Qualities of Effective Mentoring
Effective mentoring takes effort and is mastered through experience. Mentoring requires good interpersonal skills: listening, empathy, and problem solving. Good mentoring practices vary according to the needs and stage of professional and academic development of each mentee. Effective mentoring requires planning and thought to help the mentee develop into a fully independent researcher.
A mentor has many different roles. First and foremost, the mentor is the mentee’s academic advisor and/or supervisor, helping the mentee adapt to the culture of the department and the discipline and to navigate important relationships for professional success. A mentor provides advice and guidance on formulating research questions and on acquiring the skills needed carry out the research. Although the mentee’s research may be aligned with and advance a faculty member’s own research, a good mentor puts the mentee’s interests ahead of their own when it comes to the mentee’s project. A mentor provides support to the mentee during challenging times, both in their academic journey and in their personal lives. A mentor offers career advice and should always be ready to give prompt feedback and to write strong but honest letters of recommendation. A mentor should be open to and support the variety of career paths that interest the mentee, both within and outside academia.
The key elements of mentoring are listed below.
A critical element of the mentoring relationship is two-way communication to minimize misunderstandings about expectations. Because expectations can change as students and postdocs advance, these conversations should occur frequently—at least several times per semester. Mentors need to design and communicate clear goals and consider how personal and professional differences may affect expectations. Mentees should clearly communicate their own expectations about the nature of the mentor-mentee relationship. Alignment of mentor and mentee expectations will create a productive and functional relationship.
The mentor should develop strategies to assess the mentee’s understanding of the core concepts and skills involved in the research or project, identify any gaps in understanding, and determine appropriate steps to fill those gaps.
There are many dimensions of diversity that come to play in the mentor-mentee relationship which offer both challenges and opportunities. It is important to recognize the impact of conscious and unconscious assumptions, preconceptions, biases, and prejudices that can adversely affect the relationship. Vibrant intellectual environments require the active engagement of diverse perspectives.
The goal of mentoring is to help the mentee to become a fully independent researcher and scholar. Working together, the mentor and mentee will define what are the core elements of this movement toward independence. The growing independence of the mentee will change their relationship with the mentor, a transformation that both parties should welcome. The mentor must help to build the mentee’s confidence, trust, and sense of independence through the creation of an environment that fosters the achievement of specific goals.
The mentor works with the mentee to identify and strive for academic and professional outcomes. The mentor should help the mentee develop a written strategy for professional development with concrete milestones. The mentor must engage in an open dialogue with the mentee about balancing competing demands, needs, and interests of both mentor and mentee (e.g., teaching, research productivity, grant funding, creativity and independence, career preference decisions, non-research activities, personal development, work-family balance, etc.).
The mentor teaches ethical behavior by modeling it in the conduct of research, the drafting of presentations and publications, the fair assignment of authorship, and the treatment and evaluation of mentees. The mentor models ethical behavior by staying sensitive to the power imbalance in the advisor-student or supervisor-postdoc relationship. Students and postdocs rightly see their advisors and supervisors as crucial gatekeepers; it is essential not to abuse that position of power and influence.
Achieving all of the above requires identifying and employing multiple and mindful strategies to improve communication effectively across diverse dimensions. Mentors must learn how to communicate with mentees across a range of differences, including background, experience, discipline, ethnicity, gender, age, and positions of power. Key skill sets include active listening and the ability to provide constructive feedback.
Effective mentoring includes providing holistic support for mentees. Mentors need to be sensitive to the possibility that mentees could be facing serious non-academic issues, including physical or mental health challenges; financial stress; family tensions; caregiving responsibilities; or personal distress, such as grief over the death of a loved one or sadness from being away from home or apart from a partner. Mentors may or may not feel comfortable discussing these issues with their mentees and should be sensitive to the fact that mentees may not want to discuss specifics with their mentors.
They should, however, create an atmosphere that encourages mentees to share information about mitigating circumstances and reassures them that such challenges will be taken seriously and accommodated. Further, mentors should be aware of counseling, legal, and other resources available on campus and encourage mentees to make use of these, as appropriate. While mentors should be open to learning about challenges faced by their mentees, they should not overstep professional boundaries by asking overly personal questions or making inappropriate personal requests.
Student and postdoc mentees require clear, prompt, and regular feedback regarding their skills, progress, and potential. Providing mentees with constructive feedback is a crucial part of the mentor’s job and contributes significantly to the mentee’s academic and professional development.