What is mentorship?

Generally speaking, a mentor is a wise and patient guide who you trust. In an academic setting mentors often nurture students as emerging academic professionals, researchers and scholars, but the nature of the mentoring relationship is entirely the purview of the mentor and mentee to establish. Mentorship is a relationship that cultivates competencies and confidence toward independence, not just specific skills. It is, at its core, both a relationship and a developmental process that facilitates one’s ability to thrive in a particular context or environment.

Mentorship can be applied in any setting. You will likely have many many mentors throughout your lifetime, across multiple domains: Teachers, coaches, parents, gardeners, cooks, researchers, executives, athletes, public speakers…(the list is endless)…all speak highly of mentors in their fields. In fact, you may have several different mentors at the same time for different things. For graduate students, having access to positive mentorship is essential to the development of professional capabilities for the classroom, bench work, thesis writing, and beyond.

Mentorship is an open, reciprocal relationship, not a dictatorship. The relationship is established in a collaborative fashion, with the needs and boundaries of both parties clearly stated. The mentor and the mentee must share equally in fostering and maintaining the relationship.

The Mentor

One of the hallmark characteristics of a good mentor is that they are trustworthy and reliable within the domain of the established relationship. Mentors keep your trust and build respect on an ongoing basis through their actions.  In addition, a good mentor:

• Is usually a person more experienced in the particular area, field, or system than the mentee.
• Openly shares their knowledge and insight:
• To facilitate learning complex academic expectations, skills, and capabilities (academic development);
• To facilitate goal setting and decision making which advances the mentee’s career and professional standing (career/professional development);
• To facilitate understanding of or inculcate with the environmental norms, rules, and attitudes of the department, faculty, campus, or profession that in turn promotes adjustment into the particular community.
• Actively and willingly engages in a mentoring process that focuses on the development of the mentee, but also respects their own needs and boundaries.
• Establishes a foundation to build trust and mutual respect.
• Respects and honours confidentiality within the relationship.
• Is usually a skilful communicator who:
• Actively listens.
• Probes and asks the mentee relevant questions to enhance understanding of the mentee’s needs.
• Uses constructive methods of inquiry and critique, and provides non-judgemental, concise feedback.
• Is honest with their mentee.

The Mentee

One of the hallmark characteristics of a good mentee is that they are self directed and responsible for their own growth and development.  In their mentor they seek a trustworthy and reliable guide in a specific domain, and through collaboration, establish a ‘mentor-mentee’ relationship. Mentees build trust and respect with their mentors on an ongoing basis through their actions.  In addition, a good mentee:

• Willingly and actively engages in a mentoring process that focuses on their own development, but also respects the needs and boundaries of their mentor.
• Openly discusses their needs and the areas they wish to develop.
• Collaborates with their mentor to build a foundation of trust and mutual respect.
• Respects and honours confidentiality within the relationship.
• Establishes their own goals and develops plans to achieve them.
• Consults with their mentor on their goals and plans to achieve them.
• Is willing to engage in communication that :
• Uses active listening.
• Probes and asks the mentor relevant questions that enhances mutual understanding.
• Accepts and reflects on the feedback they receive from their mentor, even if it is tough and critical (analytical) feedback.
• Is responsible for making their own decisions and accepting the subsequent consequences.
• Is honest with their mentor.

A good mentor is often a sounding board, the wise person to talk things over with before making big decisions. However, they are not the decision-makers! A good mentor will challenge the mentee and help him or her with the inquiry and investigation of a problem, but the decision and the consequences of the decision always rest with the mentee. This is a critical element of the developmental process that fosters the independence of the mentee. In short, a good mentor won’t tell you what to do, but they will question what you are doing and why you are doing it.

Finding a mentor

Mentors sometimes emerge out of existing relationships without any formal introduction or statement as such. However, if you are actively seeking a mentor outside of the student-advisor relationship, then be cautious and use common sense throughout the process. Be mindful that your mentor is not a substitute for your advisor, and the two ought not to be pitted against each other. The relationship with your mentor is a complimentary one for your own growth and development. So while some of the supports that you receive from your mentor may overlap with those you receive from your advisor, they should not conflict with, or undermine, each other.

Other tips for finding a mentor:

• Seek out supportive faculty and foster professional relationships with them.
• Discuss your personal and/or professional goals. Are your goals deemed interesting and meritorious?
• Determine if you share similar values and ethics, particularly in the domain that will be mentored. 
• Discuss work ethics. Do you admire and respect their work ethic and vice versa? Is their work ethic too demanding or under demanding compared to your own?
• Discuss expectations for frequency, duration, method, and boundaries of meetings. Are your expectations in alignment?
• Assess the quality of communication you have with this person. Is the communication respectful, do you understand each other?
• Determine if they are knowledgeable about the area in which you want to be mentored or in or in your particular field of study. Do they know about resources, funding sources, and scholarships?
• Determine whether they support you applying your skills and knowledge in a broad context (i.e., work outside of academia), especially if your goals go beyond the academic arena.
• Determine their stances on student issues. Do they advocate for students to have scholarships, bursaries, national funding, conference opportunities, presentation experiences, and publication credit?
• Determine if they are willing to help you cultivate a professional CV.
• Discuss things beyond ‘the work’.  Mentors often care about your overall well-being and personal development.

These are similar questions that you ought to have reviewed with your advisor prior to commencing your research relationship with him or her. As such, very frequently well-suited advisors are also well-suited mentors. However, the interests that you have at the outset of your academic program may not be the same ones you have in the middle or end of your program. Moreover, the student-advisor relationship can change over time leading you to search for a different mentorship style or specialty of field than you originally thought was necessary.

Formal mentoring programs at the University of Manitoba

The University of Manitoba as a whole does not have a formal graduate student mentoring system established beyond that of students and advisors. However, individual academic units may have a mentoring program in place that caters to the unique needs of their students. 

Take the time to check with your particular academic unit to see if they have a mentorship program in place. If it does not, enquire into the merit of establishing one. Some units may facilitate finding a mentor within the department while others, especially those with professional affiliations outside of the academic arena, may partner with mentors in the private sector.

Two examples of existing mentorship programs are:

The Department of City Planning

The Faculty of Social Work

Resources on mentoring

Ensher, E. A., & Murphy, S. E. (2005). Power mentoring : how successful mentors and protégés get the most out of their relationships. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Rowley, J. B. (2006). Becoming a high-performance mentor : a guide to reflection and action. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin Press.

Wunsch, M. A. (Ed.). (1994). Mentoring revisited : making an impact on individuals and institutions. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.