1. Definitions of mentoring and components to a mentoring team
Mentoring the Mentors in Global Health Research
Workshop, June 17-18, 2013
Mombasa, Kenya
Definitions of mentoring and components to a mentoring team
Monica Gandhi MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine, HIV/AIDS Division
University of California, San Francisco
Mombasa, Kenya; June 17, 2013

2. What is a Mentor? CONSULTANT COACH MANAGER ADVISOR COUNSELOR TEACHER
How many mentors? Mentees? Both?
One word or phrase that categorizes a mentor or a mentoring relationship
TEACHER
GUIDE
ROLE MODEL

3. What is a mentor?
A mentor facilitates personal and professional growth in an individual by sharing the knowledge and insights that have been learned through the years.
Teacher–share your knowledge and experience
Problem solver–refer mentees to resources and offer options.
Motivator–when mentee is facing a challenge (done through encouragement, support, and incentives)
Coach–help mentee to overcome performance difficulties through positive feedback (reinforce behavior) and constructive feedback (change behavior).
Guide–help mentee to set realistic goals. Five goal setting factors: specific, time-framed, results oriented, relevant, and reachable. “If you don’t know where you are going, you won’t know how to get there.”
(DOT Mentoring Handbook,

4. Long-term: Promoting professional development over time
How do mentoring relationships differ from other academic relationships?
Long-term: Promoting professional development over time
Dynamic: Changing as mentee advances
Reciprocal: Benefitting both mentor and mentee
Active: Shaped by mentee as well (not passive vessel)
Voluntary: True mentoring relationship cannot be forced, element of altruism
Zerzan JT. Academic Medicine 2009

5. Scope of Mentoring Career Functions Personal Functions Sponsorship
Coaching
Protection
Challenge
Exposure and Visibility
Personal Functions
Role Modeling
Problem Solving/ Counseling
Acceptance/ Confirmation
Friendship
Sponsorship: mentor opens doors that would otherwise be closed
Coaching: the mentor teaches and provides feedback
Protection: supports protégé and/or acts as a buffer
Challenge: the mentor encourages new ways of thinking and acting and pushes the protégé to stretch her capabilities
Exposure and visibility: steer protégé into assignments that increase recognition within the organization
Role modeling; mentor demonstrates the kinds of behaviors, attitudes and values that lead to success in the profession
Counseling: helps protégé deal with difficult professional dilemmas.
Acceptance/Confirmation: supports the protégé and shows respect
Friendship: mentor demonstrates personal caring
Kram, KE. Mentoring at Work: Developmental Relationships in Organizational life. 1988

6. Content Areas Career goals Clinical skills Conducting research
Confidence building
CV development
Grant writing
Negotiating
Organization and committee participation
Professional networking
Promotion/tenure
Publishing

7. Rewards of being a good mentor
Achieve satisfaction. For some mentors, their greatest joy is having a mentee succeed and eventually become a friend and colleague.
Attract good colleagues. The best mentors are most likely to be able to recruit -and keep - colleagues of high caliber who can help produce better research, papers, grant proposals, and health for the population.
Stay on top of your field. There is no better way to keep sharp professionally than to coach junior colleagues.
Develop your professional network. In making contacts for your mentee, you strengthen your own contacts and make new ones.
Extend your contribution. The results of good mentoring live after you, as new continue to contribute even after you have retired.
Handelsman J. Entering Mentoring: A Seminar to train a new generation of scientists. 2009

8. Components of a mentoring team
Research Mentor: Responsible for developing the creative and/or independent research careers of their mentees. Must have expertise in the mentee’s area of scholarship and help provide resources to support the mentees work
Career Mentor: Responsible for overall career guidance and support for their mentee
Co-Mentor: Works with the mentee and scholarly mentor to provide specialized content area or methodological expertise.

9. Trans and Cis-mentoring: Interdisciplinary
Cis Mentor: Mentor from the same research discipline
Trans mentor: Senior mentor outside the major area of the mentee's focus (basic science mentors for mentee whose research emphasizes clinical science.)
Kahn and Greenblatt. Am. J. of Public Health 2009

10. What works and what doesn’t?
Academic Medicine. January 2013

12. Characteristics of successful mentoring relationships
Illustrative quote
“It’s got to be a two-way street. . .mentor also needs some sort of tangible reward from the relationship”
Reciprocity
Mutual respect
Clear expectations
Personal connections
Shared values
“Both individuals need to respect the qualifications of the other”
“Mutual accountability that the mentor has expectations of the mentee but the mentee also has expectations of the mentor”
“Having that connection where you feel like someone actually cares to know what you’re thinking and who you are”
“Mentorship worked when mentors and mentees were on a fairly common ground, have similar ideas and interests and values.”
Strauss S. Academic Medicine. Jan 2013

13. Characteristics of failed mentoring relationships
Illustrative quote
“If you can’t talk to them...if you’re too intimidated by them to really talk honestly or openly or to really brainstorm about science with them then it’s not a good mentoring relationship.
Poor communication
Lack of commitment
Personality differences
Perceived (or real) competition
Conflict of interest
Lack of experience
“But mentors who.. .get distracted or mentors who have other things that are clearly engaging their mind and not really able to focus...leading towards a failed relationship.
“Senior people who feel threatened by junior people … and they may not even realize that they feel threatened”
“It failed because of the mentor’s lack of knowledge base to be able to provide advice.”
Strauss S. Academic Medicine. Jan 2013

14. Tools of mentoring can be taught (like parenting) – Individual development plan
Meet with your mentees every 2-3 weeks, weekly if needed (UCSF model)
Review their CV and have them fill out the individual development plan yearly
Components of IDP:
1) Time Allocation as Estimated by Mentee:
___ % Teaching/Training/Providing Mentoring ___ % Research ___ % Patient Care ___ % Administration/Other Services
How (if at all) would you like to change this time distribution?

15. IDP -continued 2) Academic Appointment
Do you understand the series to which you are appointed and the expectations for advancement in this series?
3) Current Professional Responsibilities
List your major professional responsibilities and if you anticipate significant changes in the coming year:
4) Future Professional Goals Short Term Goals List your professional goals for the coming year. Be as specific as possible, and indicate how you will assess if the goal was accomplished (expected outcome).
1. Goal
Expected outcome:
2. Goal
Expected outcome:
3. Goal
Expected outcome:

16. IDP -continued
5) Future Professional Goals Long Term Goals List your professional goals for the next 3-5 years. Again, be specific, and indicate how you will assess if the goal was accomplished.
1. Goal
Expected outcome:
2. Goal
Expected outcome:
3. Goal
Expected outcome:

17. Questions?