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Planning and

Managing
a Mentoring Programme in Sport

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Published on behalf of Sport Northern Ireland and sports coach UK by

Sport Northern Ireland House of Sport 2A Upper Malone Road Belfast BT8 7JH Tel: 02890-381 222 Email: info@sportni.net

sports coach UK Chelsea Close Armley Leeds LS12 4HP Tel: 0113-274 4802 Fax: 0113-275 9606 Email: coaching@sportscoachuk.org

Coachwise Ltd Chelsea Close Off Amberley Road Armley Leeds LS12 4HP Tel: 0113-231 1310 Fax: 0113-231 9606 Email: enquiries@coachwise.ltd.uk Website: www.coachwise.ltd.uk

The National Coaching Foundation and Sport Northern Ireland, 2012 This document is copyright under the Berne Convention. All rights are reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to Sport Northern Ireland. Author/editor: Ian Stafford Cover photograph Jason OBrien/Action Images Limited All images Alan Edwards, unless otherwise stated. 90791:1

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Planning and

Managing
a Mentoring Programme in Sport

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Acknowledgements port Northern Ireland, sports coach UK and Hutton Park Consulting would like to thank the coaches, mentors and programme managers who took part in this pilot project and acknowledge their valuable input and feedback. The project has been invaluable in informing the production of this resource and ensuring that subsequent mentoring projects will benefit from the efforts and experience of the people involved in the pilot work.

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sports coach UK

Contents
Background to Mentoring Value and Benefits of Mentoring Pre-programme Planning Programme Implementation and Management Reviewing the Programme Summary Appendix 1 Summary of Key Phases and Components of a Mentoring Programme References and Endnotes 1 2 3 7 11 12 13 14

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1 Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme in Sport

his resource aims to explain how to set up and run a formal mentoring programme for sports coaches. The explanations and guidance offered within the resource aim to support governing bodies of sport and other organisations in planning, implementing and reviewing structured mentoring programmes.

Your organisation may consider that a mentor training programme is sufficient to support your needs, or may choose to encourage or require your mentors to undertake such a qualification within an appropriate time frame.

Background to Mentoring
Mentoring has the potential to be a very powerful strategy in supporting the individual development of coaches in sport. Despite the historical roots of the term in Greek mythology, mentoring only emerged as an area of interest in professional literature after an article was published in the Harvard Business Review (Roche, 1979). This suggested that professionals who had mentors benefited in terms of satisfaction and professional development. Undoubtedly, successful mentoring programmes can improve coaches behaviour and practice and support their overall development. For this to occur, many key factors have to be considered and planned into a structured, coordinated programme. Mentoring can certainly be successful when kept informal, but the purpose of this resource is to support governing bodies and other sport organisations in setting up and running more formalised mentoring programmes. Research conducted by InVEST for sports coach UK in 2007 stated: Mentoring in sports coaching within the UK is currently sporadic with little coordination, consistency or sharing of good practice. Certainly, mentoring in coaching, as in other areas, remains quite confusing, with no universally accepted definition. Mentoring still requires more valid and robust research in terms of supporting its specific value, but the research that we have indicates that coaches value mentoringtype activity to support their personal and professional development. The different definitions

In producing this resource, key outcomes from a pilot project on mentoring sports coaches in Northern Ireland have been employed to inform guidance and recommendations. This project involved Sport Northern Ireland, sports coach UK, Hutton Park Consulting, Cricket Ireland, Ulster Hockey and Ulster Rugby. After reading the initial background section of the resource, you will appreciate that the current situation in terms of mentoring sports coaches is variable and may be confusing. Lead agencies such as Sport Northern Ireland and sports coach UK wish to address the current lack of coherence and consistency in mentoring programmes. Sport Northern Ireland and sports coach UK collaborated in planning, implementing and reviewing the pilot project. Also, collaboration between sports coach UK, Coachwise, 1st4sport Qualifications and Hutton Park Consulting has led to the development of a Level 3 Award in Workforce Mentoring1, an associated two-module learning programme and a resource book entitled Mentoring in Sport 2.

