Mentors’ Feedback / Insights
I: What are the major concerns of the students? How can we help to address those issues in class and/or provide support to them after class?
- [SL Theme]The concept of Servant Leadership may not sink in among the students, more is left on the surface.
- Students do want to ask questions but usually there was not enough time after the pre-set questions have been covered
- [SL Theme] Look/Feel of the program: standalone topics with little linkage to the overall theme of Servant Leadership/ Other centredness
- Mentor: When on session is completed, what’s the next topic coming up? Is there a roadmap? ( back to linkage to key theme)
- Would shorter lecture, longer group discussion work better? Or lecture – small group by sections ?
- Mainland students’ obersvation: Speakers / mentors are largely foreigners (By design it is so, to demonstrate servant leadership even at senior status)
II: What has worked for you as mentors to encourage students to be more pro-active especially in sharing and taking the lead in their personal transformation?
- Need to get to know students better, and them to know mentors better, before we keep relationship after TWTS
- There are pros and cons of whether to group students in cohorts of similar year of study versus a mixed-group. We will continue to adopt our current ways of groupings ie. no specific segregation per seniority but more geared towards their request for specific mentor profile. Special consideration of cohorts may be useful depending on the situation eg during career discussions like the Nov 2021 session for UST+BU.
- How mentors connect with students:
- Thru offering career advice
- Breakfast before morning class
- Let students know she is in campus earlier (from __ time, so available for chat)
- Arrive early at lecture room to chit chat
- Fix lunch after class
- Offer weekends if students wants to talk separately
- Share/Forward/Post relevant articles, reflections, thoughts to students via Whatsapp group
- Strike a balance between mentor telling group about self & asking them to share
III. What may be some of the topics or approaches that we should consider incorporating into TWTS to keep our program content current and relevant?
- Students are more used to texting….. how can we leverage on this approach in their learning?
- [Revamp]Speakers to review their quotes, sources, authors to check that students know who they are
- Social Media Etiquette. How you say something, is it what they hear ( esp in addressing others)
- [Revamp]D& I , in Cultural Awareness Session? What companies do ( audits), how social values will change but how do we deal with it to uphold our values? ( Integrity= Consistency throughout workplace / home/ social)
- [Revamp] More organizations are looking into or using AI interviewing in some shapes or forms. Update our content to acknowledge the trend and add a 1-pager on tips and best practices.
IV: What role may our TWTS alumni play to enhance our program?
- Invite alumni to share during class: their lessons learnt in the workplace, and how they apply TWTS values
V: What other advice would you like to share with our newer as well as experienced fellow mentors?
- Class materials + previous recording sent to mentors for preparing own stories / lessons learnt
- Class host at class: start by recapping last session, end by reinforcing the linkage to Servant Leadership with Integrity (Roadmap)
- Class host to Mentors: In briefing highlight focus of the topics, share tips of past reaction, what to expect in discussion
- Mentors briefing in physical class : pair of mentors take turn to stay in lecture/ attend briefing
*Note: If you would like to share with us, please send us your feedback/insights to catherine.chan@ceoglobalhk.org.