1. Mentoring leaders in training
LQ mentoring
Mentoring leaders in training
You are welcome to adapt the training session to suit your venue, requirements, learner needs and the context of your training, ensuring you’re retaining the key learning points.
The accompanying training plan contains the key learning points and activities for each slide. In these PowerPoint trainer notes you will find background context and/or suggested delivery ideas to help you as a trainer as appropriate.
Insert your name here
Today’s trainer: 1

2. LQ mentoring
Aim
To give mentors the skills they need to support leaders working towards their Leadership qualification. 2

3. LQ mentoring
Objectives
Understand their role better and how it fits within the Girlguiding structure.
Know ‘what good looks like’ to be a leader in Girlguiding.
Know how to build a relationship with a leader in training.
Feel confident when it comes to assessing answers and evidence in the qualification book.
Know how to ask great coaching questions to leaders in training.
Know how to give effective feedback to a leader in training.
Know what to do when mentoring doesn’t go to plan. 3

4. LQ mentoring
Icebreaker 4

5. Your role LQ coordinator GO coordinator Verifier Unit leader
LQ mentoring
Your role
Girlguiding HQ
Country/Region
County
Division
District
Unit
LQ coordinator
GO coordinator
Verifier
Talk about who can support mentors to carry out their role, and who would be involved in the leaders in training .
Unit leader 5

6. LQ mentoring
Your role
The main job of a mentor in Girlguiding is to support a leader in training to get her Leadership qualification (LQ).
Mentors often act as an assessor by making sure that the leaders in training’s evidence and workbook meet the quality standards for the LQ.
Mentors will also use their experience and learning how to guide her leader in training. She might provide information or signpost her leader in training to the Girlguiding website and resources. 6

7. Activity What does ‘good’ look like? 7
LQ mentoring
What does ‘good’ look like?
Activity
This activity will get mentors thinking about what they should be looking for in a ‘good’ leader.
You will need:
Sticky notes
Flipchart paper
Activity:
Ask everyone to write an example of what they think makes a ‘good’ leader and stick it on the flipchart.
Group any similar sticky notes together, and talk about what is on there. Are there any that you wouldn’t expect? Some examples may be:
Follows Girlguiding programme
Clear communicator
Time efficient
Decision making
Integrity
Accountability
Draw participants’ attention to the Doing our Best quality standards, which focus on providing girls and volunteers with a consistent guiding experience.
Top tip: You might like to try this exercise by asking the volunteers to work in groups; They should draw around one person in their group, and write or draw what makes a ‘good leader’ inside the outline. You could then discuss their illustrations. 7

8. Building relationships
LQ mentoring
Building relationships
Think about the relationships in your unit:
What roles do you play?
When did you take on your roles?
When do you think is the best time to decide on roles and responsibilities?
How does this apply to mentoring?
Encourage the group to realise that the exchanges they have with their leader in training are more than just “signing off the LQ”. The relationship between the mentor and her leader in training is important to make sure that both take responsibility for their part of the deal. Mentoring shouldn’t be seen as just a series of sign off sessions, it should be a relationship - not transactional.
Discussion. Here, the group will think about setting boundaries and why it’s important – see training plan for full activity.
Direct mentors to the leader in training/mentor agreement on the website. 8

9. The Leadership Qualification (LQ)
LQ mentoring
The Leadership Qualification (LQ)
To become a leader, a volunteer must complete their LQ
The LQ can be completed by women aged 16+
There are four modules to complete for the full LQ.
There are competency based and practical tasks
It reflects what happens in a unit with a balanced and varied programme.
All mentors at the training session should have completed their leadership qualification, but use this as an opportunity to give them a brief overview and make sure they’re familiar with the current LQ.
Things to note:
Module 4 of the LQ is optional but compulsory for those who would like to run a unit.
As many members of the leadership team who wish to complete Module 4 may do so. The modules are:
Module 1: Your role in the programme.
Module 2: Your role in Girlguiding.
Module 3: Your role in safety and unit administration.
Module 4: Your role in managing the unit.
You can start working towards your Leadership qualification when you are 16. However, you can only become a leader once you are 18.
Encourage mentors to familiarise themselves with the book, in particular the introduction and pink boxes which contain importance guidance for leaders in training and their mentors.
Ask them how comfortable they are with the LQ content 9

10. Activity Assessing the LQ 10
LQ mentoring
Assessing the LQ
Activity
This activity will give mentors the opportunity to review some sample evidence for the Leadership qualification, and identify what strong evidence looks like.
You will need:
To put everyone into small groups
Sample evidence examples – if you don’t have examples, you can download some from the Girlguiding website (hyperlink in training plan)
Activity:
In groups, take a look at the sample evidence for the following question: “Discuss and give simple examples of how girls have gained in confidence, self-esteem and social skills and met challenges over a period of time.”
Discuss:
What is good?
What’s not good?
Is there anything missing
Bring the group back together and ask:
How else do people feel that the LQ could be evidenced?
Note: Much like the interest badges in the Girlguiding programme, leaders in training should be able to choose how they evidence and collate each part of the qualification so long as it’s clear and meets the criteria. We’ve seen qualifications evidenced via closed Facebook pages, videos, and a combination of lots of methods. Remember – it should all be signed off in their workbook! 10