Alan Edwards

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Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme in Sport 2

and approaches to mentoring may be confusing. However, although mentoring may be difficult to pin down in one universally accepted definition, you should think of this as a strength rather than a weakness. Despite the variety of definitions and approaches, mentoring simply involves a one-to-one relationship supporting a coachs individual development. The concept can be as broad as necessary and should be as inclusive as possible. In addition, at a review session, coaches identified the following benefits of the programme: increased awareness of performance issues the value of being taken beyond the sport-specific/technical aspects of coaching the benefits of a critical friend. Although the primary purpose of mentoring would be the development of the individual coach, it is worth noting that the mentor can also benefit from the experience. Benefits for the mentor include the following: practising, renewing and developing interpersonal and communication skills opportunities to reflect on own practice enhanced job satisfaction and personal satisfaction through supporting the development of others developing professional relationships enhanced peer recognition wider understanding of the organisation and the way it works highlighting areas for future development enhanced motivation and a sense of achievement when their mentee succeeds the mentee can update the mentor on current issues as they happen.
The opportunity to improve my performance based on my individual needs and desire to improve.

Value and Benefits of Mentoring

Evidence suggests that effective mentors help to accelerate the development of their coaches. For mentoring to have the greatest value and impact, it should be seen as a development strategy, rather than just a way of passing on information to improve knowledge. Mentors are not just information givers; they should take a real interest in their coaches and be committed to supporting the individuals development. Quality mentoring should be dynamic, engaging and individualised. Effective mentoring relationships are characterised by a caring and guiding quality. When asked What has been the most important aspect of the project for you? coaches on the pilot programme responded with the following:

Alan Edwards

When asked What was the most important part of the project for you? a mentor on the pilot project answered:
I was the questioner rather than the teller. I relished the chance to listen to the coachs thoughts, challenge her ideas and allow her to bounce new ones off me.

Opportunities to meet with different coaches and working with individuals from a recreation level to elite performance level.

I have learnt how to employ basic video analysis, working with individuals from a recreation level to elite performance level. I would like to take this form of analysis to the next stage.

The following additional benefits were identified by mentors at a review meeting:

It was great to see young, enthusiastic coaches raising and addressing real issues. It was satisfying to be able to provide technical knowledge when it was needed and when coach was ready for it. I made good relationships and friendships. It made mentor think more about own practice. It made mentor self-assess themselves.

To reflect more on how I approach aspects within my coaching role.

Being able to bounce ideas around with someone more experienced than myself.

The relationship and someone to bounce ideas off. Also benefited from other people he introduced me to.

Benefits for coaches/mentees include the following:

Increased confidence and self-esteem Improved selfreflection and problem solving

Opportunities to ask questions.

I have developed personal goals and have begun developing my skills to improve as a coach. Having expert guidance has been significant in this development.

Coach and Mentee

Enhanced professional development

Reduced feelings of isolation

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3 Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme in Sport

Pre-programme Planning
At this stage, the simple sequence of thinking and decision making can be summarised as:

The OUTCOME
What do we need/ want to achieve?

The JUSTIFICATION
Why is this outcome the current priority?

The WORKFORCE
Who will be involved (coaches, mentors, programme managers)? Is reward/recognition needed?

The FORMAT
How will the programme be structured?

The TIME FRAMES

When will the programme start, finish and be reviewed?

The first decision to be made should be about the focus of the mentoring programme what do you want it to achieve? Experience from the pilot project suggests that the focus of the mentoring relationship needs to be quite specific and clear to all involved. Many mentoring programmes start out with the well-meaning but rather vague aim of helping the coaches improve. There was a consensus from the review of the pilot project that a sharper focus would be beneficial and that success will be more easily evaluated if the purpose of the mentoring was made more explicit. For example, by focusing on a specific, reasonably homogeneous, target group of coaches such as coaches of talent development squads and/or by having a shared aim such as coaches working towards a specific award/qualification, say UK Coaching Certificate (UKCC) Level 2 or 3, this will give direction and a degree of consistency to the programme.

