For some tough choices, it's best to seek counsel. Whether dealing with workplace issues or child and family responsibilities, many university and college students struggle to cope on their own. Often, students wonder how to make good life and academic decisions, and higher education student success coaching can help. How this success coaching is delivered can make all the difference in its effectiveness.
As a success coach, I understand just how important — and complicated — this facet can be. Many of my own students need different approaches to problem-solving at different times. Over the years, I've learned how to become a master of the “good cop, bad cop” mentoring routine, which is a necessary art. While I don't always get it right, it can be important to understand the benefits of each approach. For the most part, I can make those decisions by synthesizing both the micro and the macro — in other words, I pay attention to both the specific circumstances of the present moment and larger patterns of behavior.
The “Good Cop” Approach
Griffin was a student of mine who recently finished his sophomore year. Many of my students who experience academic trouble find it helpful to shed the burden of perfectionism and pretending. However, Griffin resisted letting go of the facade. He often said that his situation was due to someone else's fault or that he had it under his control. Any “bad cop” approaches I attempted were met with defensiveness and stubbornness.
I soon discovered that there was no other way he would do things than his own, so I gently opened the door and let “good cop” in. For example, many “good cops” might try to show care and respect for the person's needs before interrogation or questioning — like offering coffee or snacks or apologizing for bringing them down to the station. And while student success coaching should not be compared to an interrogation, I took the same approach with Griffin.
I let Griffin try doing it his way for a while, and when we met, I allowed him to discover how that plan was not working as well as he had hoped. I treated it as an intriguing experiment — how a math teacher might respond to a student who was clearly going about a problem incorrectly.
I approached Griffin with framing like, "Oh, what an interesting way to think about doing it! Can you show me how you plan to solve the problem your way?" Then I watched as he figured out on his own that his current practices were leading to the wrong solution. I'd then say something like, "I'm glad you showed me that. That was an out-of-the-box way to think about the problem, but now it needs tweaking. Let me show you another way we might approach it."
It's not manipulation unless you refuse to consider that the student may prevail in doing it the way you see as "wrong." Perhaps Griffin would be the first student to ace a class by never showing up and not turning in any work. In a universe full of infinite possibilities, I couldn't say it was impossible, right? And it was perhaps because of this openness on my part that Griffin eventually let me show him other ways to approach the problem.
The “Bad Cop” Approach
My student Tim, on the other hand, needed a different strategy. Tim required a firm hand along with common “bad cop” approaches. He was always looking for a soft spot or shortcut where he could get out of problems the easy way. Tim's ideas often led to the wrong solutions — but he was always good at finding a loophole.
He had gotten things past adults all his life. While in some cases it was due to privilege, in others it was due to his sheer force of will. He came to college believing that a few well-placed excuses combined with an innocent attitude would allow him to coast through university just as he had high school.
It must have surprised him when I called him out on his past behavior. However, in time, Tim decided to respect my opinions and listen to my solutions because I had been honest with him. Once I had seen through his act, it built trust between us that a “good cop” approach could not have achieved.
Deciding on the Best Approach
Most students need both a “bad cop” and a “good cop” approach from time to time, as well as a variety of other things. Perhaps one of the most complex parts of my job is figuring out what tactic will get through to the student most effectively. Sometimes I follow my well-trained instincts from the beginning with immediate good results — sometimes I don't figure it out until after much trial and error.
But, most importantly, I remind myself that one size does not fit all. My best decisions are always made when I take the time to get to know the person staring back at me from the other side of my desk. Only then can I determine whether to convince my student that her accomplice has already spilled the beans in the other interrogation room or offer her a cup of coffee.
Susan Marion is the Coordinator for Success Coaches at Tiffin University, in Tiffin, Ohio. She was instrumental in starting success coaching at the institution in 2007. The program now has 15 part-time success coaches and supports almost 100 students who are at risk academically.
Find Help With Student Success Coaching at Watermark
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