Mentorship
Mentoring Programme
The World Triathlon Mentoring Programme has been developed by the World Triathlon National Federation Services & Development Department and the World Triathlon Women’s Committee, supported and approved by the World Triathlon Executive Board. The World Triathlon Mentoring Programme has been designed to:
- Increase and sustain the number of women and people with disability in leadership roles in coaching, technical officiating, and governance in triathlon.
- Develop the skills of male and female coaches, technical officials, and administrators/leaders with real potential to make a significant difference to triathlon in their own federations and continent.
- Create a sustainable mentoring programme that will have a significant impact on the sport of triathlon.
The programme operates across the 5 Continental Confederations, preparing a group of trained volunteer mentors to support individuals who have shown real potential to be the sport’s next generation of leaders. The programme is purposefully designed to increase underrepresented groups in triathlon, namely women, people with a disability and those from developing national federations (NF groups 2, 3B and 3A). It is proposed that the following inclusivity targets are applied to the composition of the Mentor / Mentee population:
Mentors
- Attend the World Triathlon training for mentors
- Liaise regularly with the World Triathlon, Continental Confederations and National Federations and contribute to the identification of potential mentors and mentees
- Coordinate the applications and Continental Selection Panel and, in conjunction with the World Triathlon, identify appropriate mentors and mentees
- Facilitate the matching of mentors to mentees in line with World Triathlon guidance
- Manage mentoring programmes by supporting mentors and mentees
- Ensure mentors and mentees complete the required monitoring and evaluation processes
- Manage challenges between mentors and mentees and assist in finding resolutions
- Liaise with the Mentoring Programme Managers and assist with the overall monitoring of the programme
- Support the administration of the Education Hub
- Contribute to webinars and other community of practice activities
- Attend the World Triathlon training for mentors and sign the mentorship agreement (including the list of their assigned mentees)
- Communicate with each mentee to build rapport and trust and establish initial needs and goals
- Record mentoring interventions on the World Triathlon platform in line with an agreed protocol
- Conduct regular mentoring interventions with each mentee (normally monthly) in line with guidance and complete their own confidential record of goals, progress and actions
- Commit to giving 6-8 hours per month
- Refer unresolved challenges to their Continental Mentor Lead (CML) to agree on solutions
- Conduct a 9-month review to document mentee progress and agree on next steps (to continue, to wind down, to amend) and agree on new mentoring relationships as negotiated with the -CML
- Identify personal learning and growth gained through the mentoring programme
- Participate in webinars and other community practice activities
- Complete the World Triathlon Mentoring Programme evaluation process as and when requested by the CML
Prospective applicants must have:
- excellent rapport-building and interpersonal skills
- sound knowledge in their specified discipline (coaching - minimum World Triathlon Coaches Level 2 Certification or equivalent; technical officiating - minimum World Triathlon Level 2 TO Certification; and governance/leadership) and knowledge of where experts can be accessed
- open-mindedness, with a hunger for personal learning and development
- passionate about developing other coaches/technical officials/administrators
- commitment to providing 6-8 hours per month of mentoring time
Ideally, applicants will:
- be self-aware and have good reflective skills
- have experience of mentoring other adults or have had a successful experience of being mentored
- have experience of helping other adults to learn (e.g. facilitator)
- have sound IT skills
Mentees
- Complete the mentee ‘online orientation programme’ and formally commit to the programme and their assigned mentor
- Initiate and prepare for meetings/interventions (normally monthly) with their mentor-
- Record their agreed goals, progress and future actions for their personal use
- Take responsibility for their own learning and development through the mentoring relationship
- Conduct a 9-month review to document progress and agree on the next steps (to continue, to wind down, to amend)
- Complete the World Triathlon Mentoring Programme evaluation process as and when requested by the Continental Mentor Lead or their mentor
Prospective mentee applicants should:
- have demonstrated the potential to progress to a higher level in their discipline
- be able to display their open-mindedness and hunger to develop their coaching/technical officiating/administrative/governance/leadership skills
- be willing to take responsibility for their own learning and development (e.g. initiating mentoring conversations)
- be willing to commit to 6-8 hours per month of mentoring time