In addition to being a successful researcher and teacher, a good mentor is accessible, responsive, open-minded, dedicated to the development of others, self-confident and people-oriented. Mentors need to be good listeners, able to offer honest and constructive criticism, willing to compliment the protégé’s accomplishments and “talk them up” in their department and college. Mentors must be able to do these things in a confidential manner.
A mentor should be aware of the ways in which unconscious bias, cognitive errors, sterotype-threats can undermine faculty careers, at all stages, especially for women and minorities. Lehigh ADVANCE has resources available to increase your fluency in dealing with these issues.
An effective mentor will: initiate contact with the protégé devote time to the mentoring relationship familiarize the protégé with the campus environment and culture assist the protégé in developing a professional network help the protégé set his or her priorities and establish both short and long term goals follow up on a protégé’s progress listen to protégé’s concerns and questions and offer advice in a confidential manner.
(reference: University of Michigan Faculty Mentoring)
On Mentoring Women and Minority Faculty
Supporting women and minority faculty JoAnn Moody, 2004
Research suggests women may be drawn more to collaborative and interdisciplinary research. Lehigh ADVANCE will shed light on to what extent and how interdisciplinary work is gendered, not only in terms of participation but in terms of outcomes.