Setting out success criteria and clarifying precisely how the effectiveness of the programme will be assessed and evaluated is a key consideration in the planning phase. The principle of assessment being built in at the planning stage and not bolted on at the end is one worth noting here. The decision on the focus of the programme should be based on a robust audit of your coaching development infrastructure and where you have decided the greatest need lies and where the greatest impact can be made. This really demands an evidence-based and needs-led decision rather than a few people simply having a meeting and deciding what they think is best for their coaches. If the evidence is robust and has been rigorously examined, then you will have a clear justification for the programme the why aspect. This decision as to the what and the why then informs discussion about the coaches and mentors who will be invited to participate in the programme as well as who may be best placed to manage the

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Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme in Sport 4

Action Images Limited/Reuters

overall programme the who aspect. This decision is often described as getting the right people on the bus, which is normally made after the decision about where the bus is going the outcome or what of the programme, as previously described. In addition to identifying the right mentors, it is crucial that the mentors specific role is thought about, agreed and understood by everyone involved in the programme. Think of a mentor as:

within their coach development system. Expectations of mentoring and its purpose differ from the technical advice role required by less experienced coaches to the critical friend and supporter required by more experienced coaches. Selecting the right people In any formal mentoring programme, the three key roles are: coach mentor programme manager. For the pilot project, there was an independent consultant appointed to help initiate, implement and review the programme. Your organisation may decide that such a role would be useful or that your identified programme manager could readily fulfil this function. Each organisation will make decisions about how precisely to set up and run a mentoring programme based on its own infrastructure and resources available. In terms of the three central roles, each will now be set out in greater detail of what the role entails and the key attributes that each role requires in order for the programme to be optimally effective.

Getting the right people on the bus is normally after the decision about where the bus is going.

Someone who facilitates an individual coachs development by encouraging self-reflection and critical analysis.

You will be better placed to differentiate the role of a mentor from that of, for example, a technical adviser. If your organisation has decided that the major issue for coaches is their lack of knowledge or skills, then providing coaches with suitable technical advisers may be sufficient to address your development gap. Indeed on reviewing the pilot programme, one of the sports identified a valuable role for technical advisers

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5 Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme in Sport

Coaches The primary prerequisite for coaches is their commitment. They must be motivated to develop their coaching. One of the keys to success often cited is the voluntary nature of a mentoring programme in other words, people choose to be involved rather than being compelled or coerced. If a coach feels that they do not wish or need to develop further then participation in a mentoring programme is likely to have no/little impact. Open-minded coaches who actively seek and welcome constructive feedback will benefit most from mentoring. Apart from these few personal attributes, it does help if the coach has the time to devote to the programme and the opportunity to practise and receive feedback on their coaching. Ideally, coaches should be actively coaching at some time during the programme so that they can analyse their current practice, gain feedback and explore new strategies. Coaches must enter the programme with the mindset that this is a valuable investment of their time in terms of furthering their own development in coaching rather than yet another task or chore that they must do that will add yet another pressure to their already busy lives.

Mentors In order to fulfil their overall role of facilitating a coachs development by encouraging self-reflection and critical analysis, mentors will require relevant knowledge, skills and personal attributes. Table 1 identifies examples of such requirements. This is not intended as a comprehensive or definitive list, but rather to help you understand what type of people you need to be thinking about when selecting your mentors. This table is based on a more extensive list that appears in Mentoring in Sport 2. Programme manager Ideally, the person who coordinates and manages the programme should be someone with sufficient time and energy to devote to ensuring the effectiveness of the programme. The manager is normally a full-time member of staff working with the governing body or commissioning organisation. The results of the pilot study suggested that the manager needs to have protected time to do the job and that it is helpful if they are based sufficiently close to the mentors and coaches to ensure that meeting up, when necessary, is not too difficult. It is useful if the manager understands the mentoring process, has good interpersonal and communication skills and is able to act as an objective arbiter in cases of mismatches or conflict.

