ABSTRACT
Project management is acknowledged often to be a demanding and complex role. People are more complex than any project or process or technology. After all, we are the product of millions of years of evolution. Each individual is unique. So clearly a one size fits all approach to solving project management difficulties cannot work. Coaching and mentoring have been part of the work environment from the times of apprenticeships in guilds. The GROW model was developed in the UK in the 1980s and is now the most widely used coaching tool. It is commonly used by line managers to coach team members. GROW is likely to be attractive to a process-based mentor or coach because it is a four-stage problem-solving model. Another possible difference between coaching and mentoring is that individual may have less opportunity to exercise his/her own choices in a mentoring relationship, because mentoring is likely to be more directive, whereas a coaching relationship lean towards being non-directive.
