PMO Flashmob has been running a series arguing that the modern PMO needs a wider skill set than the traditional one. The latest installment covers training. Before that came a piece on coaching. The through-line is the same: PMO people are being asked to support delivery teams in new ways, and most of them were never formally trained to do it.
That gap is real. It is also one that can be handled badly.
Background: why coaching appeared on the PMO shelf
The PMO used to be a governance function. Standards, gates, reports. As delivery practices evolved, the PMO's old job shrank, and a new one grew: helping teams and leaders navigate complexity, run better ceremonies, and unblock themselves. That new job is, in practice, coaching. The PMO may not have called it that, but the activity is the same.
The professional coaching world has spent decades defining what good coaching is, and the short version is: ask, do not tell, and trust the coachee to find the answer. PMO people who were promoted for being the person with the answer find this uncomfortable. That discomfort is the work.
Our analysis
Coaching is genuinely useful inside a PMO, and it is also genuinely easy to do badly. The bad version looks like a senior PMO lead running a "coaching session" that is actually a status meeting in a softer font. The good version looks like a quiet conversation that ends with the project manager having a clearer next step than they had at the start.
The trade-off is that coaching is a discipline, not a technique. You cannot bolt it on with a two-day course. You can, however, learn the basic moves: open questions, active listening, and the discipline of not solving the problem in front of you. The PMO people who get the most from coaching training are the ones who already have credibility and want to use it differently.
What tends to get lost in the enthusiasm: coaching only works where there is already trust. A PMO person with no relationship with a delivery lead cannot coach them; they can only perform the motions. The real question is not whether your PMO has coaching skills, but whether your PMO has the standing to use them.
Who wins: delivery leads who learn to unblock their own situations. Who loses: PMO people who confuse facilitation with authority, and wonder why no one changes behavior after the "coaching conversation."
A worked example
Say a delivery lead is stuck. The dependency they need is owned by a director who has not replied to two emails. The instinct, especially in a PMO person, is to escalate. A coaching move is to ask one question first: what have you already tried, and what did you learn. The answer usually contains the next step. If it does not, the second question is what outcome you actually need from the director, as opposed to a reply. That reframe often unblocks the situation without an escalation, and it leaves the delivery lead with a pattern they can reuse.
The same conversation, run as a status update, would have ended with the PMO person offering to chase the director. That is a different outcome, and it is the one most PMOs default to.
Who should care
- Delivery leads and project managers** who want to unblock their own situations without waiting for someone more senior to intervene.
- PMO staff** who are being asked to add "coaching" to their remit without any training, and need to know what they are getting into.
- PMO leaders and sponsors** who need to decide whether to invest in coaching capability, and how to set boundaries so it does not slide into informal line management.
What to watch next
Whether your PMO separates coaching conversations from governance conversations, and whether the people doing the coaching have any training at all. The second question is the more honest one.
Bottom line
Coaching is a real skill, and the PMO is a real place to use it. Just do not pretend the two-day course made you a coach.
Key takeaways
- The modern PMO is being asked to coach, often without the label.
- Coaching is a discipline, not a technique, and bad coaching is just a softer status meeting.
- The basic moves are learnable in a week and earnable over a year.
- Coaching only works where there is already trust and standing; without that, you are performing the motions.
Frequently asked questions
What is this post about?
It is part of a PMO Flashmob series on modern project management, focused on training and the people skills PMO staff need to develop.
Is the full article free to read?
No. The post directs readers to House of PMO, where the full content sits behind a paid membership.
Why is the PMO being asked to coach at all?
Because as delivery practices evolved, the PMO's role shifted from gatekeeping to enabling. Enabling teams effectively is in practice a coaching activity.
What is the most common failure mode?
Running a "coaching session" that is really a status meeting, where the PMO person solves the problem in front of them rather than helping the coachee solve it.
Can anyone in the PMO coach effectively?
Not without the right standing. Coaching only works where there is already trust and credibility. Without that relationship, you can only perform the motions.