Advisor as Coach

1. Advisor as Coach Part 2

2. Coaching and Advising Coaching is… Advising is… helping students realize their goals in education through guiding, teaching, motivating, and mentoring • helping someone realize their goals through guiding, teaching, motivating, and mentoring

3. “SCORE” the advising relationship • Define a contract with your advisees • Scope • Consequences • Outcomes • Roles • Evaluation

4. Tools of the advisor as coach • Active listening—listening at levels 4 & 5 • Questioning • Clarifying, reflecting, and using intuition • Good use of vocalics and nonverbal cues • Asking permission to address an idea or topic • Feedback

5. Bridges’ model of change • The Ending • People feel avoidance, disbelief, shock, anger, and carelessness & people self-sabotage • The Neutral • Get over the “ick” and feel withdrawn, detached, confused, lack attentivenessthen start to get creative and try new things • The New • People participate in the change and have behavior consistent with the change and start to feel more confident • As advisors, we help through The Ending by… • Helping students get info to understand the changes • Helping students understand what is ending and what is the same • Helping students acknowledge losses • We help through The Neutral by… • Helping students see what they know & don’t know • Helping them manage expectations • Encouraging experimentation • We help through The New Beginning by… • Encouraging open conversations about setbacks • Helping students celebrate success What specific ways might this model of change apply in the advising setting?

6. Coach/Advisor as Motivator • Helps advisee find meaning in his/her role as student • Helps the advisee build confidence • Helps the advisee identify reinforcing consequences (rewards)

7. Motivating Advisees in the beginning: Needs Assessment • Questions • Does the student…. • Have a high level of commitment? • Have awareness of positive consequences that will result from success and negative consequences from failure? • Have the belief that he or she can accomplish or handle school work, program requirements, etc.? • Find responsibility interesting and enjoyable? • Have a natural inclination or aversion to doing school work, working on program requirements, etc.? What do you see as the most common problems with motivation?

8. Motivating Advisees in the beginning: Needs Assessment • Helps the advisee identify a personal sense of ownership for completion of a goal • Show that the task at hand is important and why • Helps advisee see how consequences are tied to performance • What are positive consequences you can identify in your program? • What are negative consequences you can identify in your program? • Helps identify whether advisees’ confidence levels are realistic • What experience should advisees have to be successful in your programs? • What do you do when an advisee appears overconfident?

9. Motivating Advisees in the beginning: Needs Assessment • Helps the advisee feel challenged by his/her responsibilities • What kind of fun can an advisee have in your program? • How will the challenges of your program help your advisee do better? • Show your advisee how to find meaning in pursuing a degree in your program • Helps the advisee see if the major (and, ultimately, the career) fits that person’s personality • If not, how can we help the advisee identify other options? • If the advisee was forced into this program by other circumstances, what can you do to motivate the advisee?

10. Advisor as Motivator • Helps advisee see the bridge b/t what he/she desires & values AND the roles and responsibilities they have as students • How can we do this? • Ability and confidence need aligned realistically—encourage confidence but keep it real • What are ways to encourage confidence? • Recognize accomplishments, even small ones • Appreciate efforts • Offer support and assistance • Be sympathetic to challenges • Validate recent accomplishments and encourage more • Reinforce the importance of school • Smile When confidence is low but ability is acceptable

11. Advisor as motivator • Sometimes, advisees are overconfident in their abilities—what can we do? • Provide specific, timely observations of performance and effectiveness • Inquire about source of perceived expertise, knowledge, experience • Identify potential challenges, pitfalls and unforeseen consequences When student is overconfident and ability is not acceptable

12. Motivation • Adult learning • Adults like to know why they are learning something • Adults do best when learning is self-directed • Adults need to connect information to what they know (share work-related experiences) • Adults perform better when taking a problem-solving approach—need to see learning as a solvable problem • What can we do when students do not take this view? • Adults need intrinsic and extrinsic motivators • Advisors help students identify how their beliefs and desires can be motivating • Advisors remind students of external consequences, positive and negative

13. Motivation and behavior • Cognitive behavioral therapy • Have a student identify a belief and treat the belief as a hypothesis (“If you believe _____, then what if…”) • May need to teach coping skills first because students will be confronted with uncomfortable scenarios • How might you use this to encourage motivation? • How might you use this to align abilities with confidence in an overconfident student?

14. Advisor as mentor • Helps the student effectively use skills and traits in context of the realities of college

15. Mentoring advisees in the beginning: Needs Assessment • Determines if the advisee… • Has a clear understanding of his or her role as a student • Has clearly defined tasks • Has a well-defined career path • Understands career interests • Understands (well) the culture and norms of the college and the workplaces in which they will work

16. Advisor as Mentor • Helps the advisee determine the next steps in his/her career • Identify with the advisee the types of careers he/she could have in the future • Shows advisee how steps in college will advance the student towards career goals • Helps the advisee see the role a career and school plays in his/her life • How might you help an advisee determine ultimate career goals and articulate the ideal working environment? Why is this useful to the advisee? • Helps the advisee find out how to get things done in school, for an internship, to get a job, etc. • Also helps to determine if student is comfortable in the organization—what do we do if not?

17. Advisor as mentor • Role of the mentor • Connect advisee to others in the organization (Do you haveexamples of people in the institution from your experience?) • Share experiences and provide knowledge of formal and informal processes of the school and future workplaces • Provide career guidance

18. Advisor as mentor • Mentoring tips • Put yourself in their shoes—what did you wish you had known as a student? • Make mentoring a priority—meet the commitments you make with students • Spend more time listening than advising when necessary • Maintain confidentiality • Stick with what you know and refer to others about things you don’t know • Being right is not as important as being understood and respected • Identify principles that made you successful and share those with students—what principles would you share with students?