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Unread 03-11-2014, 22:33
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Chief Hedgehog Chief Hedgehog is offline
Mentor
FRC #4607 (C.I.S.)
Team Role: Coach
 
Join Date: May 2013
Rookie Year: 2012
Location: Becker, Minnesota
Posts: 545
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Re: New Mentor - Need Advice

Welcome sir!

I think that the best advice that I can give you is simple:

Keep positive at all times.
As a coach/mentor, your team will feed off of how you approach each situation. If you panic, lose your demeanor in tough situations, your students will follow suit.

Embrace failure
Your team will fail. My team has excelled at failing - heck, I think we do this better than most. However, we try to 'fail safely' by planning ahead and having a back-up plan in all situations. We learned this early and often our rookie season and we have kept up this tradition through the previous season. I honestly believe if your students (AND parents) are presented with this straight-away, they will be better prepared for the inevitable.

We have adopted the Universal Systems Model when approaching any new endeavor - or even when we are updating old processes. Here is a simple, yet great model that most 9-12 grade students can understand and adopt:
http://www.weston.org/schools/ms/MCA...stemsModel.htm

Delegate Responsibilities
If you delegate responsibility back to your captains or team they can make unbelievable strides in very short time - but you will still need to manage these projects. Make certain that your leads or captains are backed up with a younger team member on each endeavor - Do not set them adrift or leave them alone - They can become frustrated if they are isolated!

Ask Questions
You cannot be the expert at everything. If you attempt to be the expert of all, you will let your team down. Seeing as you are already using Chief Delphi, you are on the right track.

Good luck sir, This can be one of the most frustrating yet rewarding experiences you have been a part of!
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