Newsletter Ireland Chapter of PMI - July 2020

Ireland Chapter Newsletter

July | 2020

A message from the President, Jackie Glynn

Welcome to the July Edition of the PMI Newsletter. As we move through the final phases of lockdown, I hope you and your families are keeping safe and well. A big thank you to the Committee members who have worked hard to keep delivering relevant content to you during this challenging time. We will resume our webinars in September, and we will be evaluating, like most organisations, when it may be appropriate to hold networking events/ Face to face events

The nature of work is changing, and we are here to help you adapt and thrive. If you are missing our webinars during the summer there is lots of interesting content on the Resource Hub on www.pmi.org where there are free online courses on Business Continuity and Foundations of Change Management to help round out your skills as program and project managers. For the less experienced there are also a free online Project Management for Beginners course which is worth looking at. At the other end of the spectrum for Senior Managers and Portfolio Managers there is a free course on Coursera which is a Brightline Initiative with PMI called "Bridging the Gap between Strategy Design and Delivery". Having completed this one myself I would highly recommend as there are a number of leading thought leaders across prominent business schools providing input on strategy, design and delivery.

If online courses are just a step too far during summer of lockdown check out the following podcasts available free:

• Projectified™ Podcast- the latest Podcast featuring PMI Future 50 – Rising young project leaders .
• Center Stage: The Voice of The Project Economy - podcast series that presents the real meaning of innovative change and reimagining the way we work.  

Enjoy your summer and remember “Tough times never last, but tough people do.”

What good is a PM Mentor?

Elif Karakulak | Director of Professional Development

From the outset, we sought to establish the true purpose of a mentor and to position our pairs for success. And so at this stage, we thought it might be helpful to share our learnings to date with the wider community.

When you think about the role of a PM and the influence we have on projects that are costly and/or risky...mentoring makes good business sense. For those of you with years of project management experience, think back on how much a project management mentor—the right mentor under the right circumstances—would have helped you accelerate your learning of both hard and soft project management skills, avoid unfortunate mistakes and, as a side benefit, might have moved your career ahead sooner. In order to maximise the impact of mentorship we set the following "terms of reference" for our mentor:mentee relationship:

Meet at Least Monthly. The mentor needs to be accessible to the mentee during the crucial planning steps.  In most cases, face-to-face (video!) contact of one to three days per month is good but mentors should be able to reply to ad hoc queries or a crisis, within a day

Co-create a Development Plan.  It important that the mentor helps to identify the knowledge, skills and experience which the mentee needs to progress.

Ensure Personal Growth. The mentor should help the mentee to recognise his or her strengths, interests and areas for improvement. The mentor will recommend,conferences, workshops, books, articles and even other experts to help the mentee’s personal growth.

Build and maintain Trust. Conversation needs to be relaxed and candid.  There are no stupid questions, no judgment and no blame. A mentor always keeps a mentees confidence.