Your Ideal Mentor

[Pault]

I think there is a little lack of clarity in the question. They are different types of mentors that teams could be looking for: a lead mentor, an engineer, a devoted parent, a person who opens up the shop doors and makes sure students aren't trying to cut their nails with the bandsaw, etc. Most teams have a mix of these different types of mentors. And what type of mentor your looking for is going to affect the qualities that you want him/her to have.

As you can see from my signature (all the way down there, this post went on for much longer than I expected it to), my team is looking for a lead mentor. So I'm going to talk about what I personally (not necessarily my team) would like to see in the person who fills this position.

[Disclaimer]I am going to assume this person will be male, just because I don't want to have to type he/she or him/her every single time I reference him/her. I'm not in any way suggesting that I would prefer a male mentor over a female mentor.[/Disclaimer]

My first and foremost hope is that this mentor fully understands what he is getting into when he decides to mentor our team, and is willing to take the challenge head on. He needs to be just as driven and motivated to succeed as the students are. As soon as mentoring the team becomes more of a chore than something he wants to do, there is a huge problem.

I definitely want our new lead mentor to have a fairly open schedule, especially on weekdays. Right now, we have one other mentor who has permission to oversee us as we work, but he has a day job and can't get to the shop until later on weekdays.

As for prior experience, I would really, really, really like it if the mentor has previously been involved in an FRC team. If he hasn't, then it's OK, mentors can learn, but by having experience not only does he already know how to run a team, but it is also pretty much a guarantee that he fulfills my first and foremost hope:

Originally Posted by Me, earlier in this post

My first and foremost hope is that this mentor fully understands what he is getting into when he decides to mentor our team, and is willing to take the challenge head on.

He's done FRC before, so he understands what he is getting into. And he's coming back for more, so I'm sure he is ready for the challenge. As for any sort of engineering experience, he is our lead mentor, not one of our engineers, so I really couldn't care less.

Our lead mentor has to be somebody who is very open and willing to take input, but at the same time knows when he needs to put his foot down and make a make a decision. It really is a balancing act. If you lean to much in the area of making sure that everybody has a say in everything and that you should never make decisions yourself, the team is going to waste a lot of time getting things accomplished and the right choices won't always be made. On the other hand, if you lean too much in the area of your the leader, you call the shots, then your going to make mistakes, and everybody is simply going to be frustrated because they want to have say in how the team is run, but they can't. It's tough to find the right balance, but its the key to becoming a good leader.

Finally, I want someone who is organized and on top of things. He knows that this x thing opens today at noon (i.e. event registration, FIRST choice), so he needs to be at his computer by 11:55AM spamming the refresh button. He is going to make sure that everybody knows the schedule. He is going to keep the team updated on what's happening, or make sure other people do so. He is going to come into every meeting prepared. And he is going to keep the rest of the team focused and motivated.

So, I guess that my ideal lead mentor would be the quintessence of all these things: he decides that his appointment for sleep can be postponed until after bag and tag day, he doesn't have another job or other major commitment, he's been mentoring FRC teams for a long time, he knows how to find the perfect balance as a leader to satisfy everybody, and he is knows what needs to be done and makes sure it happens. But, we live in a world of compromise. Our team's new lead mentor is not going to perfectly fulfill all of these characteristics, and I don't expect him to. In the end, what matters most is that he tries.

[ttldomination]

My ideal mentor...

works *with* students. The way I see it, we are all in this together. We're going to fail as a team; we're going to win as a team. So the ideal mentor is working with students to come up with the best solution. This can include everything from solving potential problems before students hit them to spending hours in the shop next to students. It increases morale, respect, and overall performance.

is competitive. I want the students to learn and have fun as much as possible but at a certain point we have to accept the fact that we're in a competition. As such, a quality mentor should have the same competitive drive as some of the most involved team members.

can see reason. I pride myself in the ability to think rationally under stress, and I expect my (fellow) mentors to do so as well. Often times, this ability can make the difference between a good repair and a bad repair or even a good match and a bad match.

does not necessarily have FIRST experience. Remember that all good mentors were, at one point, not involved with FRC. I've worked with quite a few mentors in my years who had zero FRC experience, but they were just nice people who wanted to play some robots.

treats robotics as a pseudo-job. The responsibility of a valuable mentor are so intense that it's really impossible to have "casual" involvement. As such, a good mentor is good about answering emails, maintaining reasonable attendance, and willing to go out of his way for the team.

knows how to be a part of the team. This is my final criteria because I've seen a few mentors who hold themselves in higher regards than students/members. This creates an atmosphere that can be awkward or way too formal. So, sometimes, throw around the occasional joke, laugh at the occasional pun, and go to the occasional team dinner. You'll have fun, but, more importantly, it will help to build a rapport with the other mentors/students.

- Sunny G.