The Alignment phase is where formal and informal mentoring can part ways, where early conversations about goals, roles and timelines get fleshed out and, in a more formal approach, written down for future assessment and revision. Taking the time early in the mentoring relationship to articulate, align, and document scientific and relational expectations is an investment in developing trust, effective communication and shared goals. Discussions with your mentee should include compatibility of learning and communication styles, expectations around progress, and intentions of oversight or supervision.
The act of articulating and aligning expectations is an important and iterative process. Formal plans should be revisited every 6 months with revisions made to capture current realities and future directions. Consider sharing these expectations in written form with other interested stakeholders such as department chairs or division chiefs. Templates for prompting and capturing key elements of these discussions are provided in sample mentoring compacts (link opens as a Google doc).
Common Mentor Responsibilities:
- Listening carefully to your mentee’s goals
- Assessing your mentee’s strengths and areas of growth
- Identifying potential physical, financial, and personal resources of relevance
- Understanding programmatic/departmental career development expectations
- Clearly communicating your expectations verbally and in writing
- Being flexible and willing to alter your expectations and change your plans
- Identifying time in your schedule to dedicate to your mentee
Aligning Expectations
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What to Align
While it is especially critical to begin the alignment process early on in the relationship, expectations must be revised as work progresses and independence grows. In addition, alignment should be seen as providing structured guideposts and milestones which should not be rendered as inflexible or used in a punitive manner. Rather, the articulated and documented expectations should instigate iterative conversations that capture current realities and future directions. Use these common expectations to articulate the roles you will each play and to determine who else might be brought in to complement the mentoring team.
Types of Expectations:
Role/Functional: These expectations tend to generally apply to each mentor/mentor team and mentee and stand true over time.
Relational: These expectations are unique to each relationship and serve to establish ground rules for how the mentor and mentee can bring their best and whole selves forward. These expectations change over time as the mentee gains in maturity and experience.
Project: These expectations make explicit what specific work will be done, when, and by whom.
Common expectations for mentors (PDF)
Common expectations for mentees (PDF)
Overarching expectations typically included in Mentoring Contracts and Agreements (including relational and project) (PDF)
Process for Alignment
Each person comes into the mentoring relationship with unique needs.
Before you align:
- Take advantage of mentoring workshops and learn what being a good mentor means beyond your own first-hand experience.
- Clarify the goals and expectations of your own career and be honest about your ability and desire to reserve time in your schedule dedicated to your mentee’s best interest. Be honest with yourself about how you work best and how a mentee can best work with you.
Alignment:
- Use the mentor and mentee expectation documents and your potential mentee’s Individual Development Plan (IDP) to prompt strategic conversations and, when an agreement to work together is reached, collaboratively write a mentoring compact.
- Tailor the expectations checklist, IDPs, and mentoring agreements to meet you and your mentee’s particular personalities and needs across all areas of investigation/development.
- Include both the big-picture and achievable steps for making the shared vision a reality.
Revisiting Alignment:
- Regularly discuss if you and your mentee are still in alignment.
- Edit/revise expectations documents, IDPs, and mentoring agreements as expectations shift.
Important: Have you addressed all of the important aspects of the alignment process? Use the Alignment Phase Checklist (PDF) to confirm that you are ready to move forward.
Signs of Misalignment
Agreements made at the onset of a relationship reflect the best of intentions for the relationship and how things will move forward. As road maps become reality, however, you might find that the relationship is not working out as planned.
Consider the following observable signs:
- Mentee and/or mentor dreads attending mentor meetings.
- Mentor does not find the time to meet as agreed upon.
- Mentor does not respond to written documents (grants, emails) in a timely manner.
- Mentee does not follow through on deadlines.
- Mentee does not feel a sense of belonging within the professional culture.
- Mentee’s work is successful, but movement toward independence is not being fostered by mentor (e.g. mentor does not give up authorship position, publically advocate for mentee, etc)
- A sense of shared curiosity and teamwork is not present.
- Mentor does most of the talking and direction-setting during mentoring meetings.
- Mentor or mentee finds themselves avoiding the other.
- Mentor and/or mentee avoids eye contact during mentor meetings. (Can be culturally relative.)
Consider using a compact to help frame a more structured conversation. If agreement on the way forward cannot be reached, consider formally bringing closure to the relationship.
Resources & Suggested Readings
Downloadable Resources
- Example Mentoring Compacts (link opens a Google doc)
- Checklist for the Alignment Phase (PDF)
- Measuring Mentor-Mentee Alignment: A Toolkit (PDF)
Relevant Readings
Topics include: aligning expectations, contracts and agreements
- Lee, Janie M., Anzai, Yoshimi, Langlotz, Curtis P. (2006). Mentoring the mentors: Aligning mentor and mentee expectations. Academic Radiology, 13(5), 556.
- Santoro, N., McGinn, A. P., Cohen, H. W., Kaskel, F., Marantz, P. R., Mulvihill, M., et al. (2010). In it for the long-term: Defining the mentor-protégé relationship in a clinical research training program. Academic Medicine, 85(6), 1067-1072.
- Huskins et al. (2011). Identifying and Aligning Expectations in the Mentoring Relationship. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. In press.