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Common Mistakes to Avoid!

• Inconsistency

• Starting strong, finishing weak and also vice versa, starting weak thereby making future enforcement difficult

• Lack of social life... becoming too overwhelmed in the job

• Trying to do too much early in the semester thereby negatively affecting their academic progress

• RAs creating a floor dependency on themselves rather than challenging the floor to become autonomous and self-governing.

• Violating a confidence even when it seemed like it would be helpful to do so at the time

• Thinking they have to be perfect and therefore being defensive or evasive about a situation in which they realize they erred

• Trying to appear too cool to residents in an attempt to be
  respected

• Not being able to say no...they realize mid-semester just how
  overcommitted they've become and have to then start begging off of things

• Underestimating the time commitment

• Not taking advantage of early semester down time

• Being overly aggressive towards enforcement

• Not spending enough time those first few weeks getting to know the residents

• Not studying the roster to aid in the name/face recognition

• Being unprepared for the first hall meeting (too nervous, not planned out well, inappropriate ice breaker, etc.)

• Not giving concrete examples of what it means to be in a community (acceptable noise levels, use of public bathroom, saying "hi", not leaving doors open/propped, etc)

• Reflecting the message "I'm here to be your friend" without the foresight of how difficult that will make confrontations

• Not realizing how drastically they go from Jane or Joe Nobody to Jane or Joe the RA everywhere they go...living in a fishbowl brings about other mistakes like participating in gossip, drinking with friends, etc, and they don't realize just how those things can come back and bite them later on

• Not planning programs well in advance

• Poor time management

• They should avoid comparisons to their predecessor

• Not willing to ask questions

• Confrontation style....letting things slide "just this once" or being RA  Robo-commander

• Lack of late in the year community building

• Not being available or accesible early on

• Not setting expectations early enough in semester

• Not clearly explaining the RA role, especially to first year residents

• Doesn't program early enough

• Residents seeing poor organization style

• Friend/mentor/disciplinarian role mixed up

• Personalizing the behavior of residents...ie: interpreting student misconduct as a personal affront when in fact the behavior is not focused on the RA at all

• Being in for a rude awakening if they think that student misconduct can be eliminated simply by being friends with everyone...ie: assuming that RAs friends "won't put them in that situation"

• Not taking enough personal time

• Not realizing that behavioral changes do not happen overnight

• Forgetting that you have to gain respect, it's not granted to you just because of the title

• Everyone does not see things from the same perspective

• That its ok to ask for help

• The willingness to work hard waning too soon, meaning, they do a great job bonding in training, getting the halls ready for opening and welcoming the students, however, as soon as the initial "welcome to college" programs are done, they relax

• Trying to do everything themself without asking for help or delegating

• Being reactive instead of proactive

• Avoiding residents---try to spend just 5 minutes a week with each resident at a minimum to inspire confidence in using the RA as a resource

• Thinking, "Oh, I have a whole semeseter to get this stuff done." They forget how quickly those 15-17 weeks go

• Trying to accommodate everyone's needs and not being able to set up appropriate boundaries

• Not reporting incidents

• Not establishing an open door policy

• Using gossip, rumors or second hand information for the basis of their opinion of someone

• Not developing a support system on staff