Strength Based Mentoring

Check out another great bulletin board display, from Teresa in Sutherland.  The intention is to get everyone (not just mentees and mentors) thinking about their strengths.  Teresa is planning to change out the theme cards at the bottom every few weeks or so.  We love this idea!

Partnerships form around us every day. They are formed for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include: To “make up” for a lesser talent. For instance, if a person has a lesser pattern in the Strategic theme, he or she may want to partner with someone with intense talent in this area when it comes time to create strategy for achieving a specific objective on a short timeline. In this way, one person leverages the talents of another to accomplish the objective. To “take over” where one person leaves off. For instance, in a car dealership, one person might help you decide which car to buy, and another person will write up the purchase agreement. Both people contribute something unique and important to the purchase of your car. To “enhance” what one person already possesses. For example, a person high in Focus might partner with someone high in Achiever when it is crunch time on a specific project. In doing so, both people bring the best of who they are and the results can...

How you view and use each of your strengths is unique to you.  Each of your strengths will evoke different ideas, images, and sounds. Think about one of your strengths.  If you had to describe it, what words come to mind?  Using these prompts, identify some metaphors for each of your top five strengths. Looks like: Color: Smells like: Sounds like: How does it feel? We asked ourselves these questions at a recent staff development day and actually utilized a few markers and cardstock to highlight our learning: Consider this fun activity with a group of mentors or with your mentee.  These metaphors are cues to think about when you want to call on a particular strength.

Thanks to Ashley Denton in Missouri Valley for this awesome Halloween activity! "We're better when we share our real selves. We're better when we're really authentic. We're better when we all work together."  There was so much individuality going on in the decorating as you can see from the pics. Also, the matches fed off of their unique talents, gifts, and strengths to create their designs.  We had 5 categories:  1. Scariest 2. Most Embellished 3. Most Colorful 4. Best Design 5. Most Creative Our categories also fed into their strengths as individuals and as matches. They each seemed to pick a category that they were working towards.  How can you incorporate strengths into a fun activity like this with your mentee?

Here are some great visual displays of strengths from great strengths coordinators!  How are you celebrating your strengths today? Andrea in Fairbury:  at their elementary, featuring a strength of the week to learn more about all strengths. Robin in Freeman: Kicking off the new school year!

Check out this playlist of 1 minute-videos for a quick picture of each of the 34 strengths themes in action. (click ‘Playlist’ once directed to the YouTube site) This is a great resource to share with mentors and high school students who are learning about not only their top 5, but the strengths of those around them.

Thanks to Eylse Lyons, Lincoln mentor, for this guest post!  A great visual of how Elyse sees her strengths described.  Consider this activity with your mentee as your begin the school year! Input: Always looking things up Learner: Blocks that you use to start learning your letters Discipline: 12 pt Font. Times New Roman Significance: Biggest font, bright yellow, Underlined Achiever: A very busy font