Mentoring Guide

Acknowledgements| Page 2

This guide was developed by a subcommittee of the Office of Faculty Affairs and Development’s Council of Faculty Development Liaisons.

The Mentoring and Oversight Guide Subcommittee Members are listed below:

Pam Asquith, Mark Connolly, Sharon Gehl, Ellen Hartenbach, Jana Jones, Randall Kimple, Mary Poellinger, Jessica Robbins, Rebecca Sippel, Jennifer Smilowitz, Christine Sorkness, Anne Stahr, and Corrine Voils.

We particularly want to thank Mark Connolly and Jessica Robbins who led the efforts for developing and writing the SMPH Promotions Oversight Committee Guide.

We especially thank our co-authors Pam Asquith and Corrine Voils, who played major roles in the development and writing of the SMPH Mentoring Guide. Christine Pfund, who was not an official member of the committee, reviewed the final drafts and gave valuable feedback.

Anne Stahr, Director of Faculty Development Programming, and
Nancy C. Raymond, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Development

Executive Summary– Requirements and Guidelines| Page 3

1. SMPH assistant professors on the Tenure Track and Clinical Health Sciences (CHS) track are required to have a Promotions Oversight Committee (POC) assigned to them  (FP&P 7.05, SMPH CHS Track Guidelines).
   a. These committees are expected to meet with faculty at least annually, and preferably twice a year, to review the faculty member’s progress toward promotion to associate professors.
   b. Details of the composition, roles and responsibilities of committee members can be found in the Promotions Oversight Committee Guide.
2. Tenure Track assistant professors should also receive mentoring which can be provided by members of the POC or by other senior faculty members or by a mentoring committee (FP&P 7.05). UW Madison requires that the mentoring provided to Tenure Track assistant professors meet a standard of excellence.
3. CHS assistant professors should be assigned a mentor who meets with them as needed to provide career guidance and support in advancing their academic career.
4. Clinician Teacher assistant professors will benefit from targeted mentoring on relevant aspects of their careers and on promotion.
5. The purpose of the SMPH Mentoring Guide to provide departments and faculty with:
   a. The definition of mentorship: a professional, working alliance in which individuals work together over time to support the personal and professional growth, development, and success of the relational partners through the provision of career and psychosocial support  (NASEM, 2019). Can be accomplished through multiple formats.
   b. An understanding of the distinction between oversight and mentoring
   c. Evidence supporting the importance of mentoring in academic medicine.
   d. An overview of how to optimize mentoring of early career faculty.
6. Key components include information on:
   a. Different mentoring structures that can be used by departments and individuals to find a structure that best meets the needs of faculty on all tracks.
   b. How to conduct a formal individual mentoring needs assessment.
   c. How to select a mentor who best fits your mentoring needs.
   d. How to engage in career development planning.
   e. Tools to manage and improve mentoring relationships.  Mentors and mentees can make use of these tools to identify the pathway to success.
   f. Development opportunities for those wishing to improve their skills as a mentor.
7. The document provides action items for early career faculty, departments and mentors as a basis for getting the most out of this guide and mentoring activities.

Table of Contents| Page 4
▪ Department Guidance (♦), ▪ Assistant Professor Guidance (❖), ▪ Guidance for Both (❊)

A. Introduction ❊

B. Current State of Oversight and Mentoring at SMPH and Rationale for Change ❊
• Definitions–oversight vs. mentoring ❊
• Oversight committees required for Tenure and CHS Track Assistant Professors ♦
• Mentoring/ guidance recommended for all Assistant Professors and required for Tenure Track ♦
• Individual and institutional benefits of faculty mentoring ❊

C. Department Responsibilities and Expectations ♦
• Consideration for mentoring of faculty from underrepresented groups ♦
• Formal and informal mentorship ♦

D. Mentorship Competencies and Education ❊

E. Functions of Mentoring ❊

F. Types of Mentoring Structures ❊
• Dyadic research/ academic mentoring model ❊
• Peer/near-peer mentoring group model ❊
• Group mentoring model with senior or near-peer leadership ❊
• Table 1: Components of mentoring structures ❊
• Mentoring network model ❊

