Department or program leadership can request mentorship workshops for their program or department.
Mentorship self-assessments are available for both faculty and students.
An individual development plan (IDP) is a helpful tool for establishing mentorship goals and expectations. IDP is available for download.
Discover Opportunities For Growth Through Purposeful Mentoring
MENTOR GUIDE
Whether you’re getting started for the first time or want a refresher on becoming a mentor, it’s important to understand the key aspects of what mentorship is.
Mentorship is...
A collaborative learning relationship.
Proceeds through purposeful stages.
Requires both the personal and professional.
The primary goal of mentorship is to help mentees acquire the essential competencies needed for success in their chosen career(s).
You can prepare to become a mentor by...
Understanding the mentorship role and yourself as a mentor, which includes:
- Identifying the type of mentorship and support you will provide.
- Understanding your specific roles as a faculty member.
- Identifying your communication style.
- Understanding that no single mentor can fulfill all of a student’s mentoring needs.
- Identifying and having initial conversations will help establish both you and your mentee's mentorship relationship.
- Being intentional about understanding your mentee’s needs, including considering the specific type of support/mentorship they need and their developmental level as a graduate student.
Self Appraisal Questions
What types of research projects and methodologies do you feel well equipped to support?
What areas of research interest you?
What kinds of research projects and methodologies pique your interest?
Is there a particular type of training you provide?
What skills do you wish to share?
What are your strengths as a mentor?
How might issues of diversity and identity influence my mentoring relationships?
What kind of mentoring style is going to be the most effective for you?
Hands-on; Meet with students often?
Hands off; Gives students more space?
What do you think would help you to further develop as a mentor?
Clarifying the Roles of Advisors vs. Mentors
An advisor offers strategies about a specific event, which the learner may or may not follow. Mentoring implies a long-term relationship in which experiential wisdom is offered to help build the many aspects of a learner's career.
In academic contexts advising assignment is usually determined by the departmental structure. Advising is not inclusive of mentorship.
Mentorship differs from advising because it is centered on a holistic personal and professional development approach.
Mentorship can be inclusive of advising.
Advisors can be mentors.
Qualities of an Effective Mentor
An effective mentor is...
Knowledgeable: This means imparting knowledge to mentees on topics such as GSU expectations, programs, scholarships, writing, research, career insights, work-life integration, and more.
Responsive to Needs: Effective mentors will give timely feedback, communicate often and be proactive, be reliable and approachable, and exhibits professionalism by maintaining boundaries.
Demonstrates by Example: In each component of the mentoring role, effective mentors recognize that they are always modeling for their students, providing a living example of what it means to be a responsible, ethical, engaged, and balanced scholar.
There are four stages of mentorship, and with every mentee, the stages cycle through.
- Initiation/Preparation
- In this stage, the focus is on building rapport and starting the relationship on a good note. This is also the stage in which initial planning for recurring meetings happens and the pair brainstorms ways in which the mentoring relationship can best serve both parties.
- Work with your mentee to develop or refine their IDP to help them with setting and achieving short and long-term professional and academic goals.
- Negotiation/Cultivation
- In this stage, the focus is on sustaining the relationship and solidifying goals for both parties. There should be a clear sense of acceptance and a feeling of formally establishing the relationship on both sides.
- Cultivating the Relationship: Just like in any relationship, the relationship between mentor and mentee is more efficient when worked on regularly. Here are suggested steps associated with the creation of a healthy dynamic.
- Build a Framework: This means informing your mentees of relevant policies and procedures in place in the department or college. The framework should also include mutually agreed upon expectations and responsibilities, space for goal setting, and mechanisms for assessment and feedback.
- Communicate: The mentor and mentee should have an open, honest conversation about communication styles. This can lead into productive conversations about modes of communication, frequency, direct or indirect feedback, and boundary setting. It is wise to proactively broach how the pair would like to approach difficult conversations because they are more than likely to come up over the duration of the relationship.
- Evaluate and Realign: The pair should mutually agree upon evaluation methods. Getting to this stage also means establishing a regular time for checking in so that there is space for these conversations to occur. Mentors should remember that formal evaluations should happen at the midpoint and at the end of the mentoring relationship, and that it is a good idea to be open to realigning goals along what the mentee needs.
- Growth Separation
- Over time, the mentor-mentee pair may experience challenges to the relationship. To overcome these challenges in a healthy manner, there needs to be a recursive process of engagement, empowerment, collaboration and evaluation. There may be changes in relationship dynamics over time, which is completely normal.
- Closure/Redefinition
- Most mentoring relationships will have some kind of termination, at least with directly assisting the mentee with their initially set goals. The mentor and mentee will need to work together to review and reflect on their formal relationship and potentially consider a revised mentoring relationship that is less formal in the future.
Building a Mentorship Team
It is impossible for a single person to meet all of one's mentorship needs. Assisting graduate mentees in forming a mentorship team will broaden their network of connections, providing them with expanded access to professional guidance, opportunities, and personal growth. Additionally, mentorship can involve many different elements, as shown in the picture.
Why Build a Mentorship Team?
While it is not necessary to build a mentorship team, finding others who can fulfill other aspects of your mentee's needs can lessen your responsibility and expose your mentee to more connections. Here are a few examples of what a graduate student's mentorship team may consist of:
- Faculty member.
- Department staff.
- Research advisor.
- Advanced graduate student.
- Faculty from other universities.
- Professionals working within the student's field of study.
The foundation of a successful mentoring relationship includes understanding the challenges and concerns of graduate students.
Feelings of Isolation
Graduate school can be an isolating experience. Students may feel they must isolate themselves to focus on high workloads and demanding deadlines. Here are some ways to help prevent or mitigate those feelings:
- Support mentees by suggesting they introduce themselves to peers.
- Invite mentees to attend departmental events.
- Encourage mentees to join or create program groups to promote communication.
- Urge students to get involved with external organizations connected to their studies and interests.
- Normalize discussions around work-life balance.
Work-Life Balance
Graduate students devote much of their time to work. Over extended periods, their workload can become overwhelming. Here are some ways to help mitigate those effects and prevent burnout:
- Suggest gathering information from faculty on how they balance their lifestyle.
- Conduct an activity with your mentee to help identify areas of their lives that are pertinent to your well-being and rank them in order of need to prioritize.
- Help identify ways in which graduate students practice self-care and set goals around those practices, being sure to check in regularly to see if the student is staying on track.
Issues of Identity
Mentoring needs differ from person to person.
- There can be a plethora of needs for graduate students related to their backgrounds.
- Faculty are encouraged to engage, reflect, practice, and re-evaluate both their perspectives and those of their mentees.
- Faculty are encouraged to be aware of intrinsic power imbalances that can exist in the mentor-mentee relationship, which can be made more complex by differences in backgrounds.
- Faculty are encouraged to attend to and repair ruptures or misunderstandings that may occur in the mentoring relationship.
Sometimes, conflicts will occur between you and your mentee. While it can be uncomfortable to navigate such situations, if handled correctly, resolving conflict can strengthen your relationship. When handling conflict, do your best to make the conversation in person, and consider the following steps:
- Identifying an appropriate space for discussion.
- Agreeing to ground rules and boundaries for the discussion.
- Specifying needs from both parties clearly.
- Exercise flexibility when handling the problem and do not take any matters personally.
- Brainstorm and develop a plan of action that works for both the mentor and mentee.