Table 1: Examples of knowledge, skills and personal attributes required by mentors

Knowledge
Learning styles and preferences Self-reflection process Goal setting Expertise development process Profiling Role of a mentor in general and the developmental stage of the mentee Processes for structuring sessions (eg GROW model) Processes for encouraging feedback and self-reflection (eg REVIEW model)

Skills
Questioning and active listening Goal setting Managing feedback Observation and analysis Communication and building relationships/rapport Challenging Open-minded Objective Empathetic Approachable Trustworthy

Attributes

Role model

Agreeing boundaries Negotiating Decision making Planning and reviewing Organisation Time and conflict management

Committed Honest and sensitive Self-aware Genuine interest Positive Willing to give up time

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Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme in Sport 6

Recognition that their skills are valuable and that their organisation wishes to invest in their continued professional development will be reward enough.

Whereas the governing body of the sport will set the parameters for the mentoring programme, the programme manager should be responsible for ensuring that the programme is implemented as intended, in line with the policy and procedures agreed by the governing body. Such policies and procedures would normally include aspects such as:

the overall aim and structure of the programme operational details such as duration of programme, suggested number of mentoring meetings and interventions confidentiality and disclosure knowledge of how potential risks should be managed. Having decided on the outcome, rationale and people involved, the format and structure of the programme needs to be considered the how aspect. While discussing and deciding on the particular structure of the programme, it is also useful to explore and outline time frames the when aspect as the timing of the programme in relation to the coaching season was one crucial factor identified from the pilot programme.Key considerations when planning the structure and timing are: the coaching season informs when to start, review and conclude the programme the matching of mentors and coaches (eg skills-led or geographical?) the ratio of mentors to coaches how many coaches can/should be allocated to one mentor what training and orientation will be needed and how best to structure this suggested frequency and/or number of mentoring interventions degree of emphasis to be placed upon face-toface meetings, direct observation and feedback on coaching practice. One aspect that provokes discussion and some controversy is the issue of payment or other incentives being offered to the people involved. Ultimately, this is a decision for your organisation. The decision may be taken on pragmatic grounds on the basis of money and other resources available at the time or it may be taken on the basis of the message your organisation wishes to send. In some mentoring programmes, mentors have been required to enter into a formal contract with the governing body that sets out their role and responsibilities in explicit terms (eg duration of programme, number of mentoring interventions required per mentee, reporting requirements). In such programmes, mentors have generally been offered some type of reward, financial or otherwise (eg match/event tickets, sports clothing/equipment or free professional development opportunities).

In the sportscotland pilot project Women in Coaching, structured mentoring was highlighted as playing an integral role in the success of the project. Another key success factor was funding in that this allowed for mentors to be paid and for all other expenses to be covered. The advantage of this approach is that the mentor is contractually obliged to fulfil their role and responsibilities. If they do not do their job as set out, then they do not qualify for their payment or other reward. The disadvantage of this approach is that perhaps the mentors motivations may change and that the essentially voluntary nature of the endeavour, which is often quoted as a key success ingredient, is taken out of the programme. For many mentors, the recognition that their skills are valuable and that their organisation wishes to invest in their continued professional development will be reward enough. Although organisations may decide to pay mentors, this should not be the mentors only motivation to contribute to the programme. Paying mentors is one very tangible way of recognising their value to the organisation and ensuring they are not out of pocket at the end of the programme, but no mentor should be invited to contribute to a programme if this is their primary motivation. When deciding on the specific policy on payment for mentors the general options to consider are: payment of a nominal sum to cover expenses and duties, paid on completion of any specified duties (eg a certain number of mentoring meetings and/or the submission of a mentoring record) expenses only to be paid as appropriate on receipt of mileage or other claims no direct payment but recognition of mentors work via other incentives this may sit more easily with some sports (eg sports clothing/equipment or tickets for events) no payment but increasing the perceived value of the role through publicising benefits of becoming a mentor, resulting in people striving to be one of this perceived high status or elite workforce. For coaches, the inherent benefits of taking part in a mentoring programme are generally sufficient and no further reward is deemed necessary. At times, simply being selected to take part in such a programme is sufficient recognition of the good work the coach is doing, ensuring that the coach feels valued by the organisation. Also, if the mentoring programme is focused on support towards an award or qualification then attaining that goal should be sufficient reward and recognition in itself.

