Mentoring Better in the Academic Environment
For early-career faculty and researchers, a committed mentor can play a pivotal role in shaping their trajectories and contributing to overall success and job satisfaction. But the benefits of mentorship are not one-sided. While mentees enjoy the thoughtful advice of experienced colleagues, mentors derive a sense of fulfillment in supporting the next generation’s development.
Higher education institutions also stand to benefit from seeding and supporting robust mentorship programs. Such programs can enhance a department’s reputation and draw in top-tier talent. Strong mentoring relationships can support mentees to produce high-quality publications, obtain grants, develop leadership skills, and experience greater fulfillment in their roles. Mentees from underrepresented groups can benefit from mentors who identify with their background and experience and can help them navigate the academic environment. Leaders with strong mentorship skills are also more likely to foster positive organizational cultures where people are more engaged, collaborative, and productive, yielding better research and outcomes.
I’ve seen the impact of strong mentorship programs firsthand. OPG recently partnered with a scientific department at a prestigious research university to implement a mentoring assessment for labs.
Principal investigators (PIs) volunteered to receive anonymous feedback from trainees about their mentorship style and lab culture. The PIs reviewed their results with an OPG coach and received guidance about how to apply and share the feedback they received.
Three primary themes emerged across the nine participating labs:
- Teaching, coaching, and guiding are three key ways in which PIs contribute to trainees’ scientific growth and development.
- Trainees view the professional and career development support they receive from their mentors (e.g. encouragement to attend and present at conferences, attend scientific meetings, or collaborate with other researchers outside the institution) as especially valuable.
- Trainees expressed a desire for more developmental feedback from their mentor that could help them understand gaps in their knowledge and improve their skills.
Participating PIs reported that the experience was illuminating, supportive, and helped them to discuss topics they might not otherwise have explored – like lab culture – with their trainees. They gathered meaningful insights from the feedback that allowed them to more effectively support the professional growth of their trainees.
Through this initiative, we focused on one-on-one and group mentorship (in the lab environment) but mentoring can take many forms. Peer or external mentors can also be highly effective and complement more traditional mentoring models.
Strategies to develop a culture of mentorship within your institution
- Establish mentorship as an institutional value or priority: Link this commitment to your institution’s mission and values. Look at how your organization emphasizes the importance of mentorship – from hiring practices and onboarding processes to faculty training, leadership development, and performance evaluations.
- Model a commitment to mentorship: Visible commitment from leaders is essential to a thriving mentorship culture. Leaders can demonstrate their commitment by regularly discussing the importance of mentorship, participating in mentorship programs, dedicating funding and resources to these programs, and enacting some of the following strategies.
- Consider creating a “mentoring committee”: This group might design and implement mentoring programs, establish guidelines or best practices for mentoring relationships, match mentors and mentees, and promote a mentoring culture, among other activities.
- Provide mentorship training and resources: Offer workshops, coaching, and peer discussion groups to equip faculty with the necessary skills for effective mentoring.
- Measure the effectiveness of mentoring initiatives: Consider implementing periodic assessments or pulse surveys to gauge the impact of existing formal or informal mentorship initiatives.
- Recognize and reward strong mentorship: Establish mechanisms to recognize and reward faculty members who excel in mentorship, reinforcing its importance and encouraging others to prioritize mentoring activities.
- Gather input: Encourage both faculty and trainees to share best practices and participate in ongoing discussions about enhancing mentorship practices within the institution.
Questions? Interested in support for your mentoring initiatives? Email us: info@orgpg.com.
This post was originally published in Wiley Publishing’s Dean & Provost in August 2024.
