Maximize Mentoring Benefits and Avoid Mentoring Landmines

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Maximize Mentoring Benefits and Avoid
Mentoring Landmines

• Carole J. Bland, Ph.D.
• Professor of Family Medicine

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Maximize Mentoring Benefits and Avoid Mentoring
Landmines

• Use a Formal process
• Attend to key communication strategies strategies

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Todays Session

• Definition of Mentoring
• Benefits of Mentoring
• Formal Process
• Ten Rules of Effective Mentoring
• Key Communication Strategies

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What is mentoring?

• from The Odyssey
• A wise and trusted counselor or teacher.
• Mentor. Greek Mythology. Odysseus's trusted
  counselor, under whose disguise Athena became the
  guardian and teacher of Telemachos.

Homer
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What Is Mentoring Today?

• Mentoring is the influence, guidance, support or
  direction exerted by a trusted, experienced
  counselor(s) in order to help another to do a job
  more effectively and/or to progress in their
  career. Simultaneously, a mentor is to be
  detached, to some degree, so that he or she can
  hold up a mirror for the mentee. (adapted from
  Rogers, Holloway, and Miller, 1990, p. 186)

Maya Angelou mentor to Oprah Winfrey
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3 Components of Effective Faculty Mentoring

• a two-way learning relationship which draws upon
  the knowledge and wisdom of suitably experienced
  practitioners
• designed to fulfill three broad purposes
• of career development,
• psychosocial development,
• and professionalism
• (Specific goals in each area determined by the
  individuals involved)
• a relationship which develops over time, i.e.,
  there is more than just a short-term or passing
  interest on the part of the mentor and the
  protégés, and the relationship passes through a
  series of developmental stages.
• Modified from Richie and Genoni, 2002, p.69.

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Mentoring Models Mentoring Models Mentoring Models Mentoring Models
Traditional Peer Group
Structure Hierarchical Peer Hierarchical
Format One mentee with one mentor One mentee with team of mentors One-to one or small collaborative group One or small number of mentors with medium group of mentees
Typical career stage of mentee Early Any Early or mid
Typical career stage of mentor Mid or senior Any Mid or senior
Challenges Recruiting and training enough mentors to fill demand, time commitments Recruiting, providing training for peer mentoring, time commitment, changing group if more than pair Differing needs of group members, providing skill training for group interaction, managing group dynamics, time commitments, changing group membership
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Most common form of Faculty mentoring

• Pairing early faculty with more senior faculty
  members for the purpose of facilitating the early
  faculty members success

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Benefits of Effective Mentoring for Mentee
Higher Levels of

• Research productivity (Bland and Schmitz 1986,
  Bland et al, 2002, Byrne and Keefe 2002)
• Teaching effectiveness, evidenced by declines in
  teaching anxiety and improved student ratings of
  teaching effectiveness (Williams 1991).
• Professional socialization and interactions with
  colleagues (Corcoran and Clark 1984)
• Salary levels and satisfaction with salary and
  promotion (Melicher 2000)

Kleppner (L) mentor to 5 Nobel Prize Winners
including Ketterle (R) - 2001Nobel Prize in
Physics.
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Benefits to Mentors

• Cross-fertilization of ideas
• Personal sense of satisfaction from sharing
  wisdom and experience with younger colleagues
• They may also influence another generation of
  faculty often fulfilling a desire to leave part
  of themselves to the next generation of faculty.
• Professional rejuvenation
• New skills
• Increased research productivity
• The addition of a highly productive colleague to
  ones department and/or professional network

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Formal mentoring is most effective

• Five Year Study of Mentoring Junior Faculty
• Formal mentoring is, overall, more effective than
  informal
• Mentoring is not dependent on personality but
  rather on what the mentor/mentee do
• Early and enduring mentoring is most beneficial,
• Mentoring pairs/teams continue to meet regularly
  and progress when given nudging
• Using mentors from outside the mentees
  department is very effective
• Less than 25 of faculty find mentors on their
  own those that do are most often white males
• (Boyle and Boice, Systematic Mentoring for New
  Faculty 1998)

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A summative message that emerges from this body
of literature is that mentoring, when structured
and done well, avoids pitfalls and has a
wide-reaching, positive impact on faculty
success, especially in research.
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Ten Rules for Structuring Effective Mentoring

