part of how that person thinks, acts and develops others.
Decades later, Covey's influence is still present in the way I approach project management, leadership and the development of people.

Posted: Sep 29, 2026 1:23 PM

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