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- Getting an Edge through Mentorship
Traditional mentorship programs tend to be organized via a hierarchy, with mentees being assigned a mentor to advance mentees’ careers. Under imprecise rubrics like “peer mentoring” or “lateral mentoring,” recent attention has focused on how key mentorships happen outside of inst...
- Having Difficult Conversations
No matter how in tune you are with your colleagues, at some point, you’ll find yourself in conflict and needing to have a difficult conversation. In my leadership roles at VUMC and elsewhere, I’ve had plenty. Here are some strategies for making these conversations less stress...
- Being Your Own Mentor Matchmaker
Career development grants typically describe how they select ideal mentors for the training program. This post unpacks those concepts as steps for individuals to use when seeking mentors for our own research careers.
Basics:
Don’t make assumptions based only on acade...
- A Dynamic Daily Devotional of Mentoring
I love books whose contents far surpass their titles, and this one fits that bill to a tee. At first glance, it seems to have a gimmicky organization. I’m not a big personal fan of reading lists, and the thought of trudging through 75 short recommendations on mentoring frankly re...
- The Art of Being Helpful: Mentor vs. Coach vs. Advisor vs. Sponsor
Imagine that someone you’ve been mentoring for the past few years walks into your office one day and says, “Thank you so much for being a great mentor to me. I was thinking about applying for a leadership position that just opened up. What do you think?”
You remember that ...
- Lessons Learned While Building a Research Career: Mentoring Matters
I’ve been building my research career since I finished my clinical training and started in my fellowship lab in 2012. Over the years, I’ve learned some lessons I’ll share in this three-part series. First up: Mentoring Matters.
Choosing mentors and a lab environment for you...
- Getting Expectations in Line with an Online Mentoring Agreement
Excellent communication underlies the mentee-mentor relationship, starting with the initial expectations, goals, and plans to achieve success together. Yet most Mentee-Mentor Agreements used by academic groups define agreements in formal legalese that often poorly fit specific nu...
- Helping Students Find the Focus of Their Manuscript
Learning how to write a research paper is difficult and takes time, yet it is an integral part of a PhD in STEM. Teaching your students and postdocs how to write good papers is an essential part of being a good supervisor and mentor.
Loose keys from a rainbow coloured comp...
- 10 Tips on Providing Feedback to Students
This post is inspired by a tweet by @HaPhDsupervisor where she asked, “In your view, what is good supervisor feedback?”
The following 10 tips are based on responses to that tweet and my own experience as a supervisor (and former PhD student).
Ask questions and listen. Ask...
- Mentoring Roundup: What to Consider When Selecting a Research Mentor
New trainees are often advised to find a “good mentor.” But what makes a “good mentor” and how do you determine if someone fulfills those qualities? Are the characteristics of a “good mentor” the same for each trainee? What expectations should a mentee have of their mentor and ...