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7 Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme in Sport

sports coach UK

Programme Implementation and Management

Important aspects that need to be considered in this phase are:

Matching/Pairing
Setting up the 'matching' process. Facilitating the first meeting of coaches with mentors.

Development/Training
Facilitating the identification of development needs of coaches and mentors. Provision of associated training and/or orientations.

Monitoring/Review
Monitoring and recording progress. Managing the interim review process and revising the programme as appropriate.

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Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme in Sport 8

As an example of how a programme may be structured, the pilot project was set out as follows:

November 2010 Workshop involving: key staff from Sport NI; sports coach UK; Hutton Park Consulting; selected coaches and programme managers (all full-time paid employees) from the governing bodies and 1:1 meeting between programme manager and consultant to discuss specific context and issues (mentors had not been appointed at this stage)

Clarify the aim Get to know each other Discuss existing knowledge and views about mentoring Identify key principles, issues and processes related to mentoring project and programme Undertake a training needs analysis (TNA) and draft a Personal Development Plan (PDP) only for coaches.

January 2011 Workshop involving: key staff from Sport NI; sports coach UK; Hutton Park Consulting; selected coaches; mentors and programme managers from the governing bodies

The specifics of the programme Agreed ways of working Key skills needed within a mentoring programme Coaches and mentors practising these skills while working together.

Field-based mentoring3

April 2011 Planning/review meeting involving: key staff from Sport NI; sports coach UK; Hutton Park Consulting; selected coaches; mentors and programme managers from the governing bodies

Discuss generic development needs Identify intial implementation challenges and discuss solutions Agree next steps and process for reviewing progress.

July and August 2011 Distribution of mid-term online review survey to: coaches; mentors and programme managers

Obtain feedback from coaches and mentors Evaluate programme to date Contribute to mid-term review and thoughts on next steps.

November 2011 Review meeting involving: key staff from Sport NI; Hutton Park Consulting and programme managers

Review results from survey as a group Identify common issues and learning Conduct 1:1 meetings between consultant and project managers to focus on specifics of each programme and explore options to develop further.

December 2011 Review meeting involving: key staff from Sport NI; Hutton Park Consulting; coaches; mentors and programme managers

Summarise work to date and examine results from survey Elicit any additional comments since survey Summarise key issues from review session with programme managers Identify key learning points Make recommendations for future development.

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9 Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme in Sport

The key learning from the pilot programme was that the mentors should have been in place from the outset. It would have helped greatly if, after meeting with programme managers to agree a suitable format and structure, all the individuals concerned attended the first workshop meeting. It is vital that these events are not simply meetings where individuals are informed about what is about to happen but that they have an opportunity to clarify issues, challenge and input their ideas into the final programme. An interactive workshop format was found to be most valuable. The coaches, mentors and programme managers involved in reviewing the pilot programme highlighted the following aspects that could have been improved in terms of how the programme was managed and structured:
Both the mentor and I need to arrange a meeting prior to the start of the season. This will enable a stronger impact from the process. Further meetings of all coaches and mentors would be beneficial.
sports coach UK

Some form of online community where we can post and share ideas and guidelines to coach and mentor as to what is expected from both of them.

In relation to the mentoring role, this should vary to match the coachs stage of learning and development. In Mentoring in Sport, Berliners five stages of expertise are identified as: Novice Advanced Beginner

Perhaps better matching of coach/mentor.

