Mentoring and Coaching
for Project Leaders
The research points in one direction. The 70-20-10 model (Lombardo and Eichinger, Center for Creative Leadership, 1988) found that leaders develop primarily through on-the-job experience, secondarily through coaching and developmental relationships, and least through formal training. Certification or accumulated hours alone will not solely move the needle.
Experience without reflection produces habit, not mastery.
The 70/20/10 model aligns well to the project management industry.
70% of genuine capability development emerges from on-the-job experience with real projects; the challenges, decisions and consequences. 20% is derived through learning through and with others, including mentoring, coaching, peer feedback, and structured observation. Only ten per cent comes from formal learning like courses, certifications, and classroom instruction.
Yet most organisations invert this entirely, investing the majority of their learning budget in the ten per cent and wondering why capability does not improve.
Achieve P3M's mentoring and coaching engagements are built around the seventy and the twenty - using your actual work as the development vehicle, with structured reflection and expert guidance applied to the decisions you are making right now.
Engagements are designed for project, program, and portfolio professionals who want to develop genuine expertise, not just credentials.
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Developing contextual judgement: the ability to apply knowledge to complex, ambiguous situations
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Building business acumen and strategic thinking: "Business acumen transforms project professionals from tactical troubleshooters into strategic value creators." PMI Pulse of the Profession 2025
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Navigating stakeholder dynamics and executive relationships
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Preparing for senior PM roles, portfolio leadership, and governance responsibilities
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Structured reflection on real projects and real decisions, not hypothetical case studies
Who this is for?
Project managers, program managers, PMO leads, and team members who have identified a specific domain gap either through the Achieve Delivery Maturity Assessment or through their own experience and seek targeted, practical development without a full program commitment.