In any area of life, it's important to have the route through major change clearly defined and marked out, including what comes next. If there are any bumps in the road, you always try to find a safe landing.
I’ve been a Project Manager at Pilotlight for over three years now, and making sure that the charities I work with feel safe and supported through our programmes is one of my most important responsibilities. Since 2003, Pilotlight has invested heavily in ensuring the coaching and mentoring support we provide charities with is effectively managed through processes designed to create the maximum impact for charity leaders and their organisations. For example, our Pilotlight 360 has a collaborative coaching model where the team of four Pilotlighters that the charity is matched with, all feed in to help the charity leader figure out what’s best for their organisation. Working with over 600 charities has taught us the importance of creating focused, insightful and creative strategic spaces for both our charity partners and the teams of business leaders (our Pilotlighters) to generate meaningful impact and outcomes. If you’re thinking of applying to us for support but aren’t quite sure of what to expect, let me give you a flavour of the role of the Project Manager and how we support you.
We are your guide through the process
The project frameworks we use to guide our work have come from years of honing, and break down the process of delivering great coaching and mentoring into bite-sized pieces more easily digestible for charity leaders. All participants of a project come to the process with a diverse range of skills and backgrounds, and our frameworks give everyone a simple place to start from. They also help our teams of business leaders who have a great passion for volunteering their skills, to pitch their support within realistic timelines so we all know where we’re aiming to get to by the end of the engagement. For the Project Manager, the framework is critical in supporting conversations about how the process will unfold and where key points on the journey take place. It also helps set expectations at the beginning for the whole team, and ensures there is an appropriate and agreed time commitment from all parties.
Perhaps more importantly, our unique approach ensures we deliver the right outcomes for our partner charities within a managed but flexible series of steps. During the engagement topics may come up that weren’t originally expected and take the project off into other areas, because they too need to be dealt with if the charity really is going to get to the next level in its development through our support. However, our frameworks are flexible enough to bend to these new winds, and my job is to make sure that everyone is happy with this new course and the charity gets what it needs from it. At the end of each project we build in evaluation time to keep a check on the effectiveness of our programmes, and to ensure we’re working in the best way we can to deliver what our partner charities are looking for.
Creating a safe space
Not only is my role about driving outcomes and making sure we’re working in a way that supports the project, I’m also there to lend my expertise of working with charities, using Pilotlight’s collective knowledge in the sector, and ensure everyone feels comfortable and able to be challenged. Charities come to us for a variety of reasons, however all recognise that change is needed and unless everyone feels able to open up - our Pilotlighters included - our engagements aren’t going to help. The Project Manager is the glue that holds everything together, builds the team and ensures everything moves at the right pace. We understand that our charity partners and Pilotlighters are time-poor, so we manage the logistics and admin of diary dates and agendas. We create a safe space - all discussions within our meetings are confidential so anything shared is shared purely as a way to understand current obstacles and work out an action plan.
Change is exciting, but also challenging. The Pilotlight Project Manager is there to make sure you get the most out of our programmes and ensure a safe and secure landing. And, that it’s enjoyable!
