The people side of project management

I know I'm jumping around a bit on these early posts - I'm just trying to throw some ideas out and see what generates the most interest - bear with me (please!). I want to introduce you to the new guy.  He's a real person that I am working with at one of my clients right now.  In fact he's a Gantthead member - and yes he knows I'm doing this to him! The new guy is someone who is a few years out of school, and he's now looking to break into project management as the next step in his career.  He's taken an introductory course and he's now looking for an opportunity to put the skills that he's learned into practice.  I think I'm going to use him as an example in a few of these blog entries, because he's currently the individual that's teaching me the most about project management. That might sound odd - after all, I'm supposed to be giving him the development opportunity, but his complete lack of any preconceived notions is really pushing me back to the basics and forcing me to set aside the biases that have come with my experiences - it's very refreshing.  At the same time it's immensely rewarding to see the return on the investment of time and effort in his growth and development - I love passing on my knowledge and expertise. So let's meet the new guy in a little more detail. Today he and I had a meeting to review his first tentative steps at a project charter.  I couldn't fault the format (he used one of my company's), and clearly he got the concept behind the various sections.  He also understood the different roles that exist on a project - sponsor, team, etc.  Clearly the training he had taken and his own fundamental business acumen had created a strong foundation. My learning point today was that no one had helped him to understand the perspective that each of those roles would have.  For example, we spent some time discussing the difference between the required end state (success criteria) and the scope.  As the sponsor for this project I explained that I wanted to define for the project what the end state would look like - what would the project have to deliver in terms of business values / changes to satisfy me.  This is clearly different from defining what specifics will be included and excluded. I could see that the new guy really had an epiphany with this - no one had outlined the driving forces behind the roles on a project - what motivates the sponsor, not just what is their 'job' on the project. But this was also an epiphany for me - after all my years in project management I just assume that people know what the motivators and drivers for roles are - I'll frequently have discussions with people about hoe to get what they want from an individual based on their personality, priorities, etc, but rarely based on their role. What am I trying to get at?  Well I guess for those of use that find ourselves in coaching and mentoring roles it's to never assume - be prepared to help your teams grasp things that we just take for granted.  For those that are growing as PMs, don't be afraid to ask (apologies for the cliche) - challenge, push, question until you do understand. What are your experiences with these 'a-ha' moments - the seemingly minor interactions that really drive home that not everyone sees things the same way we do.