Some Characteristics of a Good Mentor

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MAKING MENTORSPowerPoint Slides
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Behind every successful person, there is one
elementary truth somewhere, somehow, someone
cared about their growth and development . This
person was their mentorDr Beverley Kaye, Up is
Not the Only Way, 1997
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• Mentor Trusted friend
• or advisor

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Mentoring purposes

• Professional Development
• Accreditation
• Updating
• Fast-tracking

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Roles in sport education
Presenter
Assessor
Mentor
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Some characteristics of a good mentor

• Approachable and welcoming
• Shares information and experiences openly
• Good communication skills
• Trustworthy
• Provides accurate and appropriate feedback
• Technical expertise
• Motivating, encouraging, positive and empowering
• Allocates appropriate time to mentoring
• Sensitive to the needs of the coach or official

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Some characteristics of a good coach or official
(in a mentoring relationship)

• Drives the process and take responsibility for
  solving problems, personal growth and development
• Motivated and willing to develop a good
  relationship
• Listens and accepts guidance and feedback
• Sets realistic and appropriate goals
• Reliable, trustworthy and maintains
  confidentiality
• Looks to be challenged
• Flexible and open to new ideas
• Shows initiative and enthusiasm but has
  reasonable expectations
• Recognises, acknowledges and appreciates mentor

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Mentoring Roles

• Coach
• Facilitate
• Counsel
• Sponsor
• Support

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Advantages and disadvantages of mentors as
assessors

• ADVANTAGES
• Knows coachs or officials abilities
• Coach or official may feel more comfortable
• Mentor can modify sessions to prepare coach or
  official for assessment
• Mentor can assess over a longer period of time
• Fewer people are required in the process

• DISADVANTAGES
• Coach or official may feel threatened during the
  mentoring process knowing that their mentor will
  assess them
• The mentor may not be sufficiently independent to
  make a fair and valid assessment
• It may hinder working relationship

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Strategies for mentors who are assessing

• Understand why you are assessing, that is, for
  improvement
• Be candid about your dual role
• Discuss the possible conflicts of the dual role
• Be clear, and make it clear, what role you are
  playing at any given time
• Seek regular feedback from the coach or official
  on both roles
• Use an independent assessor if needed
• Keep accurate and thorough assessment
  documentation

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Skills mentors require

• Role
• Assessment of participant
• Skills required
• Have sufficient knowledge of what is being
  assessed
• Establish impartiality
• Create a supportive environment
• Assess what the coach or official can do, not
  what you think they can
• Give accurate and concise feedback

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The mentoring process

• Goal setting
• Observation
• Analysis
• Providing feedback
• Action planning
• Review

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Foundations for successful mentoring relationships

• Develop and communicate clear goals and
  expectations at the beginning
• Set the ground rules and develop an agreement
• Clarify the roles of the mentor and mentee
• Work out when and how feedback will occur
• Review the relationship at regular intervals

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Goal setting
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Two-way process of mentoring

• Mentoring is a two-way process in which both
  mentor and coach benefit from the networking,
  sharing of ideas and interaction that can lead to
  lifelong friendship and betterment of the sport
• Adapted from the Lacrosse Case study

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Setting the ground rules

• Time place to meet
• Phone calls at home?
• Scope of feedback and assistance
• Preferred learning style

• Formal versus informal
• Roles and responsibilities
• Consider what level of commitment you are
  prepared to make

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Empowerment

• Mentoring is a process rather
• than an event mentors must
• see themselves as managers
• of a process, rather than just
• passing on knowledge.
• (Galvin, 1998)

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Empowerment

• Who is driving
• the mentoring relationship,
• the mentor or the
• coach or official?

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Empowerment scenarios

• Scenario 1 Your mentee has not contacted you for
  two months
• Scenario 2 Your mentee is having trouble with
  one of their athletes and asks you to intervene
• Scenario 3 Your mentee has just failed their
  assessment (you were not the assessor). The
  mentee thinks that they were hard done by and
  wants you to speak to the assessors.

