Title: Project Manager as Team Coach - Plan for Success
Headings: The project manager as team coach
The project manager as team coach
How to cite this article:
Pamela Abdon, MBA, PMP
Chapter Vice President, PMI Southwest Missouri
Abstract
Introduction
What Is Coaching and What Is Not Coaching?
Why Should You Coach?
Whom Should You Coach?
When and Where Do You Coach?
How Do You Coach for Success?
How Do You Know When Coaching is Successful?
Conclusion

Content: Leadership coaching is one method of improving performance, and anyone at any professional level can participate in a coaching relationship. Individuals can find coaches, and managers can coach their employees. As managers of project teams, project managers have a unique opportunity to increase the chance of successful project outcomes and increasing the performance of project team members at the same time. In this paper, we will look at the management activity of coaching and how a project manager can use coaching to improve project performance and project success. After defining coaching in terms of what it is and what it is not, the reasons for coaching will be presented. A discussion of whom and how to coach will provide the project manager with concrete action steps to implement the process of coaching in current projects. Finally, information will be shared on how a project manager coach knows when the coaching is successful. What Is Coaching and What Is Not Coaching? Coaching is the process of correcting behavior to increase the successful achievement of goals, whether the goals are professional or personal. Mosca, Fazzari, and Buzza (2010) defined coaching as a key management activity, where the manager focuses on developing, assessing, counseling, or mentoring employees to increase the ability of meeting strategic organizational objectives.