Faculty Advisors
Effective Mentoring Skills for Advisors:
Goal Setting and Action Planning
September 28, 2010
What is Mentoring?
A purposeful and personal relationship in which a
more experienced person (mentor) provides
guidance, feedback, and wisdom to facilitate the
growth and development of a less experienced
person (mentee).
Potential Barriers
1. I’m already too busy to do this
 Enhancing what you already do
 Putting more responsibility on students
 Spending more time up front
2. Students don’t want/know how to do this
 Students looking for guidance
 Building personal and professional skills
 TRUE – need to teach them – also career
counselors, RA’s, others. NOT just advisor’s
responsibility
Learning Objectives
• Learn to use the
Mentoring Conversation
Model to help students
to set goals and create
action plans
• Share best practices
and implementation
strategies
Mentoring Conversation Model
What is the
Current Situation?
(Where are you now?
What did you learn?
How will you apply
that in the future?)
Effective Mentoring Conversations
What is the
Current Situation?
(Where are you now?
What did you learn?
How will you apply
that in the future?)
What is the Desired
State/Goal?
(Where do you
want to be?)
Effective Mentoring Conversations
What is the
Current Situation?
(Where are you now?
What did you learn?
How will you apply
that in the future?)
What is the Desired
State/Goal?
(Where do you
want to be?)
What is the
Action Plan?
(How are you going
to get there?)
Effective Mentoring Conversations
What is the
Current Situation?
(Where are you now?
What did you learn?
How will you apply
that in the future?)
What is the Desired
State/Goal?
Take Action
(Where do you
want to be?)
What is the
Action Plan?
(How are you going
to get there?)
Effective Mentoring Conversations
Ask thought-provoking questions
–
What is it about that (class, topic, activity) that (interests, excites,
challenges) you?
–
Where do you see yourself (in 5 years, in 1 year, at the end of this
semester)?
–
How does that align with your (strengths, passions, expectations)?
Practice active listening
–
Be present
–
Be focused
–
Eliminate distractions (email, noise)
–
Pay attention to non-verbals
Effective Mentoring Conversations
Provide objective feedback and guidance
–
Focus on behavior, results
–
Focus on factual details
–
Focus on observations
–
Share wisdom through experiences
Facilitate self-reflection and self-development
–
Don’t solve their problems or do the work
–
Provide guidance and support to develop their own solutions
Goal Setting
Specific – the goal should be concrete and action-oriented
Measurable – how will you know when you have achieved it?
Achievable – the goal should require effort, but be attainable
Realistic – do you have the ability and commitment to reach it?
Timely – what is the specific time-frame for achieving the goal?
Goal Setting
Not a SMART goal:
Have a good first year at Wake Forest
A SMART goal:
Develop a personal support network of faculty, staff,
and peers by the end of my first year at Wake Forest
Goal Setting
Goal:
Develop a personal support network of faculty, staff, and peers by
the end of my first year at Wake Forest
Action Steps:
1. Identify and meet with 2-3 faculty members outside of classes
to discuss and receive feedback on my academic and
personal interests
2. Identify and meet with 2-3 staff members to discuss personal
interests and challenges
3. Identify and join at least 1 social club or organization
4. Research opportunities to develop interpersonal skills, for
example, CHARGE, VSC
Goal Setting
Not a SMART goal:
Pick a major.
A SMART goal:
Explore my interests, skills, and career aspirations in
order to choose an academic major by the end of my
sophomore year.
Goal Setting
Goal:
Explore my interests, skills, and career aspirations in order to
choose an academic major by the end of my sophomore year.
Action Steps:
1. Create a T-chart of likes and dislikes and discuss those with
key influencers
2. Take career assessments to explore alignment between
interests, skills, and aspirations
3. Meet with career counselor to explore alignment between
interests, skills, and aspirations
4. Discuss requirements and options for potential majors with
my academic advisor
Keys
1. Be intentional – Mentoring Conversation Model




Where are you now?
Where do you want to be?
How are you going to get there?
What happened/What did you learn?
2. Develop/use a tool



T Chart
Action planning form
Assessments
3. Guide them, don’t do the work for them




Ask thought-provoking questions
Practice active listening
Provide objective feedback and guidance
Facilitate self-reflection and self-development
Mentoring Resource Center
Reynolda Hall, Room 17B
PO Box 7328
Winston-Salem, NC 27109
Director, Allison E. McWilliams, Ph.D.
336.758.3741 (voice)
336.758.7746 (fax)
[email protected]
http://mentoringresourcecenter.tumblr.com/