Mentoring
Why Mentoring Matters
Effective mentoring supports an individual’s professional and personal development, sense of belonging, and productivity for the mentee and the overall workplace experience. There are numerous benefits for both the mentee and the mentor.
For Mentors
Leadership Skills: Mentoring develops the ability to motivate and encourage others. This can help the mentor become a better manager, employee, and team member.
Communication Skills: Effective mentor relationships require the mentor to be a strong communicator and an active listener.
New Perspectives: By working with someone less experienced and from a different background, mentors can gain a fresh perspective on things and learn a new way of thinking – which can help in their work life as well as their personal life.
Career Advancement: Showing that you have helped others learn and grow is becoming more essential to advancement in today’s business world. Additionally, strengthened leadership and communication skills can result in improved job performance.
Personal Satisfaction: Knowing that you have directly contributed to someone’s growth and development is fulfilling and seeing your mentee succeed as a result of your input is rewarding.
For Mentees
Gain Advice: Mentors can offer valuable insight into what it takes to get ahead. They can be a guide and “sounding board” for ideas and help the mentee navigate the organization, create connections, and work more effectively.
Knowledge and Skills: Mentors can help the mentee identify the skills and expertise needed to succeed, sharing their ideas and experience and serving as a resource for work related information.
Communication Skills: Throughout the mentorship, the mentee must communicate their goals. This ongoing process will help the mentee develop their communication skills and strategies, which can in turn positively impact their work.
Build Your Network: A mentor can offer an opportunity to expand your existing network of personal and professional contacts.
Career Advancement: A mentor helps a mentee stay focused and on track with their career through advice, skills development, and networking.
Mentoring Competencies at Penn State
At Penn State, we have adopted the 6 core mentoring competencies from the Entering Mentoring program curricula, promoted by the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER). The following competencies reflect the benchmarks we strive for in our mentoring relationships at Penn State:
Align Expectations – The mentor makes expectations explicit and creates a safe space for mentees to make their expectations explicit, and the pair engages in negotiation to ensure that expectations of both parties can be met.
Assess Understanding – The mentor works with the mentee to understand what the mentee knows and is capable of and considers what the mentee can do to further develop and achieve success.
Communicate Effectively – The mentor engages in active listening with the mentee, provides timely and constructive feedback, recognizes that communication styles differ, and works with the mentee to accommodate their personal communication styles.
Address Equity and Inclusion - The mentor reflects on and accounts for the biases and assumptions they may bring to a mentoring relationship and acknowledges and accounts for how their background might differ from the background of their mentees.
Foster Independence - The mentor works to motivate the mentee, build their confidence, stimulate their creativity, acknowledge their contributions, and navigate their path toward independence.
Promote Professional Development and Career Advancement - The mentor helps the mentee to set career goals, develop and refine plans related to career goals, develop a professional network, and access resources that will be helpful in their professional development. The mentor also recognizes the impact they have as a professional role model. Staff, faculty, or post doc, we’ve got you covered.
Goals of Mentoring
Mentoring serves as a critical tool for achieving personal and professional growth at Penn State. While specific goals may vary depending on the participants and their unique needs, common objectives of mentoring include:
Skill Development: Helping mentees acquire or refine skills necessary for academic, professional, or personal success.
Career Advancement: Supporting mentees in navigating career pathways, exploring opportunities, and reaching milestones.
Confidence Building: Empowering mentees to take initiative, make informed decisions, and overcome challenges.
Knowledge Sharing: Facilitating the transfer of knowledge, insights, and experiences across disciplines and generations.
Networking: Expanding mentees’ professional and social connections through introductions to key individuals and communities.
Sense of Belonging: Strengthening ties within the Penn State community and fostering an environment of inclusivity and mutual support. By aligning mentoring goals with the mentee’s aspirations, both participants can experience meaningful growth and success
Mentoring Types and Models
Mentoring at Penn State takes many forms, each tailored to different goals and relationships. Each mentoring form provides unique benefits, allowing individuals to select a model that best fits their needs and goals. Below are the primary forms of mentoring:
Formal mentoring refers to a program administered by a central person or team.
Informal mentoring refers to mentor-mentee relationships that develop organically or intentionally but are driven at the individual level rather than as a structured program.
The biggest differentiator between the two is that formal programs offer a matching component. They identify and maintain a list of interested mentors and have a process in a place for matching mentees with the best-fit mentor. Additionally, these programs typically have an application process and include resources to support the engagement; mentor training, meeting agendas, and goals, ongoing communications to support the partnership, and events. Often these formal programs have a stated start and end date.
Informal mentoring relationships evolve when an employee sees the opportunity in a colleague or subordinate and commits to mentoring and guidance or through the self-motivation of an employee who proactively reaches out for mentoring support.
One-on-One Mentoring: A personalized mentoring relationship between a mentor and a mentee, offering focused support and guidance on specific goals.
Peer Mentoring: A mutual mentoring relationship between individuals at similar academic or career stages, fostering shared learning and collaboration.
Group Mentoring: One mentor supports multiple mentees simultaneously, providing opportunities for shared experiences and diverse perspectives.
Mentoring Networks: Mentees build a network of mentors, each offering expertise in distinct areas such as research, teaching, career advancement, or personal development.
Team Mentoring: A group of mentors collaborates to support a single mentee, often providing interdisciplinary or cross-functional perspectives.