Support Network is the New Mentor

In talking with successful early career investigators, one thing they hold in common is that they have had good mentors as they've developed as researchers, mentors who have brought them into their grant-writing and publications and strengthened them in a variety of ways.

However, finding a mentor who functions as your guru can be difficult. As faculty researchers today have a diversity of responsibilities and needs, finding one mentor to fulfill those needs is both difficult to do and taxing for that mentor if you do find him/her.

Donna J. Dean, in her book, Getting the Most out of Your Mentoring Relationships, suggests that there are a variety of support/mentoring needs:

• Credential building
• Coaching
• Research area needs
• Funding support
• Life/work balance
• Project management skill-building

These needs are all important to professional development in research, but they need not all come from the same person. Dean suggests that faculty researchers identify what they want out of a mentoring relationship and then seek out the right person to support them in that capacity. In this way, you create a mentoring network instead of relying on one mentor for all things.

There are a variety of sources for different types of support. Certainly, senior faculty researchers working in your field make sense, but you can also receive support from colleagues and peers. And, although it may be easier to have people supporting you who are down the hall, it's also a good idea to look for support outside your university and even in other fields, depending on what your particular support need is.

The first step to creating a solid network of support is to map out your support needs and begin to brainstorm people who could fill them. Once you've identified the support you need and prospective mentors, vet those prospects. In her blog, Karen Burns suggests asking a prospective mentor for a piece of advice first to see how that goes before asking them to commit to a mentoring relationship.  Also, once you have clarity on the type of support you need, it will be easier to explain to your prospective mentor what you're asking them for and allow them to decide if they can support you in that way.

By creating a network of support instead of relying on one mentor, you will get multiple perspectives and expertise that will allow you to be successful in the multi-faceted work of a faculty researcher.

Resources:
13 Tips on Finding a Mentor by Karen Burns
Getting the Most out of Your Mentoring Relationships by Donna J. Dean (We're happy to send a copy of this book to interested CU Denver faculty - email naomi.nishi@ucdenver.edu)