MENTORING AND COACHING

A mentor is an experienced role model who guides the professional development of a less experienced protégé through coaching. Both the mentor and the protégé learn about themselves, improve their skills, and grow professionally.

Coaching is the process used by the mentor as he/she works with the protégé examining the behavior of the protégé for the purpose of gaining insights that lead to improved performance.  Coaching involves the skills of observing and recording behavior, giving feedback, asking probing questions that enhance reflection, listening, analyzing behavior as it relates to professional skill and knowledge.

Benefits of Seeking and Using a Mentor

For you as the protégé

• Expanded knowledge of leadership skills and management practices
• Increased access to challenging opportunities and responsibilities
• Development of an administrative perspective
• Association with a successful role model
• Opportunity to discuss administrative and educational issues with a respected
• practitioner
• Ongoing support and encouragement
• Honest and constructive feedback
• Access to inside information and organization dynamics
• Help in building a professional network
• Increased self-confidence—heightened career aspirations

For your mentor

• Recognition as a successful administrator
• Increased feeling of self-worth from contributing to education and the organization
• Opportunity to reflect on own skills and practices
• Exposure to fresh ideas
• Added incentive for staying current in the field
• Personal satisfaction in teaching and sharing experience
• Sense of pride in protégé’s accomplishments

For your school or district

• Increases administrator talent pool
• Expands the knowledge base and skill level of potential principals and practicing principals
• Builds morale of protégés and mentors
• Fosters increased administrator productivity and effectiveness
• Reduces administrator turnover
• Promotes more administrative continuity in system
• Provides cost-effective development experiences for aspiring administrators
• Improves quality of school leadership
• Creates better working environment for teachers
• Enhances learning environment for students

Mentor Functions

• Mentors foster your belief in yourself.
• Mentors teach and model specific skills.
• Mentors challenge and empower.
• Mentors provide feedback and foster reflection.
• Mentors help in development of a broader perspective.
• Mentors encourage professional growth through reading, professional associations, and
• academic coursework.
• Mentors provide insight into the social and political mores of the profession and the
• organization.
• Mentors help the protégé build a professional network.
• Mentors are available.
• Mentors provide support and encouragement.
• Mentors are role models.
• Mentors share knowledge and information.

Mentor Qualifications

In selecting someone to serve as your mentor consider someone who:

• has confidence in his/her own personal and professional development.
• enjoys giving support and encouragement to colleagues and protégés on a one-to-one basis.
• has a personal reputation as an experienced effective school leader.
• is knowledgeable about current educational issues and practices.
• has sufficient experience to be knowledgeable about schools and school systems.
• possesses an understanding of political and organizational dynamics in relation to education.
• has an understanding of specific leadership and management skills and the key behaviors relative to them.
• is committed to the mentoring process.
• has made the necessary arrangements to have time available to work with a protégé over an extended period of time.
• does not have any current supervisory or evaluation role in relation to the protégé.
• is open to new ideas.
• is sensitive to the needs and concerns of others.
• practices effective listening skills.
• presents a professional demeanor.
• has received special mentor training.

In your first meeting with your mentor seek to establish a relationship that will foster your professional growth. Some of the following activities are appropriate for your first conversations.

• Sharing professional background information
• Discussing mentor/protégé expectations
• Identifying the your areas of strength and needs for improvement
• Establishing the your developmental goals and objectives
• Designing the your Individual Professional Development Plan
• Discussing potential development opportunities

As you begin to carry out the activities in you Professional Development Plan, you should expect your mentor to engage in some of the following activities.

• Observing your behavior in specific situations as requested by you
• Listening to your analysis of your concerns and behaviors as they relate to the skills and knowledge you seek to develop
• Giving you behaviorally specific feedback
• Reinforcing your effective performances and achievements with behaviorally specific feedback
• Helping you explore strategies for building on the strengths you consistently demonstrate
• Helping you explore strategies for refining performances and behaviors that are not as effective as you would like
• Sharing with you understanding of education organization structures and cultures
• Introducing you to other experienced administrators who might serve as mentors to you in their own areas of expertise and experience

Feedback is a powerful tool for growth and development. After observing your performance, you and the mentor meet for a feedback session to discuss what happened during the observation.  The mentor facilitates the feedback session by asking questions that prompt you to reflect on the experience and to analyze personal performance. The mentor should also share observations and analysis of your performance in a non-threatening manner. The mentor will use the skills of listening, questioning, and summarizing. The feedback is used to plan the next steps for your professional development.

Reflective review and coaching are used when the mentor cannot observe your behavior or performance firsthand. This approach requires that you record and analyze your own behavior for improved performance. In a meeting with you after the event or incident, your mentor can assist you in further analysis of your performance. Working together, you and your mentor explore ways to improve your performance. The key skills used by the mentor in this coaching activity are listening, questioning, and sensitivity.

Use the following reflection guide to assist you in recording and analyzing your performance. Write responses to the following prompts.

Outline the situation you want to analyze, considering the following:

• basic nature of the situation
• how/why the situation developed
• primary issues and concerns—yours and those of others
• your objectives and strategy
• critical verbal and non-verbal behavior of people involved in the situation including your own behavior (what has been said and done)
• outcomes to date
• your overall reaction to the situation
• what you have done well
• what you will do differently another time
• what you have learned from the situation.

Schedule a meeting with your mentor to discuss the incident. You may send your mentor a copy of your reflections prior to the meeting. The effective mentor will assist you in exploring options and reaching your own decisions about courses of action that best fit your situation.