Becoming an Effective Faculty Mentor HUTEP Preparing Future Faculty Summer Institute

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Becoming an Effective Faculty MentorHUTEP
Preparing Future Faculty Summer Institute

• Chontrese Doswell, Ph.D.
• Assistant Dean, Graduate School
• Howard University
• cdoswell_at_howard.edu
• June 24,2005
• El Paso, TX

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Elements of Good Faculty Mentoring

• Advisor vs. Mentor
• Mentoring encompasses a broader range of
  personal, academic and professional development
  interaction
• Optimizes educational outcomes by socializing the
  student into the vocation of the discipline and
  their career destination

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Establish a healthy mentoring relationship

• Develop a mentoring philosophy
• Design, implement and evaluate mentoring
  approaches
• Establish a clear list of mentoring expectations
  
• Create an environment of independence and
  confidence for mentees

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Benefits of Faculty Mentoring

• Stay on top of your field
• Coaching junior colleagues promotes professional
  acumen
• Develop your professional network
• Establishing contacts for your students,
  will strengthen your own contacts and ultimately
  create new ones
• Achieve satisfaction The process of guiding a
  student who eventually becomes friend and
  colleague is extremely rewarding
• Attract good students
• The reputation of a good mentor attracts high
  caliber students who can help produce better
  research, papers and grant proposals

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Avoiding Pitfalls establish and maintain
boundaries

• Avoid inappropriate personal boundaries that
  compromise clarity and judgment
• Avoid excessively dependent student behavior
• Resist the cloning intellectual offspring
  syndrome

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Appropriate Empathy, Appropriate Empowerment

• Empathy
• Create an environment of trust and respect
• Know when to push or challenge and when to
  back-off!
• Temper candid, constructive feedback with
  encouragement

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Appropriate Empathy, Appropriate Empowerment

• Empowerment
• The power pendulum typically swings in the
  direction of the mentor higher position, more
  experience and field knowledge
• Neutralize this dynamic by exercising power with
  the student
• Empower the student through advocacy and
  facilitating a network of mentors

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Transitioning from graduate student mentee to
faculty mentor

• Shedding the graduate student skin
• Pitfalls of being a young, faculty member of
  color
• Set mentoring limits that will not compromise
  professional and personal responsibilities

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Advice for new faculty mentors

• Listen patiently
• Build relationships
• Dont abuse your authority
• Share yourself
• Provide instructions
• Be constructive
• Be yourself