Orientation Leader Training

Orientation at a college is the foundation for a strong collegiate experience. By preparing new students properly, they can perform better in the classroom, make a stronger connection to the school, and are more likely to persist towards graduation. That’s some high expectations, and there’s a lot of different methods we employ to ensure that those expectations are met. One of the best methods to use is peer leadership. At my 9-to-5, we hire current students to shepard the new students through the orientation experience. Last week, we had our training for these student leaders. One session of the training focused on “customer service,” which is not the best phrase to describe how they are to be welcoming, anticipate needs, and smooth the way for the new students. We only had 1 hour allotted to teach these teenagers how to accomplish these goals, so here’s what I did.

First, we started with an icebreaker. The orientation leaders are expected to lead the new students in some icebreakers (because they are a good way to start conversations and relationships), and they need to experience the games for themselves. The icebreaker we chose for this session was a commonality-finding exercise: they were paired off, and they had to find 3 things they had in common with each other, and then share those commonalities with the larger group. This game was intentional, because it ties in with a learning element later. 

Next, we discussed the Fish Philosophy. You can read about it here, but it basically comes down to 1) being present, 2) choosing your attitude, 3) making their day, and 4) playing. If our student leaders can do these 4 things, their energy will impact the new students and their guests throughout the day. 

Following this, I wanted to give our leaders some practical steps. Practical application is important in adult learning theory, and these particular young adults have very little patience for thought exercises or memorizing facts– they want to know what they can do to be better at their job.This focus on application and doing is so important with this particular topic, because it needs to be clear that we are not expecting the leaders to be someone they aren’t. They can be themselves with their own personalities, we are just sharing some tools they can use if they want. We aren’t placing more value on extroverted personalities, instead, we are helping those who may be uncomfortable with aspects of the job get some behaviors to lean on. It’s not changing their core, just giving them options. I used some information I found on the Science of People website, to facilitate this aspect of the training. 

First, we watched the video “How to be More Likeable: 6 Proven Moves to Shine.” I chose this video not because I want the orientation leaders to focus on being “liked," but because it gave them practicle tools to use to connect with others quickly. When people are too focused on being liked they can easily stop doing right. Instead, some of the points in the video emphasize actions we can do to help people feel more comfortable. Aspects of the video especially important for this group are: “obvious” cues, we like people who like us, and we like people who are like us. For our orientation leaders, this means they need to be over-the-top with their friendliness cues– people have a tendancy to look for slights instead of likes. Second, the way to be liked is to like others. It can be difficult to like some people, especially those they just met, but they wouldn’t have applied for this job if they didn’t “like” new students; they can start from that point until genuine like follows. And lastly, we like people who are like us. This was why we chose the icebreaker at the beginning. Similarities don’t have to be physical; you can always find things in common with someone, even if you couldn’t look more different. 

We ended the session with learning how to introduce themselves, using A Formula for Introducing Yourself Perfectly Every Time. This was a practical choice, because they will spend all day during an orientation introducing themselves to parents and students. It is important they learn how to do so with confidence (and this is training for when they hit the job market as well!). After watching the video, they had time to craft their introduction and then share it with the group for feedback. 

Their first orientation session was just 2 days later, and I was so proud of how they did! They had great energy, made the new students feel comfortable, and did great introducing themselves and the school.