Articles

Giving Back Through Mentoring

Let’s skip the prologue and get down to business.  In the past 10 years, I’ve mentored:

• A department manager on managing projects and introducing project management in her department
• An executive on applying project management fundamentals for a new line of business
• A military retiree looking to enter the project management field in the private sector
• A student settling on a career direction
• A business owner wanting to transition into project management that needed resume help and encouragement
• A new project manager who needed help making sense of a 2,000 line project schedule without a clear critical path
• A project manager who just needed someone to bounce ideas off of as she managed the implementation of a PPM solution

But this isn’t about me.  I’m providing examples because I want you to think about what you can do.  I’ll share a secret with you; I wasn’t an expert in some of these areas when I was mentoring in them, and I was still able to help.  Let’s go over a few mentoring myths.

The mentor must be older than the mentee.  Being a mentor is not about being older than someone.   It’s about having experience to share that someone else is looking for.  Being younger isn’t always a limiting factor when it comes to sharing skills someone might need as a project manager.

You need to be an expert to be a mentor.  Relevant experience is more important than having the most experience.  You don’t have to have decades more experience than your mentee.  You can be in a near-peer mentorship, where you may only have 1-2 years more experience than your mentee.

You need to know all the answers.  The questions you ask can be more powerful than the solutions you give.  While you should have experience in the area you are mentoring, an important part of your role is helping your mentee find answers, as opposed to just giving them a brain dump and a checklist.

Mentoring is one-to-one.  Mentoring can also be one-to-many, many-to-one, or facilitated in a group setting.  For one of my engagements, I partnered with another mentor.  We would meet regularly to go over the mentoring plan, next steps, and how we felt our mentee was proceeding.

Mentors don’t need a mentor.  After volunteering as a mentor for several years, I worked for a company that experimented with a mentoring program.  Participation in this program helped me accept that I would need to leave the company to achieve the growth and career opportunities I was looking for.  I don’t say this to speak poorly of that employer.  There were mentees in different departments that went on to get promotions or lateral moves into other departments.  The opportunities I was looking for just didn’t and couldn’t exist within the company at that time.

A mentor doesn’t have to be an expert in everything.  We all have things we know and things we don’t know.  I’ve found that, like with other skills, mentors get better with experience.  At least, I’d like to believe I’m a better mentor than I was 10 years ago.  You have to start somewhere, and that’s part of why I’m sharing this.  

Where is the next generation of mentors?  Are you one of them?  I encourage you to take a chance on yourself and become a mentor.  A few potential benefits of being a mentor are:

• Learning more about your profession and other companies/industries
• Developing and demonstrating leadership skills
• Getting exposed to different thoughts and opinions, and gaining new perspectives
• Enhancing your professional network and building lasting relationships
• Gaining a sense of satisfaction from helping others, as well as a deeper appreciation of your personal value
• Improving your communication and interpersonal skills

I wasn't going to say anything, but you can also earn PDUs for mentoring. 

Are you interested in being or working with a mentor?  Visit our Mentorship Program page to learn more and let us know that you’re interested.

While not a Utah native, Aaron Porter (insert alphabet soup here) raised his kids here and enjoys the sense of community he's found in Utah.  He maintains an on-again, off-again relationship with his blog on projectmanagement.com where he also participates in discussions on project management topics.  His most recent collaboration was on a DAVSC quick reference guide, available to the DAVSC community.  This is Aaron’s second time on the PMINUC Board of Directors; his first time was from 2010-2012 as VP of Education.  In between board positions, Aaron enjoyed volunteering as a project manager mentor, in the chapter and with other non-profits.