I’m not sure where to post this but my name is Bryan, and this is my first year as a mentor for FRC and I was wondering if anybody had any tips for mentoring a team. I want to be able to give back to the community and I want to incorporate those great values that makes FIRST what it is today. I’m mentoring a team that’s starting their second year and weren’t fortunate enough to have a mentor last year, so I wan’t to fill up that role so they could accomplish more as a team both, during and after the season.
hi and welcome good to have you. Our teams are trying to do the same last year we adopted a highway to do clean up. but we are also trying to come up with ideas and time to do other community service projects. forum is a great place for ideas and answers
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/MCAS/Pages/SystemsModel.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!
I think it’s very important to find yourself a mentor. Talk with the senior mentor in your area and find veteran to mentor you.
I have been very lucky to be mentored by amazing people here in central Indiana including Chris Fultz and Andy Baker. I would not be the mentor that I am without their influence.
This a GREAT point. I still use the person that mentored me and now I mentor other mentor’s. Find the style of the team. Some want hands on and some want hands off. Most teams are somewhere in between. Allen from Spectrum is one of the best mentor’s that I have ever met. Go talk to other teams in your area. It is nice to to have others that you can talk and visit with. I do this all the time and we share advice.
Quoted for truth. Just because you’re a mentor now doesn’t mean you know everything, especially if you’re new. Keep learning from those higher up than you, and remember that they’re there for a reason.
As a new mentor as well, I’m still learning to adjust to the role, especially now that I’m not a student on a team where I have to run everything myself. Learning to take a step back and find your place on the team is a difficult transition, but one that I feel has been necessary for improvement (call it growing pains, if you will). It took a whole offseason event and a much needed confrontation from the rest of the mentors on my team for me to see this, and I’m eternally grateful for it. I have been mentored more as a mentor than I have been as a student, and while your results may vary, I find that what I am learning now from more experienced mentors is some of the most invaluable information I have ever learned.
Thank you all for the advice. I’m still in contact with my old mentor from my competing days so that should make it a little easier. I definitely have a lot of learning to do from other more experienced mentors and also from just taking that role. I appreciate all the advice and I know that I can count on you guys for any other questions.
As a student, I would say the two things I value most in a mentor is a cool head, a person who doesn’t get angry when we make mistakes, and a mentor who is here when we need them, but not trying to touch the robot too much. Our Coach has outlawed mentors touching the robot at all, delegate to students whenever possible.
It hasn’t been said in almost a full page?! HAVE FUN.
Honestly, if you’re having fun with the students (while working on the goals of the team) you are having a profound effect, even if you don’t know it. It will encourage them to return, to try new things, and will help open them up to a new world of possibilities.
The other advice in this thread is very good. Another thing to keep in mind is that you may not “get it right” this year, but that is ok. Take time to reflect at the end of the season and make improvements for next year.
You may also want to try to recruit more mentors to the team. Contact the local paper, PTA, school leaders, the chamber of commerce, anyone. Tell them about FIRST and how they can spread the word to others about mentoring. Mentors are crucial to a successful program.
Amen dude. If you aren’t having fun doing this you might want to reevaluate whether you should be doing it. I don’t mean EVERY minute of every day is fun. But if you can’t look back at a season and say, “yeah, that was pretty rad” you’re doing mentoring wrong. And, heck, if you aren’t learning from the students I’d say your missing on of the most important parts of this program. The mentors don’t know the answer, part of what I find most enjoyable is the process of shared discovery with students. Students, for some reason, fear wrong answers, they fear failing at something. Help teach them it’s ok to get the wrong answer as long as you learn from it.
On the topic of not getting it, it’s not that you MAY not get it. You WON’T get it at first. You WILL screw up. Why? Because I’d be willing to bet you every great mentor has moments they feel they’ve screwed up. Times when they weren’t the best they should be or could be. Reflect on it, learn from it. And most importantly, acknowledge it.
Thank you all for the comments. I definitely have a better understanding of what to expect and I am looking forward to the challenge. Having fun will help make everything easier and it will do a better job of uniting the team. I have a lot to learn not only from the mentors, but from the students themselves. Hopefully everything goes as planned.
Communicate and follow the engineering process in all things related to the robot design and manufacturing.
Stay on-task during the build season.
Build consensus where possible, but by all means, make timely, data-based decisions.
Conduct peer reviews, early, with engineering resources (also a good way to find new mentors) to review your concepts and then your designs.
I found this statement in an article I was reading this morning; it illustrates why I am a strong proponent of peer reviews.
“So how do groups protect themselves from groupthink? First, is by understanding that consensus and groupthink can look and sound very similar. Do people really agree with a decision or have they felt coerced or pressured into going along? A group’s willingness to accept feedback from outside and to allow for open expression is another way to protect itself. We know that groups whose members feel comfortable questioning process and raising concerns are better protected against the trappings of the group effect. ***A group whose leader seeks the truth through a participatory process and objective information is less likely to make bad decisions.***”
Patty Kleban – from a column published on StateCollege.com entitled “Is NCAA a Victim of Groupthink? Examining a Flawed Decision-Making Process”
As mentioned in an earlier post, 1114 has excellent resources for managing a team and the build process. Check out 148, too for information on the engineering process.
Thanks for jumping in as a new mentor! Judging from your OP I’m thinking you will be successful. You have all the right goals at heart.
There is a lot of great advice in this thread. I’ll add this - remember what you are NOT. You are NOT a teacher (I think) or an administrator (I think) employed by the schools system. In a school-based program teachers have the only real authority to discipline students etc. You are NOT a high school student. Maintain a professional relationship with the students, follow the YPP guidelines.
Be relentlessly positive but a little demanding - get the students to accomplish things beyond what they think possible. Be consistent in your planning, your teaching and your response to failure. Have fun and the students will follow your lead!
