Mentoring: Essentialfor Researcher

Success

Carole J. Bland, PhD, ProfessorAssistant Dean for Faculty Development

Medical School, University of Minnesota

What are the essential characteristics of a productive researcher and what role does a mentor play in assuring a mentee acquires these characteristics?

Leadership1. Scholar: Highly regarded as a

scholar; serves as a sponsor, mentor, and peer model for other group members.

2. Research-Oriented: Possesses a “research orientation;” has internalized the group’s research-centered mission.

3. Capably Fulfills All Critical Leadership Roles:

• Manager of people and resources

• Fund raiser• Group advocate• Keeps the group’s mission and

shared goals visible to all members

• Attends to the many individual and institutional features that facilitate research productivity

4. Participative Leader: Uses an assertive, participative style of leadership

• Holds frequent meetings with clear objectives

• Creates formal mechanisms and sets expectations for all members to contribute to decision-making

• Makes high quality information readily available to the group

• Vests ownership of projects with members and values their ideas

Institutional1. Recruitment & Selection: Great effort is expended to recruit and hire members who have

the training, goals, commitment, and socialization that match the institution. 2. Clear Coordinating Goals: Visible, shared goals coordinate members’ work.3. Research Emphasis: Research has greater or equal priority than other goals.4. Culture: Members are bonded by shared, research-related values and practices, have a

safe home for testing new ideas.5. Positive Group Climate: The climate is characterized by high morale, a spirit of

innovation, dedication to work, receptivity to new ideas, frequent interactions, high degree of cooperation, low member turnover, good leader/member relationships, and open discussion of disagreements.

6. Mentoring: Beginning and mid-level members are assisted by and collaborate with established scholars.

7. Communication with Professional Network: Members have a vibrant network of colleagues with whom they have frequent and substantive (not merely social) research communication, both impromptu and formal, in and outside of the institution.

8. Resources: Members have access to sufficient resources such as funding, facilities, and especially humans (e.g., productive local peers for support, research assistants, technical consultants).

9. Sufficient Work Time: Members have significant periods of uninterrupted time to devote to scholarly activities.

10. Size/Experience/Expertise: Members offer different perspectives by virtue of differences in their degree levels, approaches to problems, and varying discipline backgrounds; the group is stable, and its size is at or above a “critical mass.”

11. Communication: Clear and multiple forms of communication such that all members feel informed.

12. Rewards: Research is rewarded equitably and in accordance with defined benchmarks of achievement; potential rewards include money, promotion, recognition, and new responsibilities.

13. Brokered Opportunities: Professional development opportunities are routinely and proactively offered to members to assure their continued growth and vitality.

14. Decentralized Organization: Governance structures are flat and decentralized where participation of members is expected.

15. Assertive Participative Governance: Clear and common goals, assertive and participative leadership where active participation of members is expected, and effective feedback systems are utilized.

Individual1. Socialization: Understands the values,

norms, expectations, and sanctions affecting established faculty (e.g., beneficence, academic freedom).

2. Motivation: Driven to explore, understand, and follow one’s own ideas, and to advance and contribute to society through innovation, discovery, and creative works.

3. Content Knowledge: Familiar – within one’s research area – with all major published works, projects being conducted, differing theories, key researchers, and predominant funding sources.

4. Basic & Advanced Research Skills:Comfortable with statistics, study design, data collection methods, and advanced methods commonly used in one’s area.

5. Simultaneous Projects: Engaged in multiple, concurrent projects, so as to buffer against disillusionment if one project stalls or fails.

6. Orientation: Committed to both external activities (e.g., regional and national meetings, collaborating with colleagues) and activities within one’s own organization (e.g., curriculum planning, institutional governance).

7. Autonomy & Commitment: Has academic freedom, plans one’s own time and sets one’s own goals, but is also committed to and plays a meaningful role within the larger organization.

8. Work Habits: Has established productive scholarly habits early on in one’s career.

Description of Individual, Institutional, and Leadership Characteristics That Facilitate Research Productivity

Individual Characteristics That Facilitate Research Productivity

1. Motivation2. Socialization3. Content Knowledge4. Basic and Advanced

Research Skills5. Simultaneous Projects6. Autonomy and

Commitment7. Orientation8. Work Habits

To Assess the Motivation of Faculty, We Used the Following Item

I would describe myself as internally driven to:

• Conduct research

• Teach

• Provide patient care

Scale: 1= strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree

Strong Motivation to Conduct Research

Dr. Jonathan Ravdin, Medicine:“I only recruit faculty who are as interested, motivated and committed to the academic mission as I am.”

Dr. Mark Ascerno, Entomology:

“The key factor is to have motivated faculty who are ambitious.”

Dr. Vernon Eidman, Applied Economics:“The key factor is hiring very good people who are motivated to do research.”

Dr. Janice Hogan, Family Social Science:

“Passion for research is critical.”

Strong Motivation to Conduct Research

Socialization to Academic Profession

Academic Socialization

The impact of professional values on productivity cannot be underestimated. In highly developed professions, these unwritten rules, concepts, values, and behaviors undergird nearly every action.

