About Our Coaching and Mentoring Support

 

Do you have an important project underway that is causing you some concern?  Are you looking for some assurance that a critical project is headed in the right direction?  Are some of your key project personnel “going under”? Organizations today simply try to tackle too many projects with project managers and project teams who have been unexpectedly thrust into their role. Many of them would benefit from the guidance of an experienced coach.

 

The various coaching and mentoring services we offer effectively addresses this situation. We work with existing project teams in evaluating their current status, existing project plans, project management practices, communications methods, and many other aspects of their project. External reviews offer an opportunity to get a project back on track, refocus future plans, and revitalize the project.   We can also work directly with specific project managers to facilitate a rapid skill transfer. This allows project managers to quickly reach the next level of competency without investing in expensive, time-consuming training regimen.

 

Project Team Coaching

 

This service consists of working with actual project teams working on actual projects. In situations where difficulties may have arisen, our approach often assumes a form of what can best be referred to as a “learning intervention”. It could take the form of an objective, external project audit, with a formal report of findings and recommendations. Or a more informal and inclusive approach could be pursued, where we might attend a series of project team meetings while gently guiding the team and project manager. Often, a combination of these two methods works best.

 

No matter what the specific approach, our objective is the same: to provide sound advice and counsel to teams in a way that allows them to get back on track. In other cases, the objective may simply be to assure that that team gets off to a good start. Here, we guide teams through a variety of project initiation planning activities

 

Project Manager Coaching

 

This is also a kind of “learning intervention” process, but tailored to the needs of the individual. Our process is comprised of three components: (1) several one-on-one interviews with a project manager to establish a basis of understanding;  (2) “shadowing” the project manager in the course of performing their role;  and  (3) providing specific suggestions on improving leadership style or technical approach (short term development) as well as professional growth (long term development).

 

PROCESS TOOLS:
    * Diagnostic surveys - project personnel
    * Diagnostic surveys - management personnel
    * Group/team interviews (onsite)
    * One-on-one interviews (onsite)

PROCESS METHODS:
    * Direct observation
    * Attendance at team meetings
    * Root cause analysis
    * Brainstorming
    * Formal project audit (optional)

DELIVERABLES:    
    * Suggestions on project redirection
    * Report of findings to management (formal or informal)

 

Project Assessment and Recovery Services

 

Failed projects are costly. In today’s environment, any waste of time, money, and resources is particularly painful. Projects that begin to veer off course cannot be allowed to languish. If any of your currently active projects are not performing or progressing as well as expected, we can offer an objective analysis. We examine all aspects of the project situation, including factors that are both internal and external to the project team. The result is a “health report”, accompanied by a recommended course of action and/or path forward. We can remain involved in the recovery as long as you wish, working with project personnel and other key stakeholders to lead the effort back onto a pathway of success.

 

We can conduct a Potential Problem Analysis session for any project. This facilitated approach is designed to reveal the most significant issues that threaten project success, and to develop actionable strategies to mitigate those threats.

 

Finally, we can conduct post-project audits for projects that have been completion. This effort will yield a meaningful set of “lessons learned” which may be applied to future projects.

 

Team Building / Project Jump Starts

 

In today’s competitive and complex environment surely the best team wins. Many of us believe deeply, and recent research confirms, organizations that are able to unleash the power of teams and teamwork have a definite competitive advantage. Teamwork just doesn’t happen, it must be developed and coached. Management Solutions Group is pleased to partner with The XLR8 Team in providing this service.

 

The teambuilding process utilized by The XLR8 Team recognizes that team behavioral awareness and subsequent change must begin with the individual before we can expect a high performance team to evolve. The DISC system (a behavioral profiling instrument) enables this understanding of personal strengths and development needs to occur, coupled with the ability to identify and understand the strengths and development needs of others. When done in a team setting, this individual understanding can be expanded to include these same dynamics of the team. The result is a powerful team.

 

The process of teambuilding begins with individual awareness which builds into team awareness. Once completed, each individual team member and the team will better understand their GIFTS (Great Ideas For Team Success) and have defined areas for further attention and development.