Coaching and Mentoring in the PMO

The PMO has a unique opportunity to identify coaching and mentoring needs across the PPM workforce. Do we take advantage of that opportunity as much as we could and, in doing so, enable capability development?

How do we recognise the need and how do we signpost or respond ourselves? If we respond ourselves, how do we know the difference thereby making it a positive experience for everyone?

In this PMO Conference 2022 session, Rachel Jenkins gets us started in finding those answers.

Recorded Session

Presentation Deck

Key Takeaways

1. Differentiate between coaching and mentoring need.
2. Identify when the coaching need is personal, i.e. project leadership vs team performance.
3. Utilise some simple coaching questions in different situations and know when to pass to a qualified coach.

Notable Quotables

This session is all about how the PMO can offer services around coaching and mentoring:

Starting up a coaching and service from the PMO was accidental and grew out of the assurance service being provided (a face to face activity) [2.00]

It certainly helps if you have someone in the team who is interested in coaching and mentoring – even better if they have undertaken training [4.00]

Like any service like this – there will be resistance – be prepared for that

Kicking off this service started with changing the assurance service slightly to include a monthly meeting which would include an informal approach to helping to solve problems. Getting early support from a few project and programme managers made a big difference.

People get used to the help and ‘nudging them in the right direction’ [8.00]

Not everyone in the PMO team will want to get out and about and meet people and offer this type of service – this is mainly down to the confidence level of individuals and their own preferences in communication [8.50]

People will have different perceptions of what coaching and mentoring is – a lesson learned from the PMO in this case is perhaps not to call it “coaching and mentoring” sessions [10.00]

Mentoring definitely seems to be more popular than coaching – its easier to offer mentoring in short (20 minute) sessions [11.00]

The biggest single thing that the PMO has coached on is ‘imposter syndrome’ [11.30]

It is quite difficult to demonstrate the value of a coaching and mentoring service – it is hard to sell it as a concept – it can be very subjective [13.45]

There is a difference between coaching and mentoring  – the difference is ‘who holds the answer to the question’ [14:30]

You need to understand who needs the coaching – is it the project manager, or is it the team? [15:30]

There are lots of different approaches and tools to coaching people – the most important is ‘listening skills’ and asking the right questions [19:00]

It is the ‘what’ questions are the most powerful types of questions [21:00]

There are lots of different coaching models available – a popular one is GROW [24:00]

Another model to look at is TED – tell me, explain to me, describe to me – powerful questions [27:00]

About Rachel

Rachel has worked in a variety of project and programme management roles across the NHS and Education sectors.

Her introduction into the project management world in the 90’s was through Project Support rather than Project Management, initially setting up a hospital based Project Support Office in West Wales followed by a Programme Support Office role for the All Wales NHS Digital Transformation Programme based in Cardiff.  At the time, PRINCE was the only methodology and Rachel fuelled the movement to tailor PRINCE to meet the needs of transformation projects in NHS Wales, sharing her experiences at the PRINCE User Group Conferences and subsequently played an active QA role in the specification of PRINCE2.

A move to the Lake District in the mid 90’s led to Programme Manager and Director roles implementing major NHS national IT changes.  Rachel left the NHS in 2001 to retrain as a teacher and worked in adult education teaching IT, Project Management and Business Administration courses.

Now back in the NHS, after further project and programme roles in Nottinghamshire working on the NHS Integrated Care Pioneer Programme and Vanguard New Models of Care, Rachel has been working in the PMO field again for the last 3 years.

As a qualified Executive & Leadership Coach, she is passionate about the role coaching and mentoring can play in developing the softer skills needed in project and programme management.  Rachel also works with Health Education England’s Project Futures Team developing the Coaching and Mentoring Framework for the NHS Project Profession, is a regular speaker at their conference events and writes the quarterly ‘Coaching Corner’ feature in the NHS Project Professional Update Bulletin