January is National Mentoring Month, which is a time to reflect on how mentoring has added value to our lives, as both mentors and mentees. Never has being connected to a mentor been more important than during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many of us find ourselves working remotely and at greater risk of loneliness and feeling disengaged.
When you ask both mentors and mentees why mentoring is so important, you’ll find that both find value and benefits through mentoring. It is common to hear from mentors that mentoring others provides a way to give back to others, helps them stay connected with advancements in their fields, feel connected to a larger community and feel valued for their expertise and knowledge. Mentees often report that their mentors have helped broaden their perspectives on work and life, feel better acclimated to a new work environment, and build confidence to achieve their goals.
This mutual benefit of mentoring goes beyond individuals and helps organizations succeed. This is why for the past few years, we have celebrated mentorship with a special #ThankYourMentor campaign to recognize the amazing mentors in the Argonne community. National Mentoring Month culminates in #ThankYourMentor Day, which this year will be held on January 29th.
This year, we invite the Argonne community to recognize their mentors on the Help Each Other channel of Argonne Cares during the last week of January. Share a few lines about what your mentor has meant to you and tag them in your post. Add the hashtag #ThankYourMentor. We will highlight some of the common themes in a future Mentoring Blog post. Need inspiration? Check out some of the stories from the 2020 #ThankYourMentor campaign!
Just as mentoring benefits both mentors and mentees, so does the power of thanks.
The new year presents an opportunity to launch new goals or reboot existing ones. While holding true to our new year’s resolutions may seem daunting, the support of mentors can help us to succeed.
January is National Mentoring Month making it the perfect time to reflect on what it means to be a mentor and how mentors help us to learn, grow and achieve our goals.
This month, we encourage the Argonne community to think about how we can celebrate our roles as mentors and how we can show appreciation to those who have mentored us. There are a couple key dates to encourage sharing our stories.
Jan. 8 is “I Am A Mentor” Day. On this day, we encourage mentors to reflect on how being a mentor has enriched their lives and to celebrate this mutually beneficial relationship. Several Argonne mentors have expressed the many benefits of being a mentor – advancing your own learning and personal growth, honing skills, expanding networks, and the enjoyment of feeling valued and giving back to the next generation. Please consider sharing your own story with your mentees or on your social media pages.
On Jan. 30, National Mentoring Month will come to a close with “Thank Your Mentor” Day. Last year, we celebrated this day with a campaign encouraging people to recognize their mentors on social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) using the hashtag #ThankYourMentor. Several mentor-mentee pairs were featured on Argonne social media with the #ThankYourMentor sign. We plan to do the same this year and want to feature as many mentors and mentees as possible on Argonne’s social media channels on Jan. 30.
Justin Breaux (CPA), digital social media producer, will be available to take photos to be featured on social media for “Thank Your Mentor Day.” If you are interested, please talk to your mentor and complete this Doodle Poll to schedule a time for a quick photo.
Here are a few other ideas to thank your mentor:
Give your mentor a core values shout-out
Send your mentor a nice, handwritten thank you note
Offer your mentor a cup of coffee and share what you’ve learned from them
Write a recommendation for your mentor on LinkedIn
Stop by their office and just say, “Thanks!”
Pay it forward by mentoring someone else
Helping each other grow and accomplish individual, group, and laboratory goals is a hallmark of mentorship and our core value of Teamwork. There are many small gestures you can make to show your appreciation. Choose one and let everyone know what a great mentor you have!
The Postdoctoral Program Office will offer the last Meaningful Mentoring Workshop of the year on Tuesday, December 17th. This session will focus on ways to maintain effective communication in a mentoring relationship. The target audience includes postdoctoral appointees, mentors and supervisors. Case studies, group discussion and interactive exercises will be used to illustrate learning objectives. Materials presented will draw from the Center for the Improvement for Mentored Experiences in Research https://cimerproject.org/. While examples from a research setting will be presented, the concepts covered in this workshop can be applied to other mentoring experiences.
The workshop will run from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM in Building 201, Room 102.
Please register through the RSVP link by December 13th.
Materials from the first two Meaningful Mentoring Workshops are available on Box.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
Provide constructive feedback to mentees
Identify different communication styles
Engage mentees/mentors through active listening
Identify challenges to providing feedback via email
Workshop Agenda:
Introductions and warm up exercise
Case study exercise–Your Presentation Needs Help
Activity–assessing communication styles
Overview of communication styles and strategies for active listening
Case study exercise–The Feedback E-Mail
Summary and relation to core values
Facilitator:
Kristene (Tina) Henne, PhD, is the Postdoctoral Program Lead at Argonne. In this role, she facilitates postdoc career development, mentoring, advises the Postdoctoral Society of Argonne and serves as a navigator for postdoctoral issues. She has presented JumpStart Seminars on Mentoring at Argonne and has facilitated mentoring workshops for organizations such as the National Postdoctoral Association and the Association for Women in Science, Chicago Chapter. Henne earned her Ph.D. in biological sciences from Purdue University and holds certificates in Mediation Skills Training from Northwestern University School of Professional Studies and the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago.
On February 5th, participants of the Energy and Global Security Directorate (EGS) Support Administrative (SA) Staff Mentoring Program gathered to reflect on their first year of growth and learning and to plan for the next year’s activities and goals. Keith Bradley, Director, National Security Programs and recipient of the 2014 Outstanding Staff Mentor Award, opened the session with welcoming remarks on the importance of mentoring and key elements in building a mentoring relationship.
Bradley shared with the group that everyone benefits from having a mentor and that, “Building trust between the mentor and mentee is critical for success. And I personally think the best mentors are the ones who are not in the mentee’s management chain. The mentor must understand the mentee’s job responsibilities and the overall work environment. But the mentee must feel comfortable asking candid questions and seeking advice without fear of being critically judged. Trust and confidentiality are key to maximizing the benefits of the mentor-mentee relationship.”
Keith Bradley delivers welcome remarks at the EGS-SA Mentoring Program celebration.
EGS Support Administrator Supervisor, Wendy Torres provided an overview of how the EGS-SA Mentoring Program was formed. In November 2017, the Energy & Global Security (EGS) Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Council introduced a Mentor Program for support administrative staff in the directorate in response to overall concern from EGS employees regarding lack of professional development opportunities. This concern, identified through the ‘What’s Next Diversity & Inclusion Climate Survey,’ was on the Council’s proposed list of action items for 2017. While it was agreed that a Mentoring Program would be valuable for all EGS employees, it was thought that the support administrative staff could serve as a pilot program. A discussion, facilitated by Postdoctoral Program Lead Tina Henne and EGS D&I Council Chair Molly Finster, with the EGS support administrative staff, successfully confirmed the need for and interest in a mentoring program.
As a follow-up to the facilitated discussion, the D&I Council mentor subcommittee surveyed the EGS support administrative staff on topics of interest, areas of expertise, and desired program type (i.e. mentor-mentee, group, or both). Based on their individual feedback, Torres, facilitated