Optimizing the Practice of Mentoring

Psychosocial Mentoring

In the psychosocial function, mentors are focused on developing the internal values and attitudes that will contribute to their mentees’ success in the profession. Click on the boxes below to learn more.

Promote Socialization to the Profession and Institution

Socialization is a process in which people come to understand and internalize the culture of a profession or organization – its values, norms, expected behaviors, language, and assumptions. An extensive review of 130 studies found socialization to be a fundamental career event in predicting faculty members’ research productivity.2 Unsuccessful socialization is a contributing factor to some students’ decision to leave graduate school.3,4,5

Mentoring relationships are key conduits for socialization. You can help your mentees decode and navigate their environment in a number of ways, for example:

  • Discussing “unwritten rules" such as how often one can work from home or when preliminary data can be shared with people outside of the research team
  • Directing mentees to key personnel who can help troubleshoot specific issues and cut through administrative red tape
  • Guiding trainees through the process of negotiating authorship on articles generated in collaborative studies

Socialization is especially important for mentees who may be less familiar with your research environment. This might include a first-generation graduate student, a person educated in a different country, or a researcher with different disciplinary training than most members of your research team. Keep in mind, however, that socialization should be balanced with respect and appreciation for the diversity that individuals bring to the team.

“It’s important for mentors to be clear and honest about the etiquette within academia. For example, mentors can advise students on how to respectfully ask a faculty member to be on their dissertation committee, including sharing how other students have prepared for similar encounters.”
— Mentor

Provide Encouragement, Enhance Confidence

Everyone needs encouragement, from the graduate student who received a disappointing grade to the junior faculty member who doesn’t receive a grant, promotion, or paper acceptance. Here are some ways you can encourage your mentees and help them to develop a persistence mindset:

  • Demonstrate enthusiasm for their ideas
  • Encourage them to take calculated risks
  • Offer emotional support when they experience failure or rejection
  • Disclose your own challenges and how you overcame them
  • Positively reframe their expectations if unrealistic (overly ambitious)
  • Showcase their talents in public forums
  • Celebrate their successes
“A positive outlook in the face of distress and difficulty can really reinvigorate one’s research ambition. Just today, I had an extensive meeting with my mentor. Even though we are low on funding, the experiments are showing the opposite of what we previously observed, and the stress seems unbearable, he helped me to refocus and reprioritize. More importantly, he re-instilled in me the joy of science and determination I need to tackle these current problems.”
— Mentee

Enhance Research Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy is the perceived confidence people have in their ability to successfully perform a specific task or skill (“I can do this”). Self-efficacy has a tremendous impact on behavior. For example, people with a strong sense of self-efficacy view challenging problems as tasks to be mastered, rather than something to avoid, and form a strong sense of commitment to the interest area or activity they are pursuing. They also recover quickly from setbacks and disappointments, whereas people with low self-efficacy quickly lose confidence in their abilities.6

In science disciplines, research self-efficacy is crucial for stimulating and deepening people’s interest in research, encouraging their persistence during training, and supporting them through degree completion and career entry.7,8,9,10. As a mentor you can greatly influence, for better or for worse, how your mentees perceive their research capabilities.

Complete Activity 3 (next tab) to learn about the four primary sources of self-efficacy and some corresponding strategies you can apply in your mentoring relationships.

Clarify Professional Identity

Mentees may be on a career path that closely mirrors that of their mentors or one that follows a very different trajectory. Mentees don’t need to enter or exit the mentoring relationship as your professional clone. What matters is that you take the time to learn about and help shape your mentees’ vision for their careers. Recognize that this sense of professional identity may evolve over the course of your work together.

Some of the ways you can help mentees clarify their professional identity include:

  • Periodically discussing their short- and long-term career goals
  • Talking through various career paths and the competencies needed for each
  • Engaging in thoughtful conversations about how a mentee’s cultural identity intersects with his/her professional identity in both positive and challenging ways
  • Supporting career trajectories and professional identities that differ from yours
  • Offering an honest assessment of their professional goals. Are they realistic for the mentee? In this institution? In this job market?
“I discuss with my mentees what they are passionate about and what they would like to be recognized for.”
— Mentor

Model Professional Behaviors, Attitudes, and Values

Through observation of their mentors, mentees gain valuable insight on what types of characteristics and actions, beyond scientific talent, help someone become a successful researcher. Two of the most important attributes that a mentor can model are professionalism and the ethical conduct of research. Here are a few examples of behaviors that a mentor can, and should, demonstrate to their mentees:

  • Contributing to the daily functioning of a group or department
  • Responding tactfully to external critiques
  • Publicly recognizing the contributions of team members
  • Delivering criticism privately and in a constructive manner
  • Acknowledging and taking responsibility for mistakes
  • Maintaining confidentiality in venues such as review panels for grant proposals

Mentors must model professionalism, research skills, teamwork, scholarship, ethics, commitment to the institution, and support of colleagues. In short, mentors personify the qualities of a successful independent researcher.

“As a mentor and role model, I try to emphasize the importance of viewing the data from different angles, being rigorous about quality control, and making sure we are confident in our own data before we try to convince others.”
— Mentor