G. Assessing and Aligning Mentorship Needs ❖
• Individual development plans (IDP) ❖
• Mentee self-assessments ❖
• Mentoring maps ❖

H. Mentor Selection ❖
• Potential mentors ❖

I. Establish Expectations for the Mentoring Relationship ❖

J. Aligning and Cultivating an Effective Mentoring Relationship ❖
• Maintain regular and effective communication ❖
• Strategies for preparing for an effective mentoring meeting ❖
• Metrics to assess the mentee-mentor relationship ❖
• Metrics to assess mentoring programs and mentoring climate ❖
• Utilize tools ❖
• Addressing mentoring challenges ❖
• Fostering independence ❖

K. Mentorship Resources and Tools ❊

L. References ❊

A. Introduction| Page 5

The Office for Faculty Affairs and Development of the School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) affirms that all of our faculty members, regardless of their roles and responsibilities, contribute to fulfilling the vision and mission of the school. We also understand that medical school, residency training and graduate programs do not adequately prepare faculty with all of the skills that they need to meet requirements for academic advancement and maximum career satisfaction. Mentoring in academic medicine is seen as a way to alleviate any training gaps or faculty needs for career success (Sambunjak et al., 2006, Eby et al., 2008).

The objective of this Faculty Mentoring Guide is to: 1) provide an overview of the mentoring functions and structures so that departments can optimize mentoring structure to support all of their faculty and 2) to differentiate the mentoring from the oversight function of the executive committee or their designees. Furthermore, the guide also provides faculty members with strategies and tools they can use to assess their mentoring needs and select mentors who can effectively fulfill these needs. The resource section of the guide includes links to training opportunities, mentoring resources, and tools useful for both mentees and mentors.

We recommend that the appropriate leaders in departments and divisions use this guide to stimulate discussion and planning that will ensure that early-career faculty on all tracks receive adequate mentoring from those who have relevant experience to meet their needs. Consideration can also be given to potential mentoring needs of mid-career and senior faculty who can also benefit from consultation on career direction and growth opportunities from colleagues.

In this guide, we review the mentoring functions that can benefit early-career faculty and describe different formats that can be implemented by departments to meet these mentoring needs. We also offer recommendations for how early-career faculty can assess their mentoring needs, find mentor(s) to meet these needs, make the best use of mentoring meetings, and advance their own skills in mentorship.

B. Current State of Oversight and Mentoring at SMPH and Rationale for Change| Pages 5-7

Definitions–oversight vs. mentoring. In this document we draw a distinction between the functions of oversight versus mentoring. Currently, many SMPH departments have committees that typically meet with assistant professors once or twice a year to monitor progress toward promotion and to prepare faculty for their annual review. Although historically these have been referred to as Mentoring Committees within SMPH, hereafter we identify them as Promotions Oversight Committees to reflect their function oversight of annual reviews and track progression. Although Promotions Oversight Committees canalso provide some mentoring functions, many faculty benefit from mentorship that requires more frequent input and different expertise. When we refer to mentorship we are referring to a professional, working alliance in which individuals work together overtime to support the personal and professional growth, development, and success of the relational partners through the provision of career and psychosocial support (NASEM, 2019).

Oversight committees required for Tenure and CHS Track Assistant Professors. According to the Faculty Policies and Procedures, section 7.05 and 7.06, assistant professors on the tenure track at UW Madison are required to have promotions oversight committees. The SMPH also requires oversight committees for CHS track faculty. In practice, many assistant professors are assigned a committee that is expected to provide both promotions oversight and mentoring. However, these two functions are very different and often too little attention is given to the mentoring function. Since there is a strong relationship between effective formal mentorship and faculty success and satisfaction, we posit that it is of the utmost importance for departments to provide formal mentorship, in some format, to all early career faculty members. This mentoring must go beyond oversight of the promotion process or an annual meeting before the annual review so that more formal mentorship is provided for all early-career faculty members.