11. LQ mentoring
Seeing it in action
Explain how to use the observation template, and where to find it (LQ mentoring webpages, link in the training plan). You could give some copies out to the mentors in attendance. 11

12. Signing off the Leadership qualification
LQ mentoring
Signing off the Leadership qualification
There are benefits to getting lots of people involved in the LQ process. But who can sign it off?
Anyone who has discussed, observed or worked with the leader in training can sign off elements of their qualification.
Ask the group for suggestions of who can sign off elements in the workbook and write them up on the flipchart.
Ideas might include: unit team, parents, girls, her commissioner or leaders in other counties.
Discuss the benefits of getting lots of people involved in the LQ process – remember, anyone who has discussed, observed or worked with the leader in training can sign off elements. 12

13. Activity Asking great questions 13
LQ mentoring
Asking great questions
Activity
Being able to ask ‘great’ questions, is a valuable part of someone’s role as a mentor as there will be times when a mentor needs to offer advice and give their opinion without giving instructions. There are two parts to this activity, the first part is a discussion and the second is in pairs.
“You should eat more healthily.”
“You should exercise more.”
How about…“You should do module 4 of the Leadership qualification in this way”?
You will need:
No resources needed – but pens and paper recommended to make notes
Activity:
Ask the group: ‘what is the benefit of asking thought-provoking questions rather than telling someone what to do?’
 Answers may include:
Through asking questions you encourage someone to think for themselves
You encourage someone to go and find something out rather than rely on you for the answer
When someone finds something out for themselves they are more likely to understand the answer rather than just taking it at face-value from someone else
Split the group into pairs. For 10 minutes, get them to think of some great questions they might ask someone they were mentoring if they were asked: ‘How do I find out about X?’
 Some questions they come up with may be:
‘What could you do?’
‘Where could you find that information?’
‘Who could help you with that?’
Bring everyone back together to share the questions they have come up with. 13

14. “I never said she stole my money…”
LQ mentoring
Feeding back
Being able to give constructive feedback is the key to effective mentoring.
Consider this sentence:
“I never said she stole my money…”
Give the group a minute to look at the phrase ‘I never said she stole my money’
Now say it emphasising the word in bold:
I never said she stole my money (someone else said it)
I never said she stole my money (I implied it)
I never said she stole my money (someone else stole it)
I never said she stole my money (she may have borrowed it)
I never said she stole my money (it was someone else’s)
I never said she stole my money (it was something other than money)
Talk about the differences in meaning given by the tone, and explain that listening for the inflection in the wording helps identify meaning.
Ask: How else can we identify meaning? Some examples may be:
Asking questions to clarify
Summarising
Paraphrasing
Recapping
Ask: Why would a mentor need to hone these skills? 14

15. LQ mentoring
Giving feedback
Constructive feedback is letting people know in a balanced way how they are doing.
One way of doing this is in a PIP sandwich -
A Positive comment
An Improvement
Try to be specific and comment on things that they can go away and act on. 15

16. Activity Making it constructive 16 You will need:
LQ mentoring
Making it constructive
Activity
You will need:
Everyone in small groups
Constructive feedback scenarios, available for download from the Girlguiding website (hyperlink in the training plan).
Activity: Identify which of the statements are constructive and which are not.
Tone is important when communicating with your leader in training, but as is the content of what you’re saying.
In groups of 2 or 3, give each group a scenario and the accompanying statements. Ask them to identify which of the statements are constructive and which are not.
Ask: how else might a mentor manage this conversation? Are there any other probing questions they could ask?
Depending on the personalities in the group, and the time available, they may like to try solving these through role play: one to play the role of the leader in training, and another to play the mentor. If there is a third person, ask them to take notes and highlight any reactions from either participant.
After 10 minutes, come back together as a whole group and discuss how this felt. Were there any useful phrases that the mentor used to approach this conversation? 16

17. Top tips for making it constructive
LQ mentoring
Top tips for making it constructive
1. Ask for their thoughts
2. Don’t make things personal
3. Be specific
4. Avoid ‘but’, ‘however’ and ‘although’ 17

18. Activity What would you do…? 18
LQ mentoring
What would you do…?
Activity
This activity will help mentors to think about and discuss their experience and confidence in a range of situations.
You will need:
Everyone together as a whole group
Agree/Disagree cards, available for download from the Girlguiding website (hyperlink in the training plan). Set these up on different sides of the space you’re working in.
‘What would you do?’ scenario cards, available for download from the Girlguiding website (hyperlink in the training plan).
Activity:
This is a whole group activity where participants respond to a series of scenarios they may come across during their time as a mentor.
Read aloud the list of statements, one by one, and ask the participants to respond by moving towards the sign that best describes how they feel about the statement.
After each question, ask follow-up questions to facilitate a discussion amongst the group. Possible questions might include:
Why did you choose that side?
What would it take for you to change your mind?
Can anybody share their experiences of this situation?
Note: you could use this space as an opportunity to revisit any questions which may have been added to the ‘car park’ the course of the session. 18

19. Mentoring webpages - www.girlguiding.org.uk
LQ mentoring
Where to go for more information
Mentoring webpages -
Any questions?
Closing slide 19