Career development / Mentoring / Approaches to mentoring

Approaches to mentoring

The basics of mentoring and how it can benefit you and your career

Mentoring is not one size fits all. Your needs and what you can offer within the relationship may change over time.

Key takeaways

The needs of the mentee are at the heart of a mentoring relationship, but a mentor is not a coach or therapist.
Mentoring can take a variety of forms ranging from 1:1 advice from a senior researcher to group peer mentoring.
One mentor cannot fulfill all your needs, so you can have a variety of mentors who can support you with different aspects of your career.
Mentoring is not a static relationship. As you move through your career, the role of a mentor will shift depending on your needs and situation.

Read time: 5 min

What is mentoring?

Mentoring is a professional relationship established to foster your career growth and development, and to succeed with your goals. Sitting somewhere between a coach and a supervisor, a mentor is typically a person who is more advanced in their field or has more experience in a specific area, who can share advice, skills or knowledge with you to help you advance in your career or work towards achieving a goal. A mentor can provide:

insights into research careers, progression, and leadership advice
specific institutional knowledge and strategic advice
the opportunity for additional networking or connections

Mentoring relationships can be formal (such as through paired mentoring programs) or informal (meeting up with a colleague over coffee for a chat).

As a mentee, it is up to you to you to drive the direction of support from your mentor. Your mentor can help you with goal setting, but ultimately, mentoring is about you and your needs. If you choose a mentor from a different discipline, they can offer a different perspective on challenges you may face, be a sounding board for ideas and encourage you to challenge your own thinking.

Who you approach as your mentor will also depend on whether you have something specific in mind like asking them to write letters of recommendation, acting as referees on prize or award applications or helping you to branch out into a new area of research.

No matter what path you choose, a good mentoring relationship offers a non-judgmental space to learn and share. Whether the relationship is of long or short duration, mentoring can foster a mutually-beneficial and meaningful experience for mentors and mentees alike.

What mentoring isn't

Not coaching

Coaching is often focused on the short term and on a present, specific task or action to achieve a desired outcome. Mentoring, on the other hand, is focused on developing a relationship between individuals or a small group and is future focused.

Not therapy

While it is common for you to get to know your mentor or mentee personally, mentoring should not be confused with counselling or therapy. Academic mentoring is a professional relationship and not about unpacking personal grievances.

If you are in need of emotional or psychological support, explore the University's wellbeing support pages (UniKey required).

Not mentor-driven

At the heart of mentoring is supporting the needs of a mentee; it should not be up to the mentor to drive the relationship. If you are a mentee, it is up to you to identify your goals and work with your mentor to channel the direction of where you need help or support.

Not passive

Mentoring is a relationship and therefore needs the interaction of all parties to be fruitful. If you are a mentor, it is important to be present and engaged at the meetings, and as a mentee, it is crucial to value your mentor’s time and come prepared with questions or an agenda.

Types of mentoring

There are many equally valid forms of mentoring that can benefit you and your career. The type you use depends on your goals, expectations, and anticipated outcomes.

1. One-on-one mentoring

Perhaps the most common form of mentoring is between one mentor and one mentee. Typically, the mentor is more senior and experienced in their field, or has a specific skill, and is offering their expertise to support a more junior colleague. This relationship can be established through either a formal program or formed more organically, such as between individuals in a shared working environment.

2. Peer mentoring

Mentoring does not have to be exclusively between a senior and more junior researcher. In fact, it can be between colleagues or a small group of individuals at the same career stage. This can also take the form of a writing circle, a reading group, or any other group formed through a shared focus.

A powerful model for troubleshooting complex leadership challenges is the Peer Consulting Methodology. In this structured approach, a 'case presenter' shares a leadership challenge with the group who ask clarifying questions and offer new ways to look at the problem. If you have a trusted group of peers, perhaps from other parts of the University, you can set up recurring catch-ups and focus on a different member of the group each time.

3. Group mentoring

Group mentoring involves a small number of individuals meeting with one senior or experienced researcher who leads the group conversation and provides advice. This approach also involves an element of peer mentoring, which can be a great option for community-building and expanding your networks.

4. Composite mentoring

As a mentee, it can be difficult – and often unrealistic – to find one academic mentor who can provide you with every aspect of support and advice needed to navigate the modern research career. Good mentors will also be in demand and may only have a limited amount of time available to support you. Composite mentoring is where you, the mentee, have multiple mentors chosen for their specific expertise. For example, you may need a mentor who can help with gearing up for a promotion application, but another colleague would be a better fit to help you begin the road to commercialisation.

A final note

As you move through your career, the role of a mentor is also likely to evolve as your needs change. Building your own team of mentors through one or more of these methods will introduce you to multiple perspectives and allow you to tap into a more diverse set of expertise. It will also enable you to choose the mentor who is most suited to the goal or issue you want to explore at the time.

Also, as your needs change, you may find that some of your mentors are no longer suitable for your new career stage or with the skills you want to develop. This is normal and shouldn’t be seen as a failure. If or when that happens, let your mentor know that you are ‘moving on.’ Thank them for the time they have spent with you, and pass along the knowledge they have shared with you with someone more junior – become a mentor yourself!