Mentoring/guidance recommended for all Assistant Professors and required for Tenure Track. Faculty Policies and procedures, section 7.05 describes a separate function in addition to oversight and labels it as the guidance or mentoring function which can be accomplished by committee or an individual. The guidance function, as described in section 7.05 is akin to what we are calling the mentoring function in this guide. FP&P requires that all tenure track faculty receive both oversight from a committee and mentoring from another committee or individuals.

Individual and institutional benefits of faculty mentoring. Faculty at all career stages benefit from strategies that promote and sustain their productivity and joy in their careers (Choi et al.,2019). One of the most important of those strategies is to seek out appropriate career mentoring. Studies of mentoring in the health professions find measurable benefits for faculty at all career stages (NASEM, 2019). For example, compared to those without mentors, faculty with mentors demonstrate higher levels of:
• Teaching effectiveness evidenced by declines in teaching anxiety and improved student ratings of teaching effectiveness (Williams, 1991)
• Research productivity (Bland CJ, Schmitz CC, 1986; Byrne MW, Keefe MR, 2002)
• Professional socialization and interactions with colleagues(Corcoran M, Clark SM, 1984)
• Enhanced confidence (Feldman et al., 2012)
• Salaries
• Satisfaction with salary and promotion

The mentoring functions and structures outlined in this guide do not supplant the role of the Promotions Oversight Committees. These committees provide essential guidance for the successful path to promotion. Individual departments in the SMPH have established specific policies and procedures related to the selection, administration, and expectations for the Committees. Many department handbooks summarize this information. SMPH will offer guidance regarding the functions of these committees in a separate document titled, “UWSMPH Promotions Oversight Committee: Requirements and Recommendations.” In preparing this manual, the authors recognized that some departments do not have formal mentoring programs for Clinical Track (CT) faculty. However, we believe that all early career faculty benefit from attention to their needs for mentoring directed at their unique career development path.

C. Department Responsibilities and Expectations| Pages 7-8

The Office for Faculty Affairs and Development recommends that all assistant professors, on all tracks, should receive appropriate mentoring to advance career development, productivity and career satisfaction. In order for departments to achieve the goal of offering mentoring to all early career faculty, SMPH leadership and senior faculty need to be strategic about achieving this goal. The mentoring relationship should not be a burden for either the mentor or the mentee. The amount and type of mentoring and content of mentoring sessions should be tailored to the faculty member’s specific roles, responsibilities and expectations for advancement on their academictrack. For example, research-intensive faculty may need to meet weekly or biweekly with one or more mentors to plan and execute their research program. In contrast, faculty with heavy clinical responsibilities have different mentoring needs and time constraints requiring different mentoring formats and models and will vary over time. Early on they may need support in addressing clinical care conundrums and later may be more interested in improving their clinical teaching skills or advancement in rank.

Consideration for mentoring of faculty from underrepresented groups. Given all the known benefits of mentoring to career advancement in academic medicine, it is important to recognize that literature has shown that faculty from underrepresented groups often receive less mentoring than their nonminority peers (Beech et al., 2013). For medical schools to be successful in retention and recruitment of minority medical school faculty, specific programs need to be in place. Overall evidence is strong that faculty development programs and mentoring programs increase retention, productivity, and promotion for this group of medical faculty (Rodriquez et al., 2014). The UW SMPH recognizes that faculty diversity enhances the quality of education, clinical care and research. The Centennial Scholars and Centennial Clinicians Programs are designed to support departments in hiring and developing diverse faculty from groups who experience health disparities in Wisconsin.

Formal and informal mentorship. Formal mentorship has been viewed as a relationship in which there is a designated mentor and mentee. Informal relationships can be defined as those that evolve spontaneously with no specified responsibilities, and involve no evaluative or supervisory function. The research that has been done indicates that formal and informal mentoring relationships may offer complementary and overlapping forms of support (NASEM, 2019)

Effective mentoring can be achieved through a variety of mentoring structures (e.g. dyads, triads, group mentoring, peer mentoring) and with varying degrees of input from senior faculty. Mentoring may be specific to various content and areas (e.g., clinical education, research, outreach) or address topics like how to become a recognized leader in your field. Identifying the types of mentoring an early-career faculty member needs requires intentionality on the part of the mentee and departmental leadership.

