Positive Charting for Mentor Officials

Positive Charting is a great tool for experienced officials who are mentoring newer officials. Positive Charting is a method for acknowledging improvement and increasing the number of successes that your mentee official achieves. It also creates a positive atmosphere in which officials are more willing to work on the areas of their game that they do need to improve upon.

Here is how Positive Charting works:

Write the name of the official you’re mentoring in the box on the Positive Charting Form. If there is a specific action you want to look for with that person (for example, making crisp signals, hustling to get into position) write it in the space marked “Look-For.”

Look for the positive things your fellow official does. Whenever you see one, jot a note under the official’s name (over time you’ll develop your own shorthand. The key is to write enough so you’ll remember it when you get to step #4 below.) Remember to look for crew-building things that officials do to support each other as well as their physical actions.

Be honest. Don’t write something that is not true. This is the hard part – you have to find specific positive things to comment on.

After the competition is over and your fellow official has completed his/her duties, take time to sit with him/her to debrief what you saw. Use the positive charting form, linked below, to give specific feedback on what he/she did well.