Faculty at all career stages benefit from strategies designed to maintain and increase their productivity and joy in their careers. One of the most important of those strategies is mentoring.  Mentoring is not dependent on personality, but rather on tasks and activities that the mentor and mentee do together.  Early and enduring mentoring is most beneficial; mentoring pairs/teams continue to meet regularly and progress when given "nudging."

Mitchell D. Feldman (UCSF Faculty Mentoring Program, 2012) describes mentoring as: 

. . . a process where mentor and mentee work together to discover and develop the mentee’s abilities.

. . . a long term relationship with a responsibility to provide the support, knowledge and impetus that can facilitate professional

success.

. . . a personal process that combines role modeling, apprenticeship and nurturing.

The mentor will act as a teacher, sponsor, guide, exemplar, counselor, moral support — but most important is to assist and facilitate the realization of the dream.

. . . process whereby an experienced, highly regarded, empathic person (the mentor) guides another individual (the mentee) in the development and examination of their own ideas, learning and personal and professional development.

The mentor, who often, but not necessarily, works in the same organization or field as the mentee, achieves this by listening and talking in confidence to the mentee.  

The purpose of faculty mentoring is to foster cooperation leading to excellence of all newly hired faculty.  Through collaboration mentors provide instructional, collegial, professional, and even social support.  

Mentoring has been shown to: 1) promote career development and satisfaction; 2) improve success of women and underrepresented minorities in academic health careers; 3) enhance faculty productivity (mentoring is linked to funding and publications; 4) increase interest in academic careers; 5) predict promotion in academic; 6) improve self-efficacy in teaching, research and professional development; 7) increase the time that clinician educators spend in scholarly activities; and 8) lead to less work-family conflict.  Mentoring serves a significant role for the mentor, mentee and the University.  

For the Mentor

• Gained specialized support systems
• Obtain insightful opinions from those being mentored
• Self-gratification as a result of helping others
• Personal and professional development

For Mentee

• Opportunity to develop new skills
• Networking opportunities
• Professional and personal development
• Increased confidence in ability to deal with conflicts
• Enhances successful future interaction

For the University

• Human resource development
• Enhance organizational culture
• Improves organizational communication

Need Assistance locating a mentor?

Contact: Peer Consulting and Mentoring Program

(https://www.siue.edu/

institutionaldiversityandinclusion/

peerconsultant/).