D. Mentorship Competencies and Education| Page 8

Mentorship education helps mentors and mentees at all experience levels develop and refine their mentorship abilities. For mentors, the Entering Mentoring(EM) curriculum for example has proven to be effective in training mentors in research training environments (Pfund, House, Asquith et al.,2014) to be more proficient mentors. Mentoring knowledge and skills have been organized into key competency areas within research mentoring relationships. While the EM curriculum has focused on research mentoring, it serves as a basis that can be applied to other types of mentoring (NASEM, 2019). Examples of the core competency areas include the following. Each competency area comprises a specific set of knowledge and skills.

• Maintaining Effective Communication
• Aligning Expectations
• Assessing Understanding
• Addressing Equity and Inclusion
• Fostering Independence
• Promoting Professional Development

Recognizing the importance of effective mentoring relationships to faculty development, mentorship education has been integrated into education and faculty development programs in academic medical centers across the U.S. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR), the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) and WISCIENCE regularly offer mentorship education workshops led by trained facilitators. Training for both mentors and mentees may be delivered over several sessions to address multiple competencies or shorter modules with a specific focus can also be effective. UW-Madison investigators have been part of the leadership of the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) where a guided virtual mentoring program, career development webinars and mentoring resources can be accessed. Optimizing the Practice of Mentoring developed at the University of Minnesota is a free online curriculum for the professional development and training of research mentors. The mentor training program engages learners through text, audio, mini-presentations, self-assessments, and other interactive activities. Evidence-based curricula for mentor and mentee training can be found at www.cimerproject.org.

The Office of Faculty Affairs and Development in the School of Medicine and Public Health also has curated a library of resources on mentoring and mentorship on the Faculty Central Resources website.

E. Functions of Mentoring| Page 9

The mentoring literature identifies two overarching mentoring functions: technical or instrumental career functions, and psychosocial or expressive career functions. Technical career functions include being an advisor for development of specific academic skills such as teaching or clinical skills. This includes advising on the development of academic scholarship, including a research program or educational scholarship such as curriculum development or publication of innovative teaching methods (Bland, CJ, et al., 2009).

A variation on technical mentoring is functional mentoring, defined as short-term, project-oriented mentoring.For example, an individual or small group of early career-faculty may identify an area where skill development would be warranted, such as improving teaching in the clinical setting or implementing a quality improvement project. They may seek a mentor who has expertise in the particular skill set that is needed.

Mentors can also fulfill a psychosocial or expressive function with their mentees. In this role, mentors become an advocate for the mentee within the department, school and profession. They serve in a supportive role and model positive collegial interactions. Mentors can assist the mentee with navigating political issues in the workplace and promote scholarly values and integrity. The psychosocial mentor would be the person to go to for discussing issues of work life balance and should be a resource to help faculty navigate minority status in the workplace.

Sometimes the same individual or group can serve technical and psychosocial mentoring needs. Alternatively, a mentee may seek out these two types of mentoring from different individuals or groups.

It should be noted that there is a difference between mentorship and sponsorship. Mentorship involves career guidance, feedbackand support, whereas sponsorship involves advocacy by someone who can influence decision-making processes or structures. For example, a senior faculty member with a leadership position in a national organization may suggest a junior colleague for an important position or committee within the organization. The senior colleague recognizes the unique skills and talents of the junior colleague and makes opportunities for career advancement available that would not have been available without sponsorship. Sponsorship is a very important skill for senior faculty and leaders in academic medicine to acquire and develop. It is important to look for opportunities to sponsor those who come from demographic groups that are often underrepresented in medicine as the literature indicates that they will have a more difficult time advancing in academic medicine. Importantly, mentors can provide sponsorship, but sponsorship can also be provided by individuals who do not have an ongoing mentoring relationship with the person whom they sponsor.

