Coaching Skills for Project Managers

By John Kaman

There are many ways to lead and manage a project team. In fact, there are probably as many ways to lead people, as there are project managers. Some of the things project managers do to lead people are: being directive, providing command and control, giving advice, mentoring and coaching. One of the keys ways a project manager can lead a team is through coaching. Coaching helps combine positive aspects of leading to get effective results while at the same time empowering the project team, helping people to be effective while growing their skills and getting the job done. A coach in this setting is not a command and control person like the coaches you might see on the sidelines at a football game yelling at their quarterback but rather a person who believes in his or her people and helps the people on the project team reach inside and find ways to come up with creative solutions to solve their own problems.

Haven’t we all given advice to a friend? And what typically happens when we give advice? Frequently our friend says, “Thank you, I will consider it.” Then they do what they really wanted to do in the first place, despite your advice. What could be wrong with giving advice? For starters, the “solution” that was given came from you and not the person who owns the problem. So how can we be more effective and help our friend? One way is to ask effective questions to help the person think for themselves. By effective questions I mean questions that will cause the people to look within themselves and provoke a positive response. In answering the questions, the individual will come up with possible solutions to their own problem. In this way they own the problem AND own the solution, since they are suggesting their own answers! Your role is to facilitate and invite the person to think of ways to solve the problem. Your role is NOT to give advice or to come up with answers. This is the first principal of coaching: do not tell, do not give advice, instead, listen carefully and ask effective questions to provoke and stimulate thinking.

Timothy Gallwey, in his book, The Inner Game of Work says: “Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”

Certainly there is an art to asking questions. Basically there are two types of questions: Close-ended questions and open-ended questions. Close-ended questions are not very effective since they can typically be answered with a "yes" or a "no". Asking a close- ended question will get a quick reply, but will not stimulate the other person to think. Open-ended questions, on the other hand, require a person to answer in a sentence, or a series of sentences, and therefore provoke thinking. It is a much more effective way to stimulate thinking.

A good way to start a coaching conversation is to begin by asking questions that create conscious awareness of what is currently happening. The coach listens for what is being said and what is not being said. The primary purpose is to focus attention on the critical variables of the situation. Remembering that awareness itself will lead toward solving the problem.

Some typical open-ended questions that promote “awareness”:

1. What is happening?

2. What stands out?

3. How do you feel about the situation?

4. What has been working?

5. What is not working?

6. What are the critical variables in this situation?

 

 

The next conversation the coach can focus on is choice. The purpose of this conversation is to help the person develop mobility; movement towards his or her desired outcome. If the conversation for awareness starts with the basic question “What is happening?” then the conversation for choice starts with the fundamental question “What do you want?” The coach is helping the person to get as clear a picture as possible of what he or she wants to do. In other words what is the desired outcome?

Some typical open-ended questions to help discover “choice”:

 

 

 

The next conversation the coach can focus on is “first steps”. The purpose of this conversation is to help the person to think about, possible first steps toward solving the problem and achieving his or her desired outcome. As the coach you are helping the person believe in themselves, in their value as a team member and in their capability to learn.

Some typical open-ended questions to help discover “first steps”:

 

 

1. If you could do it the way you wanted, how would you go about accomplishing this task?

2. Do you know of anyone who has succeeded in a task similar to this one?

3. Where could you find the help you need?

4. What first steps do you see?

5. What are some of the attributes and resources that you bring to this situation?

Note that all of the above questions are short, simple, straightforward and yet powerful. Powerful because they cause the person to think for themselves. John Whitmore, the author of “Coaching for Performance” says: “Telling or asking close-ended questions saves people from having to think. Asking open-ended questions causes people to think for themselves. Coaching questions compel attention for an answer, focus attention for precision and create a feedback loop. Instructing does none of these.”

As a project manager many opportunities arise on a daily basis to help people on our project team overcome problems. The question is HOW do we help people? Do we give suggested solutions, do we give advice, do we tell people what to do? Hopefully, you will consider using effective coaching skills, listen carefully and then ask open-ended questions to stimulate thinking and help the person come up with their own solutions. This is the essence of effective coaching.

The benefits are an empowered team of people, who will learn to solve problems, grow their skills and take ownership of project tasks and accomplishments.


John Kaman is a professional personal coach, facilitator and teacher in the art and science of project management. He is an associate of Fissure Corporation, a Minnesota based company that assists organizations in developing leadership and project management capabilities using state of the art computer simulation technology. John has taught project management at companies such as: Motorola, Ford Motor, St. Jude Medical and Sprint. In his previous career, John spent 26 years in project management and research and development at 3M Company. John has a unique educational background. He has both a degree in engineering and psychology/human development and a certificate in Professional Personal Coaching from the Coaches Training Institute. John is a PMP and has been very active in the PMI Minnesota chapter serving on the board of directors.