benefits

Mentoring

Supervising faculty are expected to provide a meaningful training experience that supports the postdoc’s career development. To assist in this effort, a variety of resources are available.

Resources on Effective Mentorship

  1. When a postdoc is up for reappointment, they will complete an annual Individual Development Plan Report that outlines research programs and plans, as well as career development progress and plans. You should review this document with your postdoc and use it as a framework to discuss their progress and plans for the upcoming year.
  2. A useful guide for establishing a productive mentoring relationship between faculty and postdocs is the Postdoc Compact, provided by the American Association of Medical Colleges. Although originally written for postdocs at academic medical centers, the principles described in the Compact apply to faculty in many disciplines. The AAMC also released a guide to the Appropriate Treatment of Research Trainees.
  3. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Research Integrity has established a resource for mentoring international postdocs. 

Building a Mentoring Team

Building a Mentoring Team

Encouraging postdocs and postgrads to build a mentoring team can be helpful in several ways, including: 

  • Providing diverse perspectives on a mentee’s research progress and skills development 
  • Allowing for different kinds of support a mentee may need (e.g., support in acquiring a specific skill the faculty mentor may not have expertise or bandwidth for, support for personal development, etc.) 
  • Supporting building a professional network and understanding different professional trajectories and career options 

To be clear, a mentoring team enhances both a mentee’s experience (as noted above) and can support the mentee in owning their training experience and next career step in a positive way. 

To help your mentee build their mentoring team, the following tools may be helpful: 

  • Assessing Your Mentorship Needs table 
  • Steps to growing your mentoring team 

Mentoring Prize

The Office of the Provost awards the Postdoctoral Mentoring Prize annually in recognition of outstanding faculty mentorship.

Click her for more info

Literature on the Benefits of a Mentoring Team:

Lambert, W.M., Nana, N., Afonja, S., Saeed, A., Amado, A.C. and Golightly, L.M. (2023) “Addressing structural mentoring barriers in postdoctoral training: a qualitative study”, Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. 

Abstract: For postdoctoral scientists, structural mentoring barriers can permeate down to institutional, interpersonal, and individual levels, impeding a successful transition to an independent research career. This work provides strong evidence for promoting mentorship networks and cultivating a “mentoring milieu” that fosters a supportive community and a strong culture of mentorship at all levels. 

Montgomery, B. L. (2017). Mapping a Mentoring Roadmap and Developing a Supportive Network for Strategic Career Advancement. Sage Open, 7(2). Click the following link for more information: 

Abstract: This article presents a proactive, individual-centered mentoring model which meets a recognized need for defined, practical methods for supporting comprehensive career planning and strategic development grounded in personal career aspirations. The developed model consists of a mentoring roadmap charting process and construction of a developmental mentoring network based on an integrative literature review of successful mentoring practices and adaptation of tested methods for retrospective analyses of effective mentoring. The mentoring roadmap concept encompasses the following steps: (a) self-reflection, (b) establishment of mentor–mentee relationship(s), (c) maintenance of mentoring relationships, and (d) advancing in mentoring relationship(s). To support strategic advancement along a defined mentoring roadmap and toward attainment of individual goals, the identification and cultivation of a broad collection of mentoring resources or mentors (i.e., nodes) and the relationships (i.e., edges) which connect these nodes in an effective mentoring network topology are discussed. The mentoring roadmap and network model is proposed as complementary to top-down or formal organizational mentoring interventions and as effective for short- and long-term career development planning as a self-guided assessment or mentor-engaged tool to support individuals seeking mentoring. 

Gangrade, Navika et al.( ). Postdoctoral mentorship needs a reform. Trends in Molecular Medicine, 30 (1), 6 – 9. 

Abstract: To retain talented scientists in academia, there is a need for structural reform to postdoctoral researcher (postdoc) mentorship. These changes include mentorship training for postdocs and their mentors, formalizing postdoc mentorship networks and postdoc cohorts within a department, and incorporating mentorship development plans (MDPs) in funding decisions for principal investigators (PIs). 

M., Ross, M., & Berdanier, C. G. P. (2024). (Mis)alignments between postdoctoral and supervisors’ perceptions of mentorship competencies in engineering and computer science. Journal of Engineering Education, 113(4), 1115–1145. 

Abstract: Postdoctoral training holds an increasingly important place in preparation for leading academic and research positions. While little empirical research has described postdoctoral training beyond the sciences, across all fields, “misaligned expectations” are often touted as a key source of postdoctoral strife.