F. Types of Mentoring Structures| Pages 10-12

The table that follows gives examples of several mentoring structures and formats that can be implemented by departments or divisions. Early-career faculty, either individually or in groups, can also take it upon themselves to seek out mentoring to meet their needs through an individual or group mentoring format.

Dyadic research/ academic mentoring model. The dyadic mentoring format is the most time-intensive on the part of the mentor and the mentee. In this format, the mentor is most often a senior faculty member with expertise in the area of scholarship of the assistant professor. This is often the type of mentoring offered to those on training grants and for those in research-intensive positions and can be time intensive for both parties. This type of mentoring may be required to attain promotion to associate professor with tenure on the timeline required by UW Madison.

Peer/near-peer mentoring group model. Another option is a group mentoring format with or without input from senior or mid-career faculty. These can be initiated by the early-career faculty or departmental leaders. For instance, a group of early-career faculty may meet to share with each other the challenges and successes on their career path and seek counsel from their peer colleagues. The group determines the size of the peer-group, the frequency of meetings, and format and content of the meetings. The group can be a time-limited group or a longer-term group that meets both career and psychosocial needs. A senior faculty member can be invited to present on a topic of interest to the group or to give advice on challenges faced by the group. Peer groups can focus on sharing career goals, progress, and challenges. They can hold each other accountable to these goals.

Group mentoring model with senior or near-peer leadership. Additionally, department or division leadership, in consultation with their assistant professors, may decide that having a senior faculty member convene a mentoring group would be the best method to meet the mentorship needs in their unit. Care should be taken in the selection of the group leader as it needs to be someone who the faculty trust and who they believe will give advice based on their best interest and not simply based on departmental priorities or needs. The group leaders could also be a “near peer,” for instance someone who has been just recently promoted to associate professor. In this situation, the experience of the new faculty would be more proximal to the experience of the group leader. These groups can be formed in a time-limited fashion and address a specific topic such as efficiency in clinical practice or preparing a dossier for promotion. They can also be set up to be ongoing and address the concerns of the members on a rolling basis. The frequency and number of sessions can be decided by the group leader if the goal is to present information in a “just-in-time” or can be determined by the mentees based on their needs. Roles of senior faculty members or near-peer group leaders can include: facilitation of the group meeting, reviewing goals and progress, directing scholars to internal and external resources such as other faculty with specific expertise, and being available for consultation if early-career faculty are struggling.

Mentoring network model. Mentoring networks usually include faculty at multiple career levels. There may be one primary mentee who meets with other individual mentors to fulfill different mentoring needs. Alternatively, it can be a group of senior and junior colleagues with multiple intersecting mentoring relationships. The network may or may not have formal mentoring meetings. The early-career faculty member likely has dyadic or small group meetings around topics on which mentoring is required based on the expertise and function of different people in the group. This format can be particularly useful for faculty from groups that are underrepresented in medicine or for women. For instance, a faculty member may have one or two mentors in their area of scholarship and then another mentor or two with whom they can share their concerns about how their diverse identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion) are impacting their career progression.

G. Assessing and Aligning Mentorship Needs| Pages 12-13

Assessing mentoring needs is an important first step to discern the types of mentor functions and expertise that match their career needs. Then mentees can consider which mentoring structures fulfill those needs and identify potential mentors. Information gained from this assessment can be used to determine whether all the mentoring needs can be met by one mentor or if more than one mentor will be needed. There are several useful tools designed to guide mentees through this self-assessment process, briefly described here (refer to the Mentoring Resources section for links to examples and templates).

Individual development plans (IDP). The IDP is a tool to help in the career and promotion planning process. IDPs include sections for self-assessment and reflection; career choices and pathways; short-and long-term goals; and ways to achieve and implement those goals. The IDP also facilitates communication between mentees and mentors and can help align expectations for the mentoring relationship.

