The Art of Mentorship

Positive mentorship lies at the heart of a young scientist’s growth as a successful researcher or academic. Such mentoring can come from an established, more senior person with years of experience. However, peer mentoring can also prove to be beneficial.

This latter type of relationship is a simpler form of mentorship between a person who has recently lived through an experience and a person new to that experience, often a relationship between students who may be similar in age and close to the same career stage. In peer mentoring, both parties often take turns acting as the mentor.

This relationship can also take away the traditional hierarchical perception of mentoring. Conventional mentoring indicates the mentor’s seniority, which inadvertently creates a power differential and can inhibit rapport in early stages.

The advantages of mentorship are often reciprocal, providing benefits for both parties. Mentors gain increased self-confidence and self-awareness, master the art of providing feedback, gain exposure to new and different perspectives, and increase their job satisfaction. Mentees improve their communication and goal-setting skills, can gain a personal network, and increase their odds of promotion.

Research on mentoring suggests, however, that women employees are less likely to receive this help throughout their careers than men are. Fewer opportunities for women mentees can negatively impact their career development and may contribute towards restricting the number of women in STEM careers.

Getting Started

Relationships exist everywhere in our lives: in friendships, family dynamics, and romantic partnerships. Think about what makes any relationship work or what factors can cause one to crumble. These same factors apply to mentoring relationships, which can be as complex and personal as the relationships we have outside of work. Therefore, a mentor and mentee must create a genuine and positive connection. If you and your mentor are not very familiar with each other, take time to get acquainted and to ensure that you are a good match. A solidly established relationship can make life easier for both parties.

You should first begin by discussing mutual goals and expectations and clearly define what you hope to accomplish together. Set grounds for communication. How often will you communicate and by what means? Neither you nor your mentor is a mind reader, so you must explicitly communicate. Be honest about the feasibility of a partnership and remember that this goes both ways. Mentors invest time and effort in you, but you, as the mentee, drive the relationship and should be prepared to play an active role.

Be ready to ask yourself some tough questions. Are you open to real feedback, not just to the positive kind that exists to sing you praises? Are you prepared to accept constructive criticism that challenges your way of thinking and your approach to doing things, feedback that doesn’t always tell you what you want to hear but rather what you need to hear? How comfortable are you asking for help and speaking up when you need something? What do you hope to gain from the relationship?

These working relationships are not always going to be sunshine, butterflies, and rainbows in a perfect world. A true mark of any genuine relationship is the mutual ability to work through both good and bad times, and a good mentoring partnership operates the same way. What happens when the manuscript that you have both invested time in gets rejected by your dream journal? When the two of you disagree? When your mentor (constructively) tears your beloved manuscript draft apart?

The following set of guiding principles may help shape your mentoring relationship and provide a useful framework for getting started:

• Strive for mutual benefits. You may know that a mentoring relationship is beneficial for both parties, but you must still define the relationship as mutually beneficial from the very beginning. Each participant should commit to the relationship by choice, openly share goals, and collaborate to achieve them.
• Agree to confidentiality. This is a critical component for building trust. You and your mentor should feel comfortable speaking as freely as the situation warrants.
• Aim for honesty. This essential building block is the hallmark of a trustworthy mentoring relationship. Your mentor should be willing to offer constructive and candid feedback as appropriate, even if the feedback is critical. Your mentor should also be someone you can share bad news with freely and receive encouragement from, no matter what is happening. It is okay to confide that you are nervous, lost, or overwhelmed. Good mentors will appreciate your honesty and respect your vulnerability.
• Listen and learn. Both parties should feel like their viewpoints are heard and respected. Be open-minded to all perspectives. Listen and learn from multiple mentors, if possible, even if it means hearing the same advice multiple times. Listening to ideas from several different people can be extremely beneficial for your personal growth and can aid you in building a strong professional network.
• Build a working partnership. Your mentoring relationship may entail active collaborations in research lab projects, discussions about new, innovative articles to write, and advice about career development. Remember that you both lead busy lives with outside commitments. Your working styles and schedules may look different, and that is okay. Work together, and learn from each other.
• Work to be flexible. Achieving your goals won’t always be on your personal timeline. Remember to give the relationship room and time to develop naturally. Be realistic. If you send your latest manuscript draft to your mentor and want a critiqued response within 24 hours, consider whether this is realistic. Some things take time and patience.

What About Mismatches?

Despite your best intentions, you may wind up in an unworkable situation. Maybe the chemistry just isn’t there to spark the connection needed to foster a positive mentoring relationship. The first mentor, the first project, the first research lab may all turn out to be a mismatch for you, and that is okay. Personality clashes, unrealistic expectations, or poor timing may also contribute to a lack of harmony. Ending a mentoring relationship in an honest, civil, and professional manner should always be the goal. Move on with grace. In extreme circumstances, mentoring can turn toxic. Racism, discrimination, sexual misconduct, and/or personal attacks are never okay and should not be tolerated. Seek help if these issues happen.

Is There an End?

Once you have established and fostered a good mentoring relationship, be mindful of its changing parameters. Sometimes you may achieve your initial goals, and you and your mentor may decide that it is time to move on for now. When you both believe that the relationship is coming to a natural end, however, your realization does not have to mean closed doors or the decision to never speak again. I encourage you to keep the doors open, to keep communication open, even if your lives drift apart. You never know when an old relationship may become newly important. Mentoring relationships often evolve into longterm professional friendships.

Looking Ahead

The best forms of mentorship provide lots of encouragement and empowerment. You receive encouragement on the tough days when your manuscript gets rejected for the umpteenth time, when your lab experiments fail, when you do poorly on an exam, or when life just isn’t going right. You receive empowerment that pushes you to become the best person you can be, that forces you out of your comfort zone, that gives you confidence to handle a variety of situations, and that allows you to stand on your own two feet. At its highest level, mentorship is about having the right people around you, individuals committed to helping one another become fuller versions of themselves. When done well, mentoring calls for you to be brave and to attempt the things you don’t think you can do because you know you’re in a safe learning environment. Looking ahead, plan to do what your mentors have done for you. Pay it forward to mentees you may have in the future. Reflect on what makes mentoring effective. Enjoy the ride for years to come.

Emily Hitt holds a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Washington State University College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (WSU CPPS) and currently works as an academic resident in drug information. She has written for the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Student Pharmacist magazine, has published in Annals of Pharmacotherapy, and has also published several drug monographs. Outside work, she enjoys doing puzzles, baking, listening to music, and spending time with friends and family.

This article was originally published in AWIS Magazine. Join AWIS to access the full issue of AWIS Magazine and more member benefits.