Competent Proficient

Have confirmed mentors in place prior to the start of the programme so the process can begin immediately.

Expert. Greater detail about the characteristics and mentoring implications of each of these stages can be found in Section 9 of Mentoring in Sport 2. Table 2 summarises four similar stages of learning and identifies the key mentoring role and skills appropriate at each stage. Also, regardless of the coachs stage of the development, most mentoring relationships will evidence a similar general evolution. Clutterbuck and Megginson (2006) provide a useful summary of these phases of a mentoring relationship: building the relationship setting the direction progressing winding down moving on. sports coach UK has simplified these into three progressive phases of a mentoring relationship as: initiation transition ending.

The opportunity for cross-sport mentoring. I feel this would be very beneficial as it would let us see what is happening in other sports.

The final point about cross-sport mentoring is an important one. At the time of the review, the programme had not evolved sufficiently to develop cross-sport links and mentoring opportunities. However, in other programmes, this may well be built in from the outset. Whereas beginner and less experienced coaches tend to favour mentors within their own sport, more experienced and expert coaches appreciate the benefits that cross-sport mentoring can bring. This issue of when cross-sport mentoring may be of greatest value links to two key points that need to be addressed: The mentoring role should evolve depending on the coachs stage of development/expertise. Any mentoring relationship will evolve and evidence progressive developmental stages.

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Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme in Sport 10

Table 2: Mentor roles at different learning stages

Stage of Learning
Modelling

Mentor Role
Providing a model; being observed/working together

Mentor Skills
Demonstrating competency; explaining/teaching

Competency

Coach

Observing; giving feedback; facilitating reflection

Reflection

Facilitator and challenger

Objective support; questioning; managing learning

Autonomy

Partner/co-enquirer

Communicator

In the initial stages, the relationship is likely to be an unbalanced one as the mentor may have knowledge, skills and experience that the mentee does not. At this stage, mentors should make their role as facilitator very clear, encouraging mentees to take responsibility for their own learning from the outset. Progressively, the relationship should evolve into a two-way process of personal development with coaches developing greater self-reflection skills and learning more from their experiences. As this symbiotic relationship evolves, the mentors role changes, to assisting, supporting and challenging, rather than directing, the development process. Inevitably, the mentoring relationship will need to be concluded effectively at some time. Your programme may identify specific start and end points or a natural conclusion may be built into the programme (eg when the coach has attained a specific qualification). Although much time and effort is spent on planning a mentoring programme and building a mentoring relationship, relatively little thought or preparation is given to the crucial end phase of the mentoring process. This phase offers a valuable opportunity for reflection and development regardless of whether the relationship has been positive or not. If the conclusion is to be effective and a mutually satisfying learning experience, both partners must be prepared for it. Assuming too much and not taking the time to check out assumptions can make a big difference in the effective conclusion of a mentoring relationship. The inevitability of concluding the relationship and even the

establishment of a no-fault early conclusion needs to be discussed and agreed in the initial, negotiating phase of their relationship. In order to bring the mentoring relationship to an effective conclusion, mentors should: monitor the coachs level of dependency on the process maintain boundaries and ensure focus on the coachs needs and development develop a concluding strategy and plan actions appropriate to the coachs needs, ensuring that these are balanced with your organisations requirements identify any future support needs of the coach and take appropriate action identify and agree with the coach the progress made and key achievements implement the concluding strategy in line with your identified actions review progress and amend the strategy and actions where necessary identify the rationale for any unplanned ending of the mentoring relationship where this occurs and take the appropriate actions in line with your organisations procedures maintain accurate and up to date records of the concluding strategy and actions undertaken, in line with your organisations requirements.

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11 Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme in Sport

Reviewing the Programme

Examine and Assess

Apply

Address

Disseminate

Continually Improve

your programme on an ongoing basis

key lessons learnt by adjusting your programme as appropriate

the information needs of your organisation and other stakeholders

evaluation outcomes and lessons learnt with all key stakeholders

the effectiveness and quality of your programme.

