I recently had the opportunity to mentor a colleague on a project she was crafting. Overall the role playing was very beneficial and quite insightful. For starters, acting in a mentor role offered a bit of an electrifying feel, one I didn’t necessarily expect. On offering feedback, I found strengths and areas to work on through this process.
I learned the first step to being an enlightening mentor is to fully immerse yourself in the lesson my colleague was explaining. I worked hard to listen thoroughly to pick up on areas she was particularly excited about and where a good place would be to offer suggestions. We used a well thought out, research-based structure to give feedback through the acronym DES. Define what you are hearing your mentee explain. I found myself rephrasing and defining what I heard with the sentence stem, “I heard you say…”. Then evaluate what’s being said in light of my experience and expertise. Lastly, offer suggestions for moving forward with the project. I then found myself giving suggestions starting with “Consider, have you thought of…, and what if….”. I wanted to give my mentee helpful hints without imposing to the point of annoyance. I have had experience working with a mentor who taught what felt like 20 completely different directions to take a project of mine. This only left me feeling more confused, frustrated, and frankly in tears. Based on that experience, I felt myself mentoring in a more suggestive state to avoid the same reaction I had.
Immediately following the presentation of her project, all I had was an arsenal of questions. They were thoughtful and clarifying questions but I held them in my head for the time being.. The critical component I want to note is that I had a chance to digest and review the content after listening before offering any sort of feedback. I stepped away to gather my thoughts for about 5 minutes. That think time was so monumental to the usefulness of my comments and our overall interaction. The feedback I received mentioned the questions I asked were well thought out. Another confirmation of that critical think time. One comment made by my mentee was how I consistently centered my feedback on the students’ point of view. I offered ways to differentiate for every student, how to take the lesson further, and ways students might engage even more. In the role of a mentor, I saw this as a strength of mine. In the role of a tech coach, I saw this as an area to focus on. While keeping the kids in mind, looking for better ways to integrate tech is a coaching method I aim to improve upon.
This was an exciting and informative exercise to get a glimpse into a different role outside the classroom walls. My three main takeaways in a leadership role are essential wait time, following a DES structure of feedback, and listening fully to what is being presented. According to feedback on my feedback and my overall impression, I felt successful at this task and look forward to testing my mentoring abilities in another case.
"I heard you say..." "Consider..." "I wonder if..." "Have you thought about....?"
What kind of leader do I strive to be? One that instills a growth mindset within my colleagues and mentees. Check out my video that summarizes the big ideas from "The Growth Mindset Coach" by Annie Brock and Heather Hundley.
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