Survey

If you’d rather digitally record your response or conduct an interview with us around this topic, please email sharon.straus@utoronto.ca and we will arrange a mutually convenient time to do this.

There are 4 issues that we’d like you to consider:

Issue #1: The goals of effective mentoring:

From our experience and a review of the literature, we have identified several goals that mentees are seeking from their mentors, including:

  1. Developing optimal interactions with their mentor
  2. Developing effective time management skills
  3. Achieving an optimal balance between their research/educational/clinical/administrative activities (e.g., periodic priority lists)
  4. Achieving an optimal work/life balance
  5. Becoming effective members (and eventual leaders) of research teams
  6. Prioritizing their research projects (weighing importance, timeliness, and feasibility)
  7. Maximizing their grant success (in preparation, presentation, and response to reviews)
  8. Becoming effective and efficient reviewers of grants and papers.
  9. Maximizing their writing quality and productivity (including interactions with peer reviewers and editors)
  10. Becoming effective presenters and speakers (including A-V proficiency)
  11. Becoming effective classroom and bedside teachers
  12. Generating an impressive academic CV
  13. Receiving protection from gender/ethnic/lifestyle discrimination, and from academic predators

Requests:

Question Title

* Please review this list and let us know if there are additional goals of effective mentoring that we should add to it.

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* If you believe that any items on this list present special problems or challenges that are often overlooked, please tell us about them.

Issue #2: Tactical Tips for achieving these goals

Request:

We’ve repeated the foregoing list below (with space for any additional goals you’ve identified), and now ask you to give us your “top tips” for helping mentees achieve them. Feel free to summarize your tips in bullet-points using the following headings:

  • What tactic(s) have you developed to meet this target?
  • What are the strengths of this tactic?
  • What are the limitations of this tactic?
  • What was the impact of applying these tactics?

Question Title

* Developing optimal interactions with their mentor

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* Developing effective time management skills

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* Achieving an optimal balance between their research/educational/clinical/administrative activities (e.g., periodic priority lists)

Question Title

* Achieving an optimal work/life balance

Question Title

* Becoming effective members (and eventual leaders) of research teams

Question Title

* Prioritizing their research projects (weighing importance, timeliness, and feasibility)

Question Title

* Maximizing their grant success (in preparation, presentation, and response to reviews)

Question Title

* Becoming effective and efficient reviewers of grants and papers.

Question Title

* Maximizing their writing quality and productivity (including interactions with peer reviewers and editors)

Question Title

* Becoming effective presenters and speakers (including A-V proficiency)

Question Title

* Becoming effective classroom and bedside teachers

Question Title

* Generating an impressive academic CV

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* Receiving protection from gender/ethnic/lifestyle discrimination, and from academic predators

Question Title

* Additional goals that you've identified

Issue #3: Mentoring Problems:

Our experience and literature reviews have identified several mentoring problems to be prevented, diagnosed, and treated. They include:

  1. Repeated failure to keep scheduled mentoring meetings
  2. Failure of either party to follow-through on completing agreed-upon mentoring tasks on time.
  3. When mentors steal mentee’s ideas
  4. When mentors insist upon lead authorship of papers (or grants) when their mentees have done the lion’s share of the intellectual and practical work
  5. Consensual sexual relations
  6. Sexual harassment
  7. Bullying (including especially that which is based on gender, ethnicity, life-style, or sexual orientation)

Request:

Question Title

* Please review this list and let us know if there are additional mentoring problems that should be added.

Issue #4: Tactical Tips for solving these problems

Request:

We’ve repeated the foregoing list below (with space for any additional goals you’ve identified), and now ask you to give us your “top tips” for helping prevent, diagnose or treat these issues. Feel free to summarize your tips in bullet-points

Question Title

* Repeated failure to keep scheduled mentoring meetings

Question Title

* Failure of either party to follow-through on completing agreed-upon mentoring tasks on time.

Question Title

* When mentors steal mentee’s ideas

Question Title

* When mentors insist upon lead authorship of papers (or grants) when their mentees have done the lion’s share of the intellectual and practical work

Question Title

* Consensual sexual relations

Question Title

* Sexual harassment

Question Title

* Bullying (including especially that which is based on gender, ethnicity, life-style, or sexual orientation)

Question Title

* Additional problems that you've identified

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