The reason for me writing this article came about during some research I was conducting the other day for a client of mine. I came across many video posts and blogs where people were either selling themselves as a mentor or coach or alternatively, were praising their own mentor or coach and it got me thinking……

What makes a good coach or an effective mentor and what traits should one possess? Being a teacher with an honors degree and over 16 yrs experience in high schools around the world I started to reflect a little on the qualities that are important if you want to be successful and get the best out of your students.

I came up with the following four ingredients that you must have in your locker Communication, Understanding, Direction, Listening- 

Communication- This is the ability to converse in whatever method or language your student is comfortable with. It takes into account the students personality and learning style (which I go into in more detail later) and being able to communicate on their terms.

Understanding- this is all to do with knowing where your student is at. In the beginning they will be all over the place in their knowledge gathering. To give you and understanding of how this may feel try writing with your other (weak) hand and you will experience the feeling of how unnatural and difficult it is now you are beginning to get an idea of the alien concepts your students are facing.

Direction- you have to be able to lead your student and guide them to their answers. This is not simply giving them the answers they seek, as there is no learning involved in that, but rather finding out what specifically it is that they are struggling with and then send them to the correct place in order to work out their own answers. This being similar to: the teaching a man to fish story.

Listening- this is often over looked as many coaches stick to their own agendas and don’t listen to their students concerns or worries or opinions. Mentoring is a two way deal, you need to be working in harmony with one another to see the fruits of your efforts.

Finally, I would like to draw this commentary to a close and state that everyone has different learning styles and therefore learns in different ways. Some students need and arm round them and be gently encouraged while others need to be treated sternly and harshly and others just need to be left alone. There are also the ones who need more verbal direction and others more visual direction or some who need neither, but work better with written direction and so the list goes on. The last and final group however, will be the dreamers, they just need to constantly be brought back on task as they get too easily distracted and lose focus.

The key is working out who is who and then work with that. One size does NOT fit all!!

To your success

Adrian M King

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