Mentoring and Coaching Support
The Problem
There is a continuum in the nature of interactions between someone developing competence in a particular area and someone who is already highly competent in that area:
- Instructing
- Coaching
- Mentoring
The degree and specificity of the interaction drops as the relationship develops, moving away from transfer of knowledge to modelling of behaviours, from harder skills to softer skills and attitudes. While our programme and project management courses are acknowledged as among the best available in Australia, we do not make the mistake of saying that attending a training course raises competence. Competence is the demonstration of mastery in the workplace - "doing it" rather than "knowing it".
Coaching is about applying theory, knowledge and skills in a practical and pragmatic way. Coaching tends to focus on the achievement by coachees of a goal or specific skill. The coach should present information in a way that connects and makes sense, resulting in increased project performance.
Mentoring entails informal communication, usually face-to-face and during a sustained period of time, between a person who is perceived to have greater relevant knowledge, wisdom, or experience (the mentor) and a person who is perceived to have less. The personal credibility of the mentor is as essential to quality mentoring as is their skill.
The Solution
Our consultants are very experienced in their fields, and bring their practical workplace experience to each engagement. They are well placed to help in the personal development of programme and project managers, and operational managers taking on their first programme and project governance or support roles.
A coach or mentor is not there to advise the mentee as to the design of solutions or how they should be implemented, nor to actually create any specific product. Neither will the mentor recommend solutions to problems, but rather guide the mentee towards solutions.
From an individual's viewpoint, coaching and mentoring provide a sounding board and support mechanism as the person moves into unfamiliar territory.
From an organisational perspective, coaching is an important developmental pathway as it allows the organisation to capture and disseminate lessons learned, mitigate any risk associated with the use of inexperienced programme and project managers, reinforce organisational programme and project management methods and provide support to programme and project management team members in a cost effective manner.
All our coaches and mentors work on the basis of the following principles:
- Voluntary commitment
- Absolute confidentiality
- Lasting impartiality
- Unequivocal respect
- Equality of coachee and coach (eye to eye level)
Our Offerings
We are able to offer general organisational mentoring and coaching support across all of our areas of expertise. We have also 'productised' our offerings in specific areas:
Please contact us to discuss how we can support your organisation and staff through mentoring and coaching support.
PRINCE2®, MSP®, P3O® and MoV® are Registered Trade Marks of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.
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