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Empowering thecoach or official

• Communicate openly
• Encourage them to take responsibility for
  achieving their goals
• Give them space and time to complete tasks
• Guide and counsel as they reach final stages of
  tasks
• Help them to learn from mistakes
• Help them to work out the answer, rather than
  just telling them

• Give constructive, critical advice, but do not
  expect to solve all their problems for them
• Introduce them to other people who might be able
  to help them
• Give them responsibility and monitor progress
• Build confidence through extraordinary
  activities

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Observation checklist

• Discuss the sample observation checklist with
  your mentee.
• Check if there are areas that the mentee wants
  you to look at specifically (identify potential
  weak areas)
• Add any sport-specific technical aspects

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Why use questions?

• To encourage group interaction
• To help maintain interest and stimulate thought
• To help facilitate learning by involving coach or
  official
• To defuse potential confronting situations

• To allow individuals the opportunity to get some
  feedback on what they want to know
• To create a discussion
• To redirect a discussion
• To obtain feedback

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Techniques for asking questions

• Keep them simple (one idea per question, simple
  language, short)
• Pause and give the other person a chance to
  reflect and answer
• Prompt (repeat or paraphrase the question, recall
  information related to the question)
• Deal with wrong answers in a sensitive and
  constructive way

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Use of appropriate questions

• What questions might be appropriate in the
  following situation?
• Situation The coach or official has difficulty
  articulating their needs/goals for the mentoring
  relationship. What questions might you, as the
  mentor, ask?
• Possible Questions
• What do you want to get out of this relationship?
• Do you feel there is more that you are after from
  me as a mentor? If so, what?
• How can I, as your mentor, better cater for your
  needs?
• Can we discuss what you would like to accomplish
  by the end of the year?

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Use of appropriate questions

• Develop a list of appropriate questions you might
  use if you were a mentor faced with the following
  situations
• The coach or official has stated that they dont
  have enough time to contribute to the
  relationship.
• The coach or official is geographically isolated
  from the mentor and other coaches or officials in
  their sport.
• The coach or official has provided feedback to
  the mentor that they find the mentor
  overpowering.
• The coach or official does not listen to feedback
  from the mentor and appears arrogant
• The coach or official is angry because they feel
  that the mentor put them down in front of their
  athletes

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How to give feedback

• Encourage openness
• Praise good work
• Make feedback timely
• State your feedback in a manner that conveys
  respect and support
• Keep comments related to the task, not the person
• Focus on specific behaviours

• Address areas of strength and weakness identified
  by the person
• Ensure comments are clear and understood
• Support negative feedback with specific examples
  and facts
• Link negative feedback to actions for improvement

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Reasons for failure of feedback

• Person perceives little benefit
• Person perceives too much time and energy
  expenditure with little result
• Person uncomfortable with face to face
  communication
• Mentor not skilled in the process of giving and
  receiving feedback

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Receiving feedback

• Take a problem-solving approach
• Discuss suggestions for improvement
• Thank the person giving the feedback
• Practise to improve
• Review again to check that things have improved

• Listen objectively without interrupting
• Take feedback as advice, not as a personal attack
• Summarise feedback to ensure you have understood

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Components of quality training
quality of presenters quality of presenters
Components which clarify the quality of training
teaching/ learning methods
facilities to meet course requirements
curriculum
quality of presenters
course monitoring and evaluation
Components which define a course
educational/ instructional design of materials
Competency standards and assessment criteria
articulation and credit transfer
student feedback mechanisms
RPL process
access and equity
integration of on-and-off the job components
entry requirements
valid and reliable on-and-off the job assessment
quality of assessors
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How can you improve as a coach or official?

• Learning
• Studying
• Reading
• Observing
• Discussing

• Evaluating
• External review
• - Peer assessment
• - Player evaluation
• Self evaluation
• - Diary
• - Mentoring
• - Video self analysis

• Practising
• Gaining experience as a coach or official

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The self-reflection process

• Action

Planning for change
Self reflection
Recognition of things to improve
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Self-reflection methods

• Coaching or officiating diary
• Simple
• Focuses your thinking
• Long term perspective
• Mentoring
• Social and interactive
• Feedback and advice
• Guided self-reflection

• Video Self Analysis
• See yourself as others see you
• Accurate and detailed
• Can be sent to a distant mentor

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Key aspects of coaching

• Communicating
• How good are your people skills?
• How well do you relate to your athletes?

• Teaching
• How good are you at developing your athletes
  fitness, skills and strategic understanding?

• Managing
• How good are you at organising and supervising
  training sessions?

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Key aspects of officiating

• Control
• Decision making
• Communication