Sometimes I feel like this is me as a coach.

[MysterE]

Ok - seriously. . . .

Topic of discussion for coaches, mentors, and students as well - how does your lead mentors/coaches help to inspire you to achieve amazing things while not over or under-managing your team?

-Daniel

[Phyrxes]

This year had its moments that felt like that comic. We have a strong senior class who stepped up after last year and asked if they could take more control over the team for this year. I think we have been largely successful as mentors at stepping back and only stepping in if we "needed" to.

Is the robot "done", no.

Is the student leadership stressing out over this, most certainly.

Are the mentors stressing out over this, yes, the students have worked hard and we want them to succeed but not at the cost of pushing them out of the way.

[Danny Diaz]

Each year we (the mentors) help the team evaluate what their capabilities are. Many of the kids feel like "the sky is the limit" when in actuality their abilities or resources are very much limited (some years the sky IS the limit, but most often not). This usually causes the team to go through the 5 stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) but once we've all understood our limitations we do much better.

I find that open and honest communication is always best, it's important that the students understand all the tradeoffs and decisions being made. That way nobody feels like anyone is being left out, and often times better decisions can be made.

-Danny

[DonRotolo]

My style is definitely to under-manage students, but I make it a point to inform them when they need to better manage themselves. You need to let them fail, not so hard as to be unrecoverable, but one cannot find their limits without failing. Controlled failure, I guess.

[gpetilli]

I am going to print this out and hang it up. The question is do i hang it in my office and tell my employees it refers to the FIRST students or do i hang it at the school and tell the students it is about my employees? Maybe both....

[safiq10]

We just don't feel comfortable with an adult working on the robot. We like to everything! From Cad to machining. It just feels weird to us when the coach or mentor has their hands on the robot. So our coaches and mentors give us advice and then the team disscusses it as an option