Project Managers and Coaches: The Dynamic Duo for Team Success

What do project managers and coaches have in common?

Coaching in project management focuses on the art of providing guidance, support, information and feedback to people, either on an individual or team basis[1]. Done right, coaching can help establish and progress goals, provide clarity when opinions differ or answers are unclear and promote growth and learning within the team. Coaching improves team dynamics, offers a valuable third-party view and pinpoints potential issues and areas of conflict at an earlier stage.

All kinds of projects can benefit from coaching input, either for the manager or for the whole team. These include change management projects, complex activities, interdisciplinary projects and high-performing teams handling stressful or time-pressured schedules. Coaching enhances team performance in all of these scenarios, increasing confidence and teaching essential skills like time management, active listening, giving feedback and handling conflict.[2]

What else can coaches do?

Coaching can also help foster communications and collaboration in order to drive success and establish trust and rapport between team members. It can provide many individual benefits to team members. For example, project managers can develop their leadership skills through coaching, while less experienced members can gain valuable insights into goal setting and problem solving techniques.

Project managers should not feel intimidated by the introduction of a coach. Rather than coming in to tell them what to do, or what they are doing wrong, an effective coach will allow the project manager to lead discussions on what is required and help them identify any gaps in knowledge, skills or resources themselves. Coaches can do this by asking open-ended questions, practising active listening and helping projects manager create and customise a plan that will work for themselves and their team.

GROW-ing a project manager

Project management has a lot in common with coaching, while many coaching skills are equally essential for effective project management. Managing a project or team is all about building rapport and trust between team members, suppliers, clients and end users. Project managers must know how to ask the right questions – and listen to the answers. They must provide constructive feedback and take other people’s suggestions and opinions into account.

One coaching model that also fits well with managing projects is the GROW model. Devised by Sir John Whitmore in 1992, it gives a straightforward framework for coaches to pose questions and guide sessions aimed at project managers and their teams.[3]

The model incorporates four key questions, all open-ended, that are designed to make project managers think deeply about what they want to achieve. The model brings the session back to the person (and their team) time and time again, making the coaching process personal, accountable and highly customised. It gives room for emotions and ambitions to be considered and different scenarios to be introduced and analysed.

Questions can also be expanded to consider topics like what you want to achieve, what is stopping you right now from doing so, what you have control over – and what is beyond your control. What your next steps are and how you will work towards each one. What the timelines are and when you will be able to move on to the next stage… and the next.

Another great thing about this model is that it has a lot of cross-over with how a project manager might wish to run things. The only difference is that, rather than asking one person open-ended questions during a coaching session for their own, individual gain, the same (or adapted) questions around goals, reality, options and what to do next can be applied to wider project management team for the ‘greater good’.

Why is a coach like a project manager?

Just as coaches must be empathetic, confident, good at communicating and listening, able to give and receive feedback and more, so the most successful project managers share similar traits. Project managers, like coaches, must be able to react quickly to unexpected events and ‘roll with the punches’. They must be fully invested in achieving the best results they possibly can and understand what resources they have available to do that.[4]

Some other desirable traits that are shared by coaches and project managers include excellent organisation skills, an ordered, logical mind, a calm approach to conversations, a proactive attitude and the ability to listen – actually listen – to what people are telling them and then react appropriately.

Project managers and coaches exist to serve a business (or personal) purpose. They are both faced with one or more issues that need resolving and they use their skills to do so in the most effective way possible. They need to be able to plan, yet remain flexible as unexpected things crop up along the way. Both roles require people skills and empathy, yet also a certain level of assertiveness and authority to ensure proposed changes are made and progress remains on track. At the same time, however, they know when to credit others for their achievements and how to celebrate and motivate the whole team.

Changing mindsets, achieving results

Both coaches and project managers can have another, positive effect on those with whom they work: growth mindset. This is a concept that is rapidly growing in popularity. It is all about changing how you think about an issue or challenge and using that change of mindset to solve the problem, or learn from the experience for future benefit. Rather than getting stuck in a rut of always thinking and reacting in the same way, which can limit future development.

Coaching opens people’s eyes to possibilities about how they can use their strengths an learn from their experiences to grow as a person, rather than staying in one place because they feel comfortable. Project management is all about using experiences and skills to lead and develop a team, grow as a leader and complete a task, or series of tasks despite needing to come out of the comfort zone to get the desired results.

Growth mindset expert, Carol Dweck asks: “Why waste time proving over and over how great you are when you could be getting better?”[5]

Food for thought, perhaps?

Over the next few months, we will be exploring different aspects of project management and asking how various coaching, NLP and growth mindset techniques can help you improve as a leader and grow as a member of the project team. If you are interested in finding out more about coaching and project management, please get in touch.

[1] Source: https://mavisfernandes.com/blog/understanding-the-role-of-coaching-in-project-management. Accessed 25 May 2024

[2] https://mavisfernandes.com/blog/understanding-the-role-of-coaching-in-project-management. Accessed 25 May 2024

[3] Source: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/personal-tutors-guide/developing-students/coaching/the-grow-model/. Accessed 26 May 2024

[4] Source: https://www.cio.com/article/276269/project-management-six-attributes-of-successful-project-managers.html. Accessed 26 May 2024

[5] Source: https://fs.blog/carol-dweck-mindset/. Accessed 26 May 2024