As explained previously, the specific success criteria and evaluation process should have been discussed and set out at the planning stage, as should procedures for monitoring the programme and interim review points. A final, overall review and evaluation reflecting on action will provide useful learning for the future; interim review points provide for reflecting in action learning that will let you know whether any key adjustments or improvements need to be made to the programme as it progresses. It is simply too late to leave all reviewing and evaluating activity until the end because you run the risk of finding out things you should have been doing when it is too late. Quite simply, evaluation needs to be integrated throughout the programme as part of the support and supervision processes. This should include continual monitoring of the mentoring relationships and their progress toward agreed aims. Records that collate both qualitative and quantitative information efficiently and accurately need to be compiled. Ultimately, the success of any programme will depend on how well you are able to assess its effectiveness, demonstrate that it is meeting its objectives and address any development points. When designing your evaluation procedures, ensure you incorporate strategies and tools that will help you to complete the process outlined in the diagram above.

The benefits of effective evaluation processes and mechanisms are that you will be able to: provide objective feedback to staff and participants about whether they are meeting their aims and objectives identify progress, achievements and milestones that warrant recognition and so increase motivation and commitment focus in on challenges early enough to address them assure your governing body/organisation and other stakeholders about the accountability of your programme

A final, overall review and evaluation reflecting on action will provide useful learning for the future.

develop the credibility that your programme is effective, valuable and merits continued support quantify and qualify experiences so that your programme can help others.

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Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme in Sport 12

Steven Paston/Action Images Ltd

Summary
Although many mentoring relationships will share common components and processes, each relationship is unique. This is what makes the mentors task so varied and rewarding. The principles identified and the processes outlined in this resource should be sufficiently flexible to fit comfortably with any mentoring programme designed by governing bodies of sport or other organisations. It should also be practical enough to provide useful guidelines for developing effective mentoring programmes and meaningful mentoring relationships. While acknowledging that common mentoring principles do exist, we must also remember that specific contexts may be quite different. It is worth noting that there is a requirement for mentored coaching to occur within UKCC endorsed programmes from Level 2. This is recognition of the

valuable role that mentoring can play in coach development. Even if mentoring is not a formal requirement of your governing bodys or organisations programmes, it should be evident how beneficial a well-planned mentoring programme can be to coaches who wish to develop their knowledge, skills and practice. The nature, purpose and structure of your mentoring programme will be specific to your identified needs, but the general principles and processes set out in this resource should have stimulated some useful ideas and at least help set you out in the right direction. More detailed information on mentoring principles and processes is widely available and a suitable reference list has been compiled at the end of the resource. The value of mentoring, as with coaching, lies in its effective practice so please ensure that this resource stimulates action and results in a well-planned, focused mentoring programme that supports coach development in a really meaningful way.

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13 Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme in Sport

Appendix 1 Summary of Key Phases and Components of a Mentoring Programme

Pre-programme planning

The OUTCOME
What do we need/ want to achieve?

The JUSTIFICATION
Why is this outcome the current priority?

The WORKFORCE
Who will be involved (coaches, mentors, programme managers)? Is reward/recognition needed?

The FORMAT
How will the programme be structured?

The TIME FRAMES

When will the programme start, finish and be reviewed?

Programme implementation and management

Matching/Pairing
Setting up the 'matching' process. Facilitating the first meeting of coaches with mentors.

Development/Training
Facilitating the identification of development needs of coaches and mentors. Provision of associated training and/or orientations.

Monitoring/Review
Monitoring and recording progress. Managing the interim review process and revising the programme as appropriate.

Reviewing the programme: develop tools and strategies to help you to:

Examine and Assess

Apply

Address

Disseminate

Continually Improve

your programme on an ongoing basis

key lessons learnt by adjusting your programme as appropriate

the information needs of your organisation and other stakeholders

evaluation outcomes and lessons learnt with all key stakeholders

the effectiveness and quality of your programme.

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Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme in Sport 14

References
Barnett, B. (1995) Developing Reflection and Expertise: Can Mentors Make a Difference?, Journal of Educational Administration, 33 (5). Berliner, D. (1994) Expertise: The Wonder of Exemplary Performance, in Mangieri, J.N. and Block, C.C. (eds) Creating Powerful Thinking in Teachers and Students. Forth Worth, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN: 978-0-155009-84-4. Cassidy, T. and Rossi T. (2006) Situating Learning: (Re)examining the Notion of Apprenticeship in Coach Education, International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 1 (3). Clutterbuck, D. (2004) Everyone Needs a Mentor. 4th edition. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel Management. ISBN: 978-1843980-54-4. Clutterbuck, D. and Megginson, D. (2005) Techniques for Coaching and Mentoring. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth- Heinemann. ISBN: 978-0-750652-87-2. Clutterbuck, D. and Megginson, D. (2006) Making Coaching Work: creating a coaching culture. Bingley: Emerald Group. ISBN: 978-1-843980-74-2. De Marco, G.M. and McCullick, B.A. (1997) Developing Expertise in Coaching: Learning from the Legends, JOPERD The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 68 (3). Egan, G. (1998) The Skilled Helper: A Problem-management and Opportunity Development Approach to Helping. 8th edition. London: Thomson Learning. ISBN: 978-0-495127-95-6. Glaser, R. (1996) Changing the agency for learning: Acquiring expert performance, in Ericsson, K.A. (ed) The Road to Excellence: The acquisition of expert performance in the arts and sciences, sports and games. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 978-0-805822-23-8. pp. 303311. Hiatt, J. (2006) ADKAR: a model for change in business, government and our community. Loveland: Prosci Research. ISBN: 978-1-930885-50-9. InVEST (2007) Evidencing the development of sports coach mentoring training, qualification and deployment. Research report for sports coach UK. Laborde, G.Z. (2006) Influencing with Integrity, Management Skills for Communication and Negotiating. Carmarthen: Crown House. ISBN: 978-1-899836-01-7. Parsloe, E. and Wray, M. (2005) Coaching and Mentoring: practical methods to improve learning. London: Kogan Page. ISBN: 978-0-749431-18-1. Parsloe, E. (1995) Coaching, Mentoring and Assessing. London: Kogan Page. ISBN 978-0-749411-67-0. Roche, G.R. (1979) Much ado about mentors, Harvard Business Review, 57:1428. Schempp, P.G., McCullick, B. and Mason, I.S. (2006) The development of expert coaching, in Jones, R. (ed), The Sports Coach as Educator: Re-conceptualising sports Coaching. London: Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-415367-60-8. pp. 145161. sportscotland Women in Coaching, www.sportscotland.org.uk/ChannelNavigation/Topics/TopicNavigation/Coaching/Women+in+coaching Stafford, I. (2011) Mentoring in Sport. Leeds: Coachwise Ltd. ISBN: 978-1-905540-86-0.

Endnotes
1 Visit www.1st4sportqualifications.com for further details regarding the qualification. 2 Visit www.1st4sport.com for further details regarding the resource. 3 For details of mentoring workshops, telephone the sports coach UK Workshop Booking Centre on 0845-601 3054 or find details at www.sportscoachuk.org/workshops or visit www.sportscoachuk.org/pdp-and-tnatools for further resources.

90791_1 Sport NI Planning and Managing a Mentoring Programme 2405_NoMMP:_ 30/05/2012 09:25 Page 14

Sport Northern Ireland is the leading public body for the development of sport in Northern Ireland.

sports coach UK works closely with governing bodies of sport and other partners to provide a comprehensive service for coaches throughout the UK. This includes an extensive programme of workshops, which have proved valuable to coaches from all types of sport and every level of experience. For further details, contact sports coach UK.

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