Mentee self-assessments. Self-assessment tools assess one’s skills, abilities, strengths and weaknesses across a variety of domains (e.g. mentoring relationship skills, research knowledge and skills, teaching knowledge and skills, leadership expertise). Knowing their level of proficiency in each area can help mentees identify appropriate mentors. The mentee could also share the self-assessment with their current mentors to develop a plan to strengthen skills in certain areas and align mentorship needs (e.g., Measuring Mentor-Mentee Alignment Toolkit and other examples in the Mentoring Resources section).

Mentoring maps. A mentoring network mapping exercise highlights the value of self-reflection to help articulate one’s academic and career goals and identify unmet mentoring needs (Montgomery 2017). Faculty have multiple mentors, both formal and informal throughout their careers. A mentoring map identifies the various professional and personal domains (e.g., sponsorship, professional development, emotional support, role models, intellectual community) key to career advancement and the roles that mentors can play (see Mentoring Resources).

Mentoring plans. Preparing a mentoring plan could be useful for discerning the roles of multiple mentors. A mentoring plan specifies short-and long-term objectives and may include specific competencies and expertise the mentee would like to achieve. An example of one template (see Mentoring Resources) structures the mentoring plan by aligning specific learning objectives and outcomes with individual mentors.

H. Mentor Selection| Pages 13-15

Mentoring relationships move through several developmental stages. These include selection, alignment, cultivation, and closure or transition. The first stage to establishing an effective mentoring relationship is selection of mentors. Mentors are often faculty members with an investment in promoting academic endeavors of the mentee. The overall goal for the mentor-mentee relationship is to engage in ongoing efforts to promote success in research, educational excellence, and academic stewardship. While it is good practice to be proactive about identifying potential mentors, assistant professors should not be required to identify mentors independently. Department chairs, division chiefs, vice chairs (e.g., faculty development or research), and colleagues are good sources for mentor recommendations. They can take responsibility for identifying interested and skilled mentors as well as supporting faculty in connecting with appropriate mentors.

Potential mentors. The more information one can communicate about one’s goals in meetings with potential mentors, the better the ultimate fit will be. Investing time to discern your mentoring needs and the mentor qualities that will best fit your needs is worthwhile. Mentors do not need to be limited to individuals withinyour department. A mentoring relationship with someone outside the division/department, or even the institution, may help broaden the network of colleagues and provide a new perspective or approach to thinking about one’s work. It is almost always best tohave a mentor who is not the direct supervisor (e.g., division chief) as the supervisor has multiple roles and responsibilities with regard to the clinic, division, and department that may be in conflict with the best interest of a particular faculty member. A mentor who is nota direct supervisor or superior will provide an opportunity for you to explore career plans and discuss barriers and challenges one is facing without reservation.Some general criteria for identifying potential mentors include:

• Interest in contributing to the mentoring process.
• Availability (time and distance) for planned meetings.
• Skill set (e.g., expertise pertinent to the needs of the assistant professor).
• Relevant research, clinical, education, and teaching interests.
• Personal characteristics (e.g., personality, approach, life experiences).
• Formal mentor education.

Questions to guide selection of mentors are provided here, acknowledging that often multiple mentors with varying roles are required:

• What skills and expertise do you need to successfully fulfill your professional goals?
• Does this mentor have enough seniority/clout in order to advocate for you within your own institution, division or department?
• Has this mentor successfully launched previous mentees into careers that align with your own goals?
• Can this person help you navigate your advancement process in your department?
• Can this mentor help you identify other potential members of a mentoring team and help model effective methods of sharing knowledge and decisions across multidisciplinary teams?
• Can this mentor help translate institutional/professional cultures and norms in a way that fosters your sense of inclusion and belonging?
• What are previous and current mentees saying about this mentor’s work and mentoring style?
• Does this mentor have the time and motivation to provide you the guidance you need?

