Mentorship Matters October 2024: Championing the mentee role

“Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don't much care where.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.
Alice: ...So long as I get somewhere.
The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.”

- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

On September 24, 2024, the Department of Medicine welcomed a group of new faculty who are preparing to start their academic journey. The mentorship program in our Department has a formal path where each new faculty member is assigned a mentor with whom they are encouraged to meet every 3-4 months in order to receive support, advice, a different perspective, and all the help that is needed to navigate the academic landscape. Our mentors are trained to operate miracles and they will contact you every month to check if you are on track to publish in the New England Journal of Medicine or receive a prestigious teaching award; some of them will bring you homemade meals and/or take your weekend calls during the CIHR grant season… right??? Of course not.

The mentorship relationship is one of reciprocal exchange, and as much as mentors would like to help you from the bottom of their hearts, you have a role to play as a mentee. Take the initiative to ask questions, identify your needs and communicate them as clearly as possible to your mentor. Be honest and real! Your mentor will be better equipped to help you if they know who you are and what you want professionally (and also personally). Importantly, as Dr. Moira Kapral said in an interview for this blog last month: “Advice is meant to be weighed, not simply acted upon. Only you know what’s right for your specific circumstances.”

Regardless of whether you choose to take your mentor’s advice, listening to what your mentor has to share with you is important. Conversely, if they only give you advice that you think is not for you, if it’s not aligned with your values or if there is no chemistry between you and your assigned mentor, you can reach out to your DDD/PIC or myself and we can help you connect with other mentors. Keep in mind that the mentorship relationship is supposed to be a facilitator to your career goals, not a painful item in your checklist. As Dr. Suzanne Koven wrote in a nice assay (N Engl J Med 390:8, 2024): “And how do you know when you’ve got the right mentor? Again, the best gauge is how you feel after meeting with them. A good mentor makes you feel the way I felt leaving the office of my old dean, nearly 40 years ago, crossing the street from the medical school back to the hospital: more grounded than before we’d spoken, and also lighter than air.”

To learn more about how to get the most from your mentorship relationship, check our website.

Caroline K Kramer, Faculty Lead Mentorship, Culture and Inclusion Portfolio