Information for experienced site visitors to mentor and evaluate new team members.

Questions to ask your accreditation agency:

• What are the mentoring responsibilities for team leaders or experienced team members?
• What are the requirements and qualities needed for being a mentor?
• What training or instruction is available for mentors?
• What are the procedures for dealing with difficult team members?
• What additional resources are available for new team members?
• Are new team members formally assigned to a mentor?

Team leaders have the difficult task of organizing a group of strangers into a cohesive and effective team. You must know the policies of your agency, clearly communicate your expectations to team members, and also determine team members' expectations in order to address their concerns and questions. By creating a friendly atmosphere that respects every individual, team members will be more open to your role as a leader and a mentor.

Encourage interdependency among the team members, recognizing and praising the achievements of the team as a whole, while providing private, constructive criticism for individual members as needed. Develop individual competence by sharing your knowledge and providing supportive directions to new team members and trusting them with responsibilities.

Except for rare situations, you will not have more than one new member assigned to your team. Personal teaching and advising will be especially appreciated by an inexperienced team member whether you provide the mentoring, yourself, or you ask a senior team member to assist you. On occasion, you may find that individuals who have been on several visits may still be new to particular roles, such as chairing meetings. Direct mentoring or strategically pairing team members of different levels will help inexperienced team members to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes that will help them to become more effective evaluators:

Knowledge: Prepare team members for the evaluation visit by assuring that they have access to all the necessary materials. If you've never worked with a particular team member before, you may find it useful to take some time to speak with him/her after any materials are sent and shortly before the team assembles at the institution. This will give the team member the opportunity to ask questions or voice concerns about responsibilities or procedures as well as give you the chance to get acquainted with the team member before pressures of the visit start.

New team members will benefit from your personal insights into the challenges of being a site team member. Information that is particularly helpful includes your suggestions for being effective, typical risks evaluators face, appropriate dress for various activities, protocol at meetings or with school representatives, and effective questioning techniques.

Skills: Because of a visit's short duration, the team leader needs to get the members to work as efficiently as possible. Assist them by reviewing the skills needed for asking questions, taking effective notes, chairing meetings, preparing effective team reports, thinking strategically, and doing other specialized tasks for the visit.

It will also be important to brief the team on key issues and develop a strategy for approaching the visit. To the extent possible, help team members to generalize their personal experiences to the skills needed for site visits, directing them to written materials as needed.

Attitudes: Attitudes are difficult to change in team members. As soon as possible, establish a dialogue with the team. Allow individuals to take an active role in meetings by showing that you value all ideas and by encouraging everyone to speak.

It will be cathartic to let team members voice thoughts and opinions about the visit and the institution during the first team orientation meeting prior to a formal discussion of the facts. This will allow any biases to be addressed, thereby reducing the chance that they will resurface later in the visit. Be careful, to clarify the distinction between factual information and opinion, emphasizing the importance for the team to only consider facts.

Model the values that you want to develop in your team members by showing collegiality and respect for the individuals at the institution and your team members. Site visitors may encounter difficult individuals, however team members must show patience, keeping evaluations constructive and positive.

Show sincere concern and support for team members who might be feeling anxious. Team members may express anxiety by either reticent or aggressive behavior. Although team members need to be assertive, they should be conscious of any underlying fears that affect their behavior.

Effective listening, advice and coaching can help you to assure growth in your team members; however, you can only judge yourself by honestly evaluating the quality of your mentoring and the outcomes of the team members. By the end of the visit, team members should feel ownership in the process and be responsible for the successful completion of the site visit.