The UW ICTR Mentoring website has curated a collection of resources, tools and suggested readings for each phase of the mentoring relationship. With regard to the selection process and what to consider when identifying potential mentors and assessing fit, see Selection Phase Resources. There you will find information about:

• Individual Development Plans (IDPs)
• Finding a mentor
• Assessing fit (see “Assessing Fit Checklist” and “Interview Questions to Help Assess Fit”)
• Building a mentor team

Additionally, the ICTR Mentoring website includes a compilation of, strategies that peers have found helpful for finding a mentor:

1. Begin by clarifying your own goals, skills, and areas of interest. Use your Individual Development Plan to begin a conversation with a potential mentor (examples are found on the ICTR mentoring website, and some departments have customized their own IDPs)
2. Interview mentors. Set up an investigatory meeting where you can informally explore a potential relationship.
3. Interview current and previous mentees. Doing so will help you understand the mentor’s philosophical and practical approaches to mentoring.
4. Seek advice broadly. This includes getting suggestions from department chairs, peers, deans, and web resources.
5. Don’t be afraid to look for a mentor outside of your department. While the literature tends to recommend your primary mentor’s research area overlap with your own, scholars also advocate for successful partnerships with mentors outside of their department, especially given the interdisciplinary nature of clinical and translational research.
6. Think team. It is difficult for one person to meet all of your mentoring needs, especially when your research is exploring new areas of investigation or when your research is engaged with specific communities inside and outside the university.
7. Building trust. A mentor is someone who not only will provide you with information and resources, but who will guide you when things are not going according to plan. Building trust with a mentor will make navigating difficult times easier.
8. Give yourself time. Finding a good mentor match will likely mean meeting first with multiple people until you find “the one.” Don’t rush the process or sell yourself short by saying “yes” to the first person who expresses interest in you and your work.

I. Establish Expectations for the Mentoring Relationship | Page 15

Once a mentoring relationship has been established, an important next step is communicating and aligning expectations between mentors and mentees. A clear understanding of respective roles, responsibilities and expectations will promote effective communication. Taking the time early in the relationship to share your goals and the roles you would like your mentor to play and to learn what the mentor is expecting from you sets the stage for a productive mentoring relationship. This is an opportunity to also discuss what the process will be when there is a misalignment in expectations. Recording the mentor and mentee expectations in a written document (e.g., mentoring compacts or agreements) provides a useful reference going forward. These documents can be reviewed periodically to assess if expectations are still in alignment (see Alignment Phase Checklist)

See examples of mentoring compacts and agreements and other helpful information such as signs of misalignment within the Alignment Phase Resources on the ICTR mentoring website

J. Aligning and Cultivating an Effective Mentoring Relationship| Pages 15-17

Attributes for effective research mentoring relationships include developing disciplinary research skills, teaching and learning disciplinary knowledge, developing technical skills, accurately assessing understanding of disciplinary knowledge and skills, and valuing and practicing ethical behavior and responsible conduct of research (Pfund, Byars-Winston, et al., 2016). These include 1) Interpersonal skills (listening actively, aligning expectations, building trusting relationships), 2) psychosocial skills (providing motivation, developing mentee career and research self-efficacy, developing sense of belonging, developing science identity), 3)
Faculty Mentoring Guide|Page16diversity/culturally-focused skills (advancing equity and inclusion, being culturally responsive, reducing the impacts of bias and stereotype threat), and 4) sponsorship skills (fostering independence, promoting professional development, establishing and fostering mentee professional networks, and actively advocating).

Maintain regular and effective communication. Mentoring relationships benefit from attention to communications types and styles. Successful mentors focus on providing positive verbal and nonverbal communication and minimizing negative communication. Positive, nonverbal communication includes eye contact, open or relaxed posture, nodding or other affirmation, and pleasant facial expressions. Negative, nonverbal communication includes crossed arms, averted eyes, and pointing fingers. Positive, verbal communication includes asking open-ended questions, active listening, reflective listening, self-disclosure, and summarizing. Negative, verbal communication techniques include moralizing, arguing, preaching, storytelling, blocking communication, and talking too much. Face-to-face meetings (including virtual meetings with video) can provide opportunities for nonverbal expression, which can help minimize miscommunication arising from solely verbal or written feedback.

