This document discusses mentor/mentee relationships and provides guidance on building productive relationships. It begins by outlining four guiding questions, including why to invest in mentoring and what to expect from healthy relationships. It then defines mentoring as a personal and professional relationship that develops over time. Productive relationships require perspective-taking and benefiting both parties. Differences between mentors and mentees don't preclude success when mentees learn diverse skills. Strategies like clarifying expectations, questioning assumptions, and navigating conflicts can help ensure advising sessions are productive. Healthy relationships provide learning both concrete and intuitive skills through observation.

2. Unlocking the Potential of
Mentor/Mentee Relationships
PRESENTED BY
DR. ERIC KAUFMAN
August 19, 2021

4. Guiding Questions for this Session:
1. Why invest in the mentoring
relationship?
2. What if my advisor is really
different from me?
3. How can I help ensure
productive advising sessions?
4. What can I expect from a
healthy mentoring relationship?

5. Why Invest in Mentoring
Relationships?

6. What is a Mentor?
“In academics, mentor is often used
synonymously with faculty adviser. A
fundamental difference between
mentoring and advising is more than
advising; mentoring is a personal, as well
as, professional relationship. An adviser
might or might not be a mentor, depending
on the quality of the relationship. A
mentoring relationship develops over an
extended period, during which a student's
needs and the nature of the relationship
tend to change. A mentor will try to be
aware of these changes and vary the
degree and type of attention, help, advice,
information, and encouragement that he
or she provides.” (NAS, 1997, p. 1)

7. Great Mentorship
New research
shows “mentorship
is indeed beneficial
—especially when
mentors pass
down unwritten,
intuitive forms of
knowledge.”
Allen, S. (2020, July 7). What’s the Secret Ingredient
to Great Mentorship? KelloggInsight.
https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/grea
t-mentorship-research
Ma, Y., Mukherjee, S., & Uzzi, B. (2020). Mentorship
and Protégé Success in STEM Fields. Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences. 117(25),
14077–83.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915516117

8. Engaging in Perspective-Taking
9
● What is the potential
benefit for the student?
● What is the potential
benefit for the advisor?

9. The Mentor-Mentor Relationship
10

10. What if My Advisor is Really
Different from Me?

12. “You see people who think
it’s not much more than
stapling a bunch of CVs to
the back of a proposal. They
don’t realize that it takes
time to build a relationship.”
(Excerpt from Nature article by Heidi Ledford, 2015)

13. Allen, S. (2020, July 7). What’s the Secret Ingredient
to Great Mentorship? KelloggInsight.
https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/grea
t-mentorship-research
Ma, Y., Mukherjee, S., & Uzzi, B. (2020). Mentorship
and Protégé Success in STEM Fields. Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences. 117(25),
14077–83.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915516117
Great Mentorship
“‘Mini-mes’ don’t
necessarily
thrive. Protégés
are most
successful when
they work on
different topics
than their
mentors.”

14. 15
https://principlesyou.com/

15. 16

16. Are You More Like Claire or Tallulah?

17. The Diversity Paradox
“Friction is essential for arriving at the best solutions.”
(NeuroLeadership Institute, 2018)

18. Coping Behaviour

19. How Can I Help Ensure
Productive Advising
Sessions?

20. Exploring Strategies for Success
21
What strategies
contribute to a healthy
mentor-mentee
relationship?

21. Student-Advisor
Expectation Scales
22
For each item, why does the
advisor or student think that this
is the best way to proceed?
Which items are non-
negotiable? Which can be
discussed and determined
together?
In which ways does the advisor
tailor their modus operandi to
the individual student? Why
does the faculty member
change their MO? Does the
advisor take into account the
student’s personality,
background experiences, stage
in graduate studies, or other
factors?
What other expectations does
the advisor and student have of
each other? When and how
should students ask for
clarification of expectations?

22. QUESTIONING THE KNOWN
“Thinking like a scientist
involves more than just
reacting with an open
mind. It means being
actively open-minded.”
― Adam Grant

23. Are We Frogs in Hot Water?

24. MANAGING
YOUR ADVISOR
A Different Kind of
Leadership Model
01

25. What Can I Expect from a
Healthy Mentoring
Relationship?

26. Great Mentorship
“Mentees aren’t just
learning concrete skills
from their mentors.
They’re also picking up
how their mentors come
up with research
questions, how they
brainstorm, how they
interact with
collaborators, and so
on—knowledge that is
difficult to codify and
often learned by doing.”
Allen, S. (2020, July 7). What’s the Secret Ingredient
to Great Mentorship? KelloggInsight.
https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/grea
t-mentorship-research
Ma, Y., Mukherjee, S., & Uzzi, B. (2020). Mentorship
and Protégé Success in STEM Fields. Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences. 117(25),
14077–83.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915516117

27. Navigating
potential
conflicts
▪ Faculty Role
▪ Graduate Student Role
▪ Observer
Understanding the Fluid Relationship

28. FORMULA FOR INTELLIGENT DISOBEDIENCE
1. Understand: Understand the mission, goals, and values
of the group.
2. Examine: Clarify orders as needed, then pause to further
examine them.
3. Choose: Make a conscious choice to comply or resist.
○ Offer an acceptable alternative when there is one.
4. Own It: Assume personal accountability for your choice,
recognizing that you are accountable for obedience.

29. Appreciative Advising

30. Contact Dr. Eric Kaufman via email, ekk@vt.edu