Vital Network

Work Habits

Academically productive during first five years of your appointmentSet aside large blocks of uninterrupted time BUT also work in small bursts of time (rather than waiting until you have a big block)Pursue several projects simultaneously – only two in the beginning

Mentoring facilitates the acquisition and maintenance of many of the

essential characteristics of a successful researcher

Motivation/PassionSocializationResearcher Work HabitsExternal Network

Impact of Mentoring“Mentorship/sponsorship in the first years is critical for launching a productive career —Learning the informal network that supports productivity — the inner workings of professional associations and who the productive people are, for example — is critical. . .” (Blackburn, 1979, pp. 25-26)

Impact of Mentoring“In terms of scholarly productivity. . .there is no substitute for a sustained relationship grounded in research projects sponsored by one or more experts and supported by continuous resources. . . When scholarly productivity with funded research is the desired outcome, intense involvement of a protégéwith an expert researcher is essential.” (Byrne and Keefe, 2002, pp. 391, 395)

6 Items Which Positively Predict a Highly Research Productive Faculty Member

1. Being driven to do research.2. Having a formally assigned mentor.3. Having a vital network of colleagues outside the

department with whom to discuss research and education.

4. Being in a department with enough faculty to accomplish the department’s research goals.

5. Number of hours spent on administration.6. Number of hours spent on research.

Benefits of Effective Mentoring for Mentee – Higher Levels of:

Research productivity (Bland and Schmitz 1986, Bland et al, 2002, Byrne and Keefe 2002)Teaching effectiveness, evidenced by declines in teaching anxiety and improved student ratings of teaching effectiveness (Williams 1991).Professional socialization and interactions with colleagues (Corcoran and Clark 1984)Salary levels; and satisfaction with salary and promotion (Melicher 2000)

A summative message that emerges from this body of literature is that mentoring, when structured and done well, can have a wide-reaching, positive impact on faculty success, especially in research.

men·tor (mèn´tôr) noun

from The Odyssey1. A wise and trusted counselor or

teacher.2. Mentor. Greek Mythology. Odysseus's

trusted counselor, under whose disguise Athena became the guardian and teacher of Telemachos.

Homer

What is Faculty Mentoring TodayA professional relationship with three essential

characteristics:1. A defined purpose -to help mentees successfully

acquire the key competencies and constructive work relationships they need to lead a successful and satisfying career. The specific competencies to be gained are based on the mentee’s existing abilities and career goals.

2. A collaborative learning approach that draws upon the knowledge of suitably experienced faculty as mentors and upon the commitment of mentees to develop their professional abilities.

3. Develops over time and passes through specific phases. There is more than just a casual arrangement between the mentor and the mentee.

Modified from Ritchie and Genoni, 2002, p. 69

Batman mentor to Robin.

Professor Dumbledore mentor to Harry Potter.

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda mentors to Luke Skywalker.

Miss Stacy (schoolteacher) mentor to Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables).

Jedi knights, a guild based on mentoring.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (abolitionist and leader of the U.S. women’s suffrage movement) mentor to Susan B. Anthony (reformer, women’s rights activist).

B. F. Skinner (experimental psychologist and father of behaviorism) mentorto Robert Epstein (editor-in-chief, Psychology Today).

Robert McNamara (former U.S. Secretary of Defense) mentor to Lee Iacocca(former president of Chrysler).

Maya Angelou (poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, second poet in U.S. history to recite original work at the Presidential Inauguration ) mentor to Oprah Winfrey (producer, talk show host, philanthropist, magazine founder, named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world).

Abraham Lincoln (16th President) mentor to Ulysses S. Grant (general and 18th President)

There is no limit to mentoring; it is needed and can occur at almost any age.

(L-R) Dan Kleppner, David Pritchard, Wolfgang Ketterle.

Kleppner mentor to Pritchard mentor to Ketterle (winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics). Pritchard also mentored the other two 2001 winnersand has mentored a total of five Nobel Prize laureates.

What are the characteristics and behavior of an effective mentor?

University of Minnesota, Coffman Union

Frequently used descriptors of mentors

MastersExperiencedListenersSharingSupportersAdvocates / AlliesSponsorsModelsAdvisors

The specific area in which the mentor is helping the mentee to

succeed is importantThe specific area(s) adds important nuances to the general characteristics of effective mentoring. Areas in which mentors are helping faculty succeed are teaching, research, and service.Mentoring is especially important for success in research.

But, not all mentoring is effective

The effective research mentor enhances the mentee’ssense of competence, identity as an academic, and career

advancement by assisting him or her to:

1. state his or her research passion as career vision and translate this into a mission, strategic goals and plans, and annual goals and plans.

2. achieve annual goals and plan3. become socialized and acculturated to the

academic profession (values, norms, traditions, ethics, policies), department, college, university, hospital and clinic (if an MD), key leaders, professional associations

4. develop an academic and professional network5. manage time and career

Mentors are guides. They lead us along the journey of our lives. We trust them because they have been there before. They embody our hopes, cast light on the way ahead, interpret arcane signs, warn us of lurking dangers and point out unexpected delights along the way.

– L.A. DolozUniversity of Minnesota Arboretum