Questions about mentoring
1. Think of an ideal mentor from your
past. What made them so effective?
2. What are some strategies to avoid as a
mentor?
3. Where can you find a mentor?
Mentoring Graduate Students
and Postdocs: Considerations
for Future Faculty
Laura Harrington – Associate Professor,
Entomology, Cornell University
Christine Holmes – Director of Postdoctoral
Studies, Cornell University
Colleen McLinn – Program Director, CU-CIRTL
What is mentoring?
"Mentoring is to support and encourage people
to manage their own learning in order that they
may maximise their potential, develop their
skills, improve their performance and become
the person they want to be."
-Eric Parsloe, The Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring
Objectives for this CIRTLCast
After this session, you will be able to:
• List key traits and practices of an ideal mentor
• Describe mentoring pitfalls and brainstorm
solutions
Outline
a. Finding a good mentor
b. Fostering a better experience with your
current mentor
c. Preparing to become the mentor
d. Mentoring needs at different stages: graduate
students vs. postdocs
e. Questions and discussion
f. Resources to learn more about mentoring
Considerations when seeking
a faculty mentor
Considerations when seeking
a faculty mentor
• Be proactive. Take control of your own education
and opportunities.
• Consider:
– The career stage of the faculty member
– What expectations they have for you
– Opportunities available
– Their policies on authorship/credit
– Degree of autonomy
Fostering a better experience
with your current mentor
• Be aware of common pitfalls:
–Shared position between two supervisors
–Lack of clearly defined expectations
–Individual differences in communication
or learning styles
Four Major Communication Styles
Figure 4.1
The Now Habit at
Work, by Neil Fiore
Fostering a better experience
with your current mentor
• Turning things around if necessary
–
–
–
–
–
Be proactive
Provide feedback professionally
Stay calm
Listen to the other person’s needs
Ask for what you need
Good Resources:
Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott
Nonviolent Communication: The Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg
Fostering a better experience
with your current mentor
• Find mentoring elsewhere (formal or informal)
www.academiccoachingandwriting.org
If the mentoring relationship
needs to be severed…
• Confidential resources (use for advice)
– University Ombudsperson
– Human Resources
– Graduate School Offices
• Not confidential (use to help take action)
– Director of Graduate Studies
– Department Chair
Preparing to become the mentor
What do you wish you had known?
“To lay out expectations for the relationship at the very
beginning.”
“To not do everything for my mentee - to encourage them to be
in charge of their own experience.”
“To have the courage to say this is no longer working for us - to
end the relationship even if it is your own graduate student.”
“To not suffocate my mentee with too much advice.”
“Not all mentors can be confidential - you have to be careful
what you say and really know who you can trust.”
– Cornell faculty
Scenarios for Discussion
a. You are mentoring a postdoc who thinks he/she has
discovered a case of plagiarism in the lab. You…
b. You find out from a colleague that your postdoc mentee is
getting ready to publish a paper. It is from work they did in
your lab with your funding. You didn’t know this. You…
c. You have a graduate student mentee who is funded by
NIH/NSF. You leave on a one-month research trip and return
to find that the student left the lab to go surfing for the month
in South America without telling you. You…
d. Your mentee approaches you after avoiding your efforts to
reach out for weeks via email and phone calls. They are
clearly distraught and tells you that they feel like you don’t
respect them. They say that you are often condescending in
subtle ways towards them. They think you are discriminating
against them because they are openly gay. You…
Scenario A
a. You are mentoring a postdoc who thinks
he/she has discovered a case of plagiarism in
the lab. You….
Scenario B
b. You find out from a colleague that your
postdoc mentee is getting ready to publish a
paper. It is from work they did in your lab,
but you are not aware of the publication.
You…
Scenario C
c. You have a graduate student mentee who is
funded by NIH/NSF. You leave on a onemonth research trip and return to find that the
student left the lab to go surfing for the month
in South America without telling you. You…
Scenario D
d. Your mentee approaches you after avoiding
your efforts to reach out for weeks via email
and phone calls. The mentee is clearly
distraught and tells you that they feel like you
don’t respect them. They say that you are
often condescending in subtle ways towards
them. They think you are discriminating
against them because they are openly gay.
You…
Things to consider as you
become the mentor
• What is your mentoring philosophy?
• What are your core values, strengths and
weaknesses coming into a mentoring
relationship?
• What responsibilities do you have as a
mentor?
-
time investment
effort
confidentiality
accountability
What skills do mentors need?
• Effective and timely communication
• Clearly articulating expectations
• Provide constructive feedback verbally
and in writing
• Hiring and interviewing skills
• Stress relief and anger management
strategies
• Strategies for resolving conflict
Mentoring Tips
• Establish the nature of your relationship
and expectations you both have
• Set up regular meetings with your mentee
• Listen fully without judgment
• Maintain confidentiality at all times
• Get feedback from your mentee
Mentoring Tips
• Cultivate a non-intimidating environment – go
for coffee/meals or a walk while you talk
• Be flexible
• Offer “insider advice” – what you wish you
had known, where to get resources or help,
who are key contacts to meet on campus
• Keep notes and refer back to them to refresh
your memory before meeting with the mentee
Consider the stage
Answer in the chat window:
How do the mentoring needs of
postdocs differ from those of
graduate students?
Mentoring Graduate Students
• Encourage them to write as they go along
• Assess progress biannually or annually
• Help students network:
– Encourage meeting attendance
– Make introductions to colleagues
• Encourage opportunities for them to practice
presenting research
• Send around position ads so they can see what
skills employers are seeking
Mentoring Postdocs
• Help them to understand the bigger research endeavor
• From the start, decide what is their research that they
can take with them vs. lab research
• Model lab management skills
• Provide opportunities to practice teaching skills
• Offer strategies on dealing with difficult students
• Include them in manuscript and grant-writing process
• Encourage them to seek professional development
opportunities
• Send them position advertisements
• Help them move to their next step
What Questions Do You
Have?
Resources to Learn More
• Individual Development Plan for postdocs:
– www.faseb.org/portals/0/pdfs/opa/idp.pdf
• Manuals from Rackham Graduate School, University
of Michigan):
– How to Get the Mentoring You Want: A Guide for Graduate
Students at a Diverse University
– How to Mentor Graduate Students: A Guide for Faculty in
a Diverse University
• Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide to
Scientific Management for Postdocs and New
Faculty, 2nd edition, Burroughs Wellcome Fund and
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2006)
– Chapter 5: “Mentoring and Being Mentored”
Resources to Learn More
• Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend: On Being a
Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering
– Download free from National Academies Press
• On the Right Track: A Manual for Research Mentors
– Purchase from the Council of Graduate Schools store
• Getting the Most out of Your Mentoring
Relationships: A Handbook for Women in STEM,
Donna J. Dean (2009) - Order from AWIS or Amazon
• Entering Mentoring: A Seminar to Train the Next
Generation of Scientists HHMI website (free) or Amazon
• Research Mentor Training and Research Mentoring
• Tomorrow’s Professor Blog
Closing Thoughts
• Effective mentoring recognizes the need
for lifelong learning
• Effective mentoring recognizes that
development occurs in stages
• Effective mentoring is customized for the
individual
• Effective mentoring is facilitated when
the protégé is proactive
Source: National Postdoc Association