Role Model? Coach? Mentor? Yes, Please! Building a Strong CFI Team

Role Model? Coach? Mentor? Yes, Please! Building a Strong CFI Team

How do we grow quality flight instructors when most current CFIs are building time, geared toward advancing their careers to the airlines? How does being a role model, coach, and/or mentor to these CFIs help? Are these roles the same? Which one are you? How do you know what’s the right role right now? How can you become better at each?

Drawing on 25 years of leadership experience in the software industry, Rick Miller, Chief Flight Instructor at Lunken Flight Training Center, presents the distinct purposes and strengths of role models, coaches, and mentors.

He’ll present tools and techniques to help you flourish as a role model to inspire and motivate young CFIs by example, as a coach to focus on skill development via targeted, timely feedback, and, lastly, as a mentor to young CFIs to build long-term, supportive relationships to guide them through their career challenges essential for their development. By understanding these distinctions, you and your leadership team can create and execute a development program for each CFI.

We’ll explore unique approaches that include interview tools, personality assessment skills, constructive feedback practices, regular one-on-one tools, targeted and comprehensive development plans, observational techniques, peer reviews, and more to cultivate not just competent instructors, but also engaged team members who inspire future generations of pilots.

This approach contributes to a well-trained CFI workforce, leading to a more robust student training environment with safety and excellence at its core.

Presenter