5 Ways to Create EFFECTIVE Mentorship In Your Program
Mentorship is needed and provides much value to players. Here's 5 ways to set it up...
A Mentorship Ecosystem?
This may be the first time you have heard of this term. Mentorship is known all around the world and ecosystem is taught in science classes from the beginning of our education journeys.
Both can have great impacts on the people they come into direct contact with.
I spoke in detail about the five areas of mentorship in this week’s Player Development Pod episode. Which you can find here:
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE…
Here an excerpt about mentorship from my first player development book:
Our student-athletes’ maturity is vital to their ability to accomplish the goals they have for themselves. We also believe that relationships are vital to the each of our life experiences because they unite our teams, promote diversity, and build valuable connections between people.
Mentoring creates leadership opportunities for the student-athletes. There are five ways we provide mentorship in our program:
✦ Player to Player
✦ Former Player to Current Player
✦ Staff to Player
✦ Professional to Player
✦ Player to Community
Player to Player
In the mentorship model of player to player, we team our newcomers with older players in the program. We ask the mentor to meet consistently with his mentee. We also provide resources for the mentor to build an impactful relationship with his mentee; the resources dive into goal setting, personal development, and leadership strategies. We as a staff may check in with the mentor to see how the mentee is adjusting to the campus and our team. This practice and different aspects of this model are widely used in athletics.
Former Player to Current Player
In the mentorship model of former player to current player, we team current players with those who have been through the program and played for the university. This is a crucial mentorship model as this former player understands what it means to be a player for the university. They will understand the sacrifices the player will make over his career at the university. These mentors can be used individually or in a panel like setting to help our young student-athletes understand what to do to succeed as a student-athlete at the university. These mentorship conversations also help transition players into the university and transition the student-athletes into life after graduation. They can provide an immediate familial atmosphere for the student-athletes who are from out of state by creating a homelike experience for them. These relationships will prove vital in the student-athlete’s life after their playing career.
Staff to Player
In the mentorship model of staff to player, we allow for the organic mentorship that happens between those on staff with current players to happen. Like any organization there are lot of individuals who are invested in the athlete’s success. We understand our athletic staff, university faculty and staff will have many leaders who would be great role models for our current players. These mentorships aid the networking and communication development of our players. These relationships also help our players receive positive exposure to the world outside of their sport and sport culture they know. In this mentorship process, we would ask athletic and university staff to maintain the integrity and values we are teaching our players.
Professional to Player
In the mentorship model of professional to player, we seek to connect our players with professionals in their preferred career fields. This mentorship program begins in our career development programming with the externship process. We take our players and provide real life work experience for them in the field of their interest. Once they have had the experience, we encourage them to network through platforms such as LinkedIn to find other professionals in the field. After connecting and getting career information from these individuals, we encourage the players to ask the professionals to mentor them. This mentorship, done the right way, can create incredible career advantages for our players.
Player to Community
In the mentorship model of player to community, we have the opportunity for our players to make an immediate and lasting impact in the surrounding community. This mentorship begins in our community impact programming through connections to children and education space. In this space we create relationships with elementary and middle school programs with some programs focusing on the betterment of young men. Programs like this allow for mentoring. Once our players identify the individual who would be their mentee, we will go through the proper channels to ensure all the necessary rules and regulations are followed before setting up a formal mentor/mentee relationship. The goal for our players, when mentoring, is to be present and lead the mentee to his full potential in life.
Our mentor program is another tangible opportunity for us to create generational impact in the lives of young people.
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2025 Player Development Summit
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