The role of the external mentor

It has been noted that "the development of a school grows from within". If this is true then what are the roles from without of the Advisory Service? It was felt by participants that counseling/facilitating would form a part of what they do. But what does this mean?

From Vonk J H C (1993) Supervision of Instruction: Mentor Knowledge and Skills Base; Induction Programme; CIEMST; National University of Lesotho we get the following ideas.

Some ideas about essential counselling skills targeted on individuals:

establishing a good and caring relationship which, amongst other things, involves being ‘open’, showing unconditional acceptance of whatever the client feels, respecting what is told in confidence.
being a good (active) listener which, amongst other things, involves mastering techniques such as paraphrasing, probing, and reflecting feelings.

assisting with behavioural change eg by providing appropriate information and/or alternatives, encouraging decision making, and planning for further learning/training..
knowing where to find appropriate information or, if the problem is beyond you, knowing who to recommend the client to see.

But many people find it difficult to keep to this ideal of counseling and tend rather to push forward their own perceptions, experiences and solutions. The following are some ideas to help prevent yourself from becoming an instructor:

look at yourself as a facilitator of the other person’s thinking process
listen rather than speak
act as a mirror of the actions and the feelings observed ie notice them and describe them but do not ‘judge’ them

be non-directive rather than directive ie offer several options or suggestions regarding any topic and let the client choose which to go with.

But, Advisers also work with departments as a whole ie with groups, or possibly teams, of individuals. Teams can also be mentored. The essential processes would be similar to those mentioned above but there might be a need for some degree of input about team roles and team dynamics so as to give individuals a conceptual field and vocabulary set to understand and talk about their relationships.

See The types of people in groups and Group work and Team dynamics

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