FAQS

ZIN Mentoring Program FAQs

What is the ZIN™ Mentoring program?

The ZIN™ Mentoring Program consists of experienced ZIN™ mentors and 1-3 ZIN™ mentees per mentor. As a mentor, you will meet with a mentee five times – once to hear their goals and assess their skills, three times to practice the teaching skills they need the most (using the suggested exercises in this Guide for Mentors), and once to help set goals for the mentee's future progress. At the end of the process, mentees and mentors will provide feedback on their experiences.

Who can participate as a Mentor?

There are many qualities that make a good mentor. To participate as a mentor, you should have a sincere desire to assist mentees in improving their skills. You must be a ZIN™ Member in good standing for at least 2 years, and must have taught within the past 6 months (with the class being posted on zumba.com). You must also be willing to adhere to the ZIN™ License Agreement, what is taught in the Basic Steps Level 1 (B1) training course, the process and guidelines in this Guide for Mentors, and to encourage the use of ZIN™ benefits as supporting resources whenever possible. Of course, your unique flavor and personality should shine through, but you should perform the bulk of the mentoring using the materials already provided by existing ZIN™ materials and the program curriculum.

Who Can Participate as a Mentee?

Mentee(s) will typically be new ZIN™ Members who haven't yet taught their first Zumba^® class. Other common mentees are ZIN™ Members who, while not new to ZIN™, still haven't taught regularly or who have had problems with their teaching skills. This program is focused on teaching skills, as opposed to marketing. If a potential mentee's greatest needs are marketing, you can still help them, but it would be outside the scope of this particular program.



What is the goal of the program?

The goal of the ZIN™ Mentoring Program is for an experienced ZIN™ Member, acting as a mentor, to provide the ZIN™ mentee(s) assistance in preparing the skills needed to confidently teach a Zumba^® class.

How long is the program?

This program should take approximately eight weeks to complete five meetings with your mentee(s).

Below, you'll find a sample calendar for the mentoring process. To allow the mentees time to practice and solidify skills they learn in the skills meetings, we suggest spacing the meetings approximately one week apart.

Once mentors and mentees have enrolled in the Program and have teamed up through our matching system:

Week One – Connect with your mentee by phone or email and arrange your first meeting. Send your mentee their self-assessment form and discuss what to expect for the first meeting.

Week Two – First meeting with your mentee. Talk about goals, self-assessment, and observe mentee teach 1-2 songs. Decide, together, which skills need the most practice.

Weeks Three through Seven – Three skills meetings, using exercises in the manual that will be most helpful to improve the mentee's skills. Mentor should select 3-5 exercises prior to each meeting and work on these concepts with the mentee. In order to give the mentee time to practice and solidify the skills learned during these meetings, they should be scheduled approximately one week apart. Extra time is budgeted into the calendar for vacations, scheduling issues, etc. If the meetings finish sooner than week seven, you may proceed to the final meeting sooner than week eight.

Week Eight – Final meeting with mentee to celebrate the mentee's growth, help the mentee set goals for future growth.

The typical time commitment for the mentor is 8-12 hours per mentee, or 1-2 hours per week. The mentee will be expected to practice the skills taught by the mentor and also to attend several other instructors' classes; therefore the mentee's time commitment will be approximately twice that of the mentor's.

How to measure success

Each Zumba^® instructor is a unique individual. The most successful mentoring relationship starts from a clear communication between mentor and mentee - communication regarding what skills the mentee needs to learn, how the mentor can help the mentee, and what timeframe the two agree to work together towards developing those skills. This is done during the first meeting. Some mentees will learn quickly and may be ready to teach individual songs or even an entire class at the end of the mentoring period, while others may need a little more practice before they are ready to teach. In some cases, you may have a mentee that will need extensive practice before they are ready to teach. Success is measured based on the mentor and mentee's agreement that these two objectives have been achieved:

• The mentee has made progress towards preparing the skills needed to teach their first Zumba^® class
• The mentee understands what else they should do in order to keep growing after the initial mentoring period

How to find a mentee?

Most mentoring teams will be matched online through our matching process.

ZMP participants will receive an email from the online matching website. Within the website, you will have the opportunity to enter your name, contact information, and the distance you are willing to travel to mentor. Mentees will examine the list of mentors in their area and will request mentors through the team matching website.

As you are getting to know your potential mentee, consider the following:

• Are you available on the same days / times?
• Do either one of you have practice space, or can you find space?
• Are you close enough geographically to meet five times?
• Do you both have adequate time during the program timeframe to meet?
• Do either of you have vacations or other time constraints during the program timeframe?
• Do you feel the mentee needs the skills that the program is designed to teach (i.e. if their only desire is to strengthen their marketing materials or ask for advice in buying a studio, that’s out of scope)?

We hope to do as much matching as possible using our online matching process. However, there may not always be a perfect match between the locations of our mentors and mentees. If there isn't a geographical match for you during our call for participants, you may still participate as a mentor, perhaps as a remote mentor to a mentee who lives far away. This mentoring process could take place mostly through phone calls, emails, social media chats and/or videos.

What happens if the mentee still needs help after 8 weeks?

If the mentee would like to continue working on their teaching skills, they may enroll for another round of mentoring. They may do so with you, or with another mentor if they choose. Mentees may participate in the mentoring experience as many times as they'd like.

How many times can I be a mentor in the program?

As many times as you'd like! Once you enroll as a mentor, you will remain in the system as a mentor. If there is a period of time that you cannot be available to work with a mentee, you can easily switch your availability to inactive in your mentoring dashboard.

How many times can I be a mentee in the program?

As many times as you'd like! Whether you just graduated, ended early, or want to revisit the program at a later date - there are no limitations to how many times you can enroll as a mentee to improve your skills.