Strategies for preparing for an effective mentoring meeting. It is helpful to ask mentees to email an agenda to mentors in advance of a meeting so that mentors can be prepared to discuss the issues. Mentors can be invited to contribute additional items to the agenda. Close the meeting by summarizing main points and action items for both the mentor and mentee. Follow-up with a written summary, and clarify who is responsible for preparing that summary.

Metrics to assess the mentee-mentor relationship. Mentor-mentee alignment is an important factor in effective mentoring relationships. One way to assess effectiveness of mentor-mentee relationships is by administering parallel mentor and mentee measures across relevant domains. Relevant domains include research, clinical, educational, interpersonal, psychosocial and career, cultural responsiveness and diversity, and sponsorship. Mentees and mentors provide ratings of whether the mentor is providing mentoring in these areas and quality of such mentoring, if present. Discrepancies can highlight areas requiring alignment of expectations or additional mentors.It can also be helpful for mentors and mentees to rate themselves and each other on their mentorship skills, behaviors and the overall quality of the mentoring relationship. While the power dynamic inherent in mentoring relationships can sometime make assessments such as these challenging, it is important to find ways for mentors and mentees to assess one another and provide each other with honest feedback.

Metrics to assess mentoring programs and mentoring climate. Organizational-level metrics indicative of the mentoring climate include presence of mentor and mentee training programs, faculty participation in such programs, acknowledging and valuing of mentorship efforts, mentoring awards, and proportion of faculty engaged in mentoring other faculty. Measures of mentoring climate are being tested and published that can be used at the department and institutional level. Downstream outcomes indicative of mentoring program effectiveness include retention rates (e.g., at the institution, in research), promotion rates, productivity (e.g.,
Faculty Mentoring Guide|Page17grants, publications, patients seen), and performance ratings (e.g., patient satisfaction scores, resident teaching ratings).

Utilize tools. Each mentor and mentee brings to a relationship different preferences for communication, thinking, and teaching and learning. Tools (e.g., Mentor-Mentee Alignment Toolkit) can be used to assess these preferences, serving as a basis for conversations in which these preferences are recognized and strategies are developed tocapitalize on these preferences. For example, various inventories canbe used to assess mentor and mentee communication styles or mentee-mentor alignment. Mentors and mentees may wish to complete a Myers-Briggs type inventory to provide insight to personality traits such as introversion/extroversion.

Addressing mentoring challenges. Challenges can arise for a variety of reasons: misalignment of expectations between mentee and mentor, poor communication, or misalignment of mentor expertise with mentee needs. Effective communication skills can enable honest conversations between mentors and mentees about areas of misalignment. Mentors and mentees can seek advice from third parties while maintaining confidentiality. Such individuals include, but are not limited to, senior colleagues, vice chairs for research or faculty affairs, division or department chairs, or the employee assistance program.

Fostering independence. With effective mentoring, mentees will gradually be able to conduct all aspects of their work independently. To promote independence, mentors should continuously assess mentees’ development and assign increasingly challenging tasks and projects, offering assistance with only the skills that are beyond the mentee’s proficiency level. Mentees should push themselves to increase responsibility and ownership of their work while still asking for support when needed. Mentors and mentees should engage in direct conversations about transitioning to independence and develop shared expectations about meeting frequency and extent of input from the mentor. As mentees developindependence, the quality and quantity of input from mentors decreases. For example, weekly meetings may transition to biweekly and then monthly. The extent of input on issues such as study design and execution and editing documents should decrease as well. Authorship positions should change as well, with mentors gradually appearing less often as senior author and not being included on all of the mentee’s publications. This is particularly salient for tenure-track faculty, who will need to demonstrate independence from the mentor to earn tenure.

K. Mentorship Resources and Tools| Pages 17-18

Following is a selection of resources, organized thematically, for areas and issues related to mentoring. These are suggested resources that can enhance mentoring relationships and experiences for both mentors and mentees and are not required for use by SMPH faculty, staff and students.

L. References| Pages 19-20

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