What skills is needed in the role?


Skills in the mentor role

The most critical skill in the role is coaching. At the bottom of this lesson you will find a lesson that is offered up to 100-Day Challenge Ambassadors on coaching. You may want to complete this lesson early on during the 100 days. 

Your coaching skills will be exercised during your calls or meetings with the Ambassadors and Team Leaders. The following framework can help you during your coaching conversation about how the team is doing. It is premised on a diagnostic to gauge the “health” of a team: EFRT. E for Energy. F for Focus. R for Roles. And T for Team dynamics. The table includes questions to lead with to check on each element of the diagnostic, and what to look for in the answers…

EFRT!: Energy

Questions to get started

How is it going? How is the team feeling?

What it looks like in a high-performance team

Maintains spirit of the challenge, stay motivated and has fun.

Warning signs

Team spirit lags. Team loses its spark. Attendance at meetings drops off. Fear. Anxiety.

EFRT!: Focus

Questions to get started

What can we celebrate this week? What are the numbers telling you?

What it looks like in a high-performance team

Teams are focused on the goal, address obstacles, and use data to track progress.

Warning signs

Non-essential activities consume time and energy. No new ideas. Feeling overwhelmed.

EFRT!: Roles

Questions to get started

Is everyone contributing? Are roles clear? What is particularly challenging for you as team lead?

What it looks like in a high-performance team

Teams, team leads, and sponsors are clear on their roles.

Warning signs

Role confusion. Team members don’t have clear tasks. Members don’t meet deadlines. People feel left out.

EFRT!: Team dynamics

Questions to get started

How are team members communicating? Are there any tensions in the team?

What it looks like in a high-performance team

Adhere to the team contract. Meetings are action-oriented and productive. Strong relationship between team members.

Warning signs

Conflict between team members. Tardiness. Quality lags. Dominating behaviours. Shirking behaviours.


Curious Coach

– From the Ambassador learning material – 

Nadim – the structure do not allow for another subtopic – so we need to add content below the lessons or create a separate topic on coaching

Thought starter reflection questions

Jot down thoughts on these questions – to the extent they are relevant to your experience at the session:
  • When did the mood in the event shift from “why are we here?” to “this could be interesting – I am excited to be part of this.” What triggered this shift? 
  • When did you have to go “off script” on the agenda or to change the agenda? What triggered this? What did you adjust? How did it go?
  • What was most surprising to you at the event?
  • What new insights did you gain about the issue at hand, and about the way leaders in the system interacted with each other?
  • Where did the conversation get stuck? What got it unstuck?
  • How would you characterise the level of trust among participants in the meeting? To what extent did this shift as the meeting progressed? To what do you attribute this shift, if indeed it happened?

Thought starter...

Reflection Questions 

Jot down thoughts on these questions – to the extent they are relevant to your experience at the session:

  • When did the mood in the event shift from “why are we here?” to “this could be interesting – I am excited to be part of this.” What triggered this shift? 
  • When did you have to go “off script” on the agenda or to change the agenda? What triggered this? What did you adjust? How did it go?
  • What was most surprising to you at the event?
  • What new insights did you gain about the issue at hand, and about the way leaders in the system interacted with each other?
  • Where did the conversation get stuck? What got it unstuck?
These are 100-Day Challenge Mentors. 

They did some work before you received the Challenge Note. This included:

  • Writing the Challenge Note, and making sure that the leaders of all the organisations represented on the team are comfortable with it – and committed to supporting the work of the team
  • Helping the leaders of these organisation recruit you and your colleagues to the team
  • Gathering some baseline data and other information that will help you and your teammates set your 100-Day goal and develop your plan.
  • Making sure all the preparations are made for a successful Lift-Off workshop, when you and your teammates will meet and get your 100-Day Challenge started. This includes venue, facilitation support, food, swags, comms, travel arrangements and whatever else is needed.

 

Mentors will participate in all or part of the Lift-Off Workshop, mostly at the start to provide context and answer questions, and at the end to give you and your teammates feedback about the goal and plan you develop.

During the 100 days following the Lift-Off Workshop, here’s what the Mentors will do:  

  • They will check in every two weeks with the team leaders to see how the team is doing and what support they and the team need.
  • They will keep other organisational leaders informed and engaged during the 100 days, and pull them in to help as needed.
  • They will participate in the last part of the Refuelling Workshop, halfway through the 100 days, to see what additional support the team needs, and to begin to plan with the team for sustainability and scale-up.
  • They will work with the team at the Sustainability Workshop to finalise recommendations on sustaining the results and building on the work of the team.