The Project Management Office Toolkit

Mentoring of Project Managers

One proven way to increase the skills of project leaders, team leaders, and less experienced project managers is mentoring by senior project managers. As noted previously, the mentors may be available internally or may need to be brought in as consultants to help. Either way, mentoring, to be effective, must follow certain guidelines.

First, mentoring should be specific to a given project or set of projects. While having someone serve as a general educator can provide some value, it is not mentoring. A mentor will examine a project manager's plan, ask questions that reveal weaknesses or undeveloped skills, and suggest actions for improvement. For example, a mentor may ask a project manager how he or she plans to ...