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Home > Gallup Called to Coach > Using CliftonStrengths for Positive Student Mentoring - Called to Coach S5E30
Podcast: Gallup Called to Coach
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Using CliftonStrengths for Positive Student Mentoring - Called to Coach S5E30
Category: Education
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Publish Date: 2017-09-25 12:09:07
Description: Please describe Teammates Teammates is a school-based mentoring program Started back in about 1991 with a group of about 20 mentors willing to give an hour a week in the school district They were screened and trained Now have close to 8,000 across Nebraska and Iowa, expanding into Wyoming, South Dakota and Kansas We’re not just school-based, we’re strengths-based Focused on the good; do a lot of strengths spotting Grades 3-12 Mentors and mentees stayed matched over the years How did it start? Coach Tom Osborne founded Teammates Had a vision to help students get to the post-secondary education opportunity Tom was a student of Don Clifton at UNL Strengths-based focus gives us the opportunity to build trust between mentors and mentees There are no at risk factors that students have to have in place to be matched with a mentor We believe all students deserve to have an additional, positive, caring adult in their life A strengths-based mentor who will journey with them throughout their lifetime who sees what’s right with them from the very beginning How would you describe strengths spotting? Grades 3 – 8 grade take StrengthsExplorer High school students take CliftonStrengths Print 3 copies of their results - 1 for the student, 1 for parents, 1 for mentor We equip the mentors with the language to spot strengths in action Mentees can turn into strengths spotters as well If I can look at and notice something that is right and then say this is great about you, it builds on your sense of self What training do mentors get? The mentors we’re equipping don’t need to be coaches When mentors sign up they go through a 2 ½-3 hour new mentor training Right from the beginning we don’t just focus on policy and procedure We focus on relationship building; showing up and being a good listener Listen to whatever your mentee wants to talk about; be present in that moment and listen Meet once a week during the school year, for usually about 40 minutes, over many years I’m there for you unconditionally, I’m still going to show up and affirm what is right about you This focuses on hope and research shows that highly hopeful kids do amazing things If they’re looking forward to seeing you, they’ll be more hopeful and more engaged Mentors show higher engagement, too Doesn’t require massive training or education If you want to build hope in another person, just show up and focus on what is right about them Reciprocal strengths spotting happens How have you seen the impact in your own kids? Received my strengths-based education certificate in 2010 Learning my Top 5 was mind-blowing-I felt like someone had been following me around my whole life taking notes about the way that I uniquely see the world Understanding our kids’ strengths helped us realize more about them and changed the way we parented I know where they shine and it’s very different from me How are you using strengths inside Teammates? All of us know our strengths Tess and I offer strengths coaching to all of our staff Every one of our staff meetings or development days start with a strength activity We take the activities that our mentors use and practice them This gives us insight into what works or what needs to be tweaked I think about strengths all the time, even when I’m sending email to staff Everyone looks at support differently and needs different things Look at how you can honor other people’s strengths Encourage staff to do strengths spotting with each other We have 20 FTE in central office staff How do you know they are engaged? We do Q12 measurement We have 140 chapters of Teammates each with a coordinator We bring them together for Gallup Strengths day to learn and take learning back to their community The ripple effect continues Q&A % success rate? We have not yet begun to measure that How do we measure the impact of equipping people to know what’s right about one another? It’s a challenge to define success…what does that mean? We track grades, attendance and behavior Also Gallup’s measurement of hope Our mentees are more likely to graduate from high school for the state of Nebraska We utilize Gallup Student Poll with students matched to a mentor – it measures engagement, hope and strengths (gallupstudentpoll.com) How did you forge relationships with school districts? We’ve had very positive school district engagement Knowing there is a safe, adult friend willing to meet with a student is very positive How do you choose your strengths-based mentors? It’s the willingness to show up, they go through a screening, interview and training process We don’t match based on strengths, best match based on common interests Our coordinators know the kids No certain skill set is required of the mentors, just showing up is most important Can you help other chapters get going? Check out the Teammates web site Also look at Mentoring.org for establishing a mentor program How do you get parents engaged? Parents have to give permission for the child to participate They get a parent handbook and learn more about the role of the mentor If the mentee does strengths, the parents get a copy of their results We equip parents with the login and code for StrengthsExplorer so they can use all of the activities there We use an activity from StrengthsExplorer Find someone you don’t normally interact with; share something you recently did that you’re proud of; when did it happen and what strengths/talents brought that to the table We encourage mentors to be the recipients of brags Parents are very excited about strengths They love hearing good news come home from school Have you leveraged the strengths-based parenting resources? Yes for those that express interest We provide codes for matched mentors and mentees Have you worked with the Gallup Purdue index? Mentoring is mentioned as the second piece in that We don’t use it at Teammates Our former mentees are becoming mentors themselves Learn more about becoming a Certified Strengths Coach at the Gallup Strengths Center: http://on.gallup.com/1i5OXhq. Gallup's Called to Coach is a live Webcast that targets current and prospective coaches to interact with Gallup experts and independent strengths coaches who have found success in strengths-based development.
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