more information about ways to combine and refine snowboarding movements, see Pathways to Superior Snowboard Lessons: Te ‘Tiny Bubbles Approach’ (available through the PSIA-AASI Accessories Catalog at TeSnowPros.org).


PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT


Te first step in professional development is to tap into an awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses as an instructor. Tis can be done through introspection, as well as soliciting and carefully listening to others’ feedback. Repeat customers, close colleagues, valued friends, close family members, and direct supervisors are all good sources of feedback. Self-awareness not only forms the basis for planning your development needs but also relates intimately to others’ notions of your integrity as an instructor.


Begin asking for feedback with a well-timed, straightforward question such as, “What are some areas in which I excel and what are some areas in which I need to improve?” Be sure to get a wide range of opinions because every answer will be charged with elements of each person’s individual values. Try not to take the feedback too personally and always keep in mind that information is a powerful tool that will help make you a better instructor.


Now that you have opened your mind to understanding your opportunities for development, it is time to set specific, achievable, and possibly measurable goals. Understanding where your strengths and weaknesses fit into the skill types is the next step to determining where your goals fall on the spectrum of achievability and level of specificity. Being an effective instructor requires a broad set of hard and soft skills. Hard skills include any function of instructing that is teachable, testable, and has some ability to be measured. Tese include such things as: movement analysis, teaching concepts, riding, lesson protocols, and product knowledge. AASI’s certification and specialist exams gauge skills that are both teachable and testable; hence, they are mostly hard skills. In comparison, soft skills are not as tangible, but still very important since these are the skills that foster relationships and help you showcase your hard skills. Soft skills include things such as empathy, communication, motivation, teamwork, self-efficacy, ability to be coached, time management, problem solving, and conflict resolution. Broadly speaking, hard skills are easier to acquire and can be either high or low on the specificity spectrum, depending on the level of knowledge or skills that you are seeking to acquire. Tis is due to the measurable nature of hard skills. Soft skills are an extension of your personality. Tey may have longer achievement horizons, but they are more within your control.


Here are a few things to keep in mind when planning your development pathway. Development plans, whether professional or personal, have a lot in common. Start by considering your long-term goals, or where you would like to be in three to five years. Long-term goals include statements such as, “I want to achieve the highest instructor status/level in my ski and snowboard school,” or “I want to be more adaptable and versatile as an instructor.” Tese goals should be both inspirational and achievable. Te length of your timeline depends on the loftiness and/or complexity of your long-term goal. It is a good idea to write down your rationale for setting this as a goal, as it can be easy to lose sight of what motivated you to set the goal in the first place.


TheSnowPros.org INTRODUCTION 19


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