• Have clear, agreed upon purpose and plan
• objectives
• strategies for achieving them
• timeline
• Have agreed upon roles for each mentor
• Set Ground Rules
• Set and stick to a meeting schedule
• Be accountable
• Keep it confidential
• Develop Communication Mechanisms
• Measure Progress
• Encourage Feedback
• Say Goodbye

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Mentoring Purpose and Plan

• The two most important initial mentoring
  activities for career development are to
• 1. Help the mentee clarify his or her career
  vision
• 2. Use this vision as a foundation to then
  develop future goals, objectives, activities and
  timelines.

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Ten Rules of Effective Mentoring

• Have clear, agreed upon purpose
• objectives
• strategies for achieving them
• timeline
• Have agreed upon roles for each mentor
• Set Ground Rules
• Set and stick to a meeting schedule
• Be accountable
• Keep it confidential
• Develop Communication Mechanisms
• Measure Progress
• Encourage Feedback
• Say Goodbye

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Example General Ground Rules Agreed upon
procedures about how the mentoring will proceed

• Our meetings begin and end on time
• Each of us actively participates in the
  relationship
• Our communication is open, candid, and direct
• We will respect our differences and learn from
  them
• We will honor each others expertise and
  experience
• We will manage our time well
• We will put interruptions aside when meeting
• We will safeguard confidentiality
• Zachary LJ. The Mentors Guide Facilitating
  Effective Learning Relationships. San Francisco
  Jossey-Bass, 2000, p. 103.

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Example Specific Ground Rules Agreed upon
procedures about how the mentoring will proceed

• Primary mentor and mentee will meet once a week
• Mentee will be in contact with other mentors at
  least twice a month
• All mentors will monitor mentee progress via
  reports on the mentee web site at least once a
  month
• Every even month progress on stated goals and
  timeline will be assessed and adapted as
  necessary
• Decision about mentee project, drafts of
  manuscripts, and changes in goals or timeline
  will be posted on the mentees web

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Ten Rules of Effective Mentoring

• Have clear, agreed upon purpose
• objectives
• strategies for achieving them
• timeline
• Have agreed upon roles for each mentor
• Set Ground Rules
• Set and stick to a meeting schedule
• Be accountable
• Keep it confidential
• Develop Communication Mechanisms
• Measure Progress
• Encourage Feedback
• Say Goodbye

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Checklist for Assumption Testing About
Confidentiality Instructions Mentors and
mentees individually answer each question with
yes, no, or not sure and add other
assumptions that they hold to the list. Then
mentors and mentee together review and discuss
each item and come to consensus.
Which of the following assumptions about
confidentiality do you hold? ___ 1.What we
discuss stays between us for as long as we are
engaged in our mentoring relationship. ___ 2. If
asked by your supervisor, I can freely disclose
our conversation. ___ 3. After our formal
mentoring relationship has ended, it is okay to
talk about what we discussed or how we
related. ___ 4. If there is a demonstrated need
to know, I can appropriately disclose our
conversations, my impressions, or anything else
that pertains to the relationship. ___ 5. What we
say between us stays there unless you give me
permission to talk about it with others. ___
6. Some issues will be kept confidential, while
others will not. ___ 7. It is okay to discuss how
we relate to one another but not the content of
our discussions. ___ 8. It is okay to talk about
what we talk about as long it is positive. Are
there other assumptions I hold that should be
added to this list? Zachary LJ. The Mentors
Guide Facilitating Effective Learning
Relationships. San Francisco Jossey-Bass, 2000,
p. 105.
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Ten Rules of Effective Mentoring

• Have clear, agreed upon purpose
• objectives
• strategies for achieving them
• timeline
• Have agreed upon roles for each mentor
• Set Ground Rules
• Set and stick to a meeting schedule
• Be accountable
• Keep it confidential
• Develop Communication Mechanisms
• Measure Progress
• Encourage Feedback
• Say Goodbye

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Mentor Communication Gone Wrong
"DEMENTORS" MENTORS "TORMENTORS"

• Hypercritical
• Inadequate Direction
• Failure to Acknowledge Intellectual Contributions
  of Mentee
• Deliberate hugging the limelight
• Inappropriate personal boundaries

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Mentee Communication Gone Wrong

• Basking in the light of greatness
• Failure to commit to hard work, honesty, and the
  development of true intellectual independence.
• Career development by association.
• Semi permeable hearing only hears what he/she
  wants to hear
• The Lone Ranger Syndrome inappropriate
  independence, inability to take guidance

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Mentoring Communication

• Communicate often and openly
• Establish trust
• See each other as individuals
• Take the initiative
• Publicly support protégés and help them expand
  professional networks
• Manage power differentials maintain appropriate
  boundaries
• Bland, CJ Taylor, A Shollenberger, S. Mentoring
  Systems Benefits and Challenges of diverse
  mentoring partnerships. Faculty Vitae. AAMC,
  Wash. DC., Summer, 2006

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Mentoring Communication

• Communicate often and openly Establish
  mechanisms to assure frequent communication.
  Discuss personal and professional differences to
  assure you really understand each others
  backgrounds, situation, and strengths.
• See each other as individuals Mentors and
  mentees must avoid making assumptions about one
  another and should identify each other as
  individuals and not as representatives of a
  category

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Mentoring Communication

• Establish trust Trust results when the all
  members of the mentoring relationship are clear
  about the purpose and rules and open to learning
  about each others differences.
• Take the initiative Mentoring relationships are
  two way streets. Mentors should take the
  initiative to contact the protégé frequently.
  Protégés enhance the relationship when they take
  a proactive role.

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Mentoring Communication

• Publicly Support Protégés and help them expand
  professional networks Visibly promote
  initiatives and scholarship, Introduce them to
  colleagues and peers inside and outside of the
  department and institution, and include them in
  informal social activities.
• Manage Power Differentials Maintain Appropriate
  Boundaries Both partners in a mentoring
  relationship share responsibility for managing
  personal and professional boundaries. Mentors
  must insure that the illegitimate aspects of
  power based on socialization, stereotypes, and
  attributions do not act as a barrier.

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Ten Rules of Effective Mentoring

• Have clear, agreed upon purpose
• objectives
• strategies for achieving them
• timeline
• Have agreed upon roles for each mentor
• Set Ground Rules
• Set and stick to a meeting schedule
• Be accountable
• Keep it confidential
• Develop Communication Mechanisms
• Measure Progress
• Encourage Feedback
• Say Goodbye

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Maximize Mentoring Benefits and Avoid Mentoring
Landmines

• 1. Use a Formal process
• 2. Attend to key communication strategies

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References

• Bland, CJ Taylor, A Shollenberger, S. Mentoring
  Systems Benefits and Challenges of diverse
  mentoring partnerships. Faculty Vitae. AAMC,
  Wash. DC., Summer, 2006
• Bland CJ, Schmitz CC. Characteristics of the
  Successful Researcher and Implications for
  Faculty Development. J Med Educ 19866122-31.
• Bland CJ, Ruffin MT. Characteristics of a
  Productive Research Environment Literature
  Review Acad Med 199267385-397.
• Boice R. The New Faculty Member. San Francisco
  Jossey-Bass 1992.
• Bower DJ, Diehr S, Morzinski J, Simpson D.
  Mentoring Guidebook for Academic Physicians. 2nd
  ed. Milwaukee Center for Ambulatory Teaching
  Excellence, Medical College of Wisconsin 1999.
  (Available STFM)

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References

• Boyle, P. Boice, B. (1998Spr). Systematic
  mentoring for new faculty teachers and graduate
  teaching assistants. Innovative Higher Education,
  22(3), 157-179.
• Corcoran, M. Clark, S. M. (1984). Professional
  socialization and contemporary career attitudes
  of three faculty generations. Research in Higher
  Education, 20(2), 131-153.
• Melicher, R. (2000Spring/Summer). The perceived
  value of research and teaching mentoring by
  finance academicians. Financial Practice and
  Education, 166-174.
• Williams, L. S. (1991). The Effects of a
  Comprehensive Teaching Assistant Training Program
  on Teaching Anxiety and Effectiveness. Research
  in Higher Education, 32(5), 585-598.
• Zachary, L. (2000). The mentor's guide. San
  Francisco, CA Jossey-Bass.