Today's crosspost is from science.org. Elisabeth Pain collects responses from various scientists on how to mentor junior peers. Read on to learn what has worked best.
How to supervise junior peers and become a mentor
As an aspiring group leader, marine ecologist Maysa Ito expected supervising and mentoring to become an increasingly important part of her role. But her early experience as a daily supervisor to a more junior lab member during her Ph.D. left her feeling “deeply frustrated,” she recalls. “I was unable to transfer my enthusiasm for the project,” she says. “I felt stuck, unsure how to support them.” In hindsight, she says, “Many early-career academics are not equipped or trained to supervision and mentoring roles … I was one of them.”
That experience prompted Ito, now a postdoctoral researcher at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, to take a step back and seek training. She took workshops in communication and leadership skills and enrolled in a “buddy” program at her institution as a postdoc mentor to Ph.D. students. The targeted, hands-on guidance she received “transformed how I show up as a mentor” today, she says.
Her early supervisory experience provided a valuable “entry point to discover the … roles that supervisor[s] and mentors play,” Ito says. She came to realize that “supervision and mentoring are not the same thing and they don’t always happen together.” Typically, though the two terms are often used interchangeably, a supervisor’s primary role is to see a student through a project; a mentor’s is to more holistically support their career development. But in both roles, “Truly understanding who is in front of you is essential to support their growth and help them develop their skills at their own pace,” Ito says.
To help readers at all career stages become the supportive mentors and supervisors they aspire to be, Science Careers asked Ito and other researchers to share the lessons they’ve learned on their way. The responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Read the full responses at https://www.science.org/content/article/how-supervise-junior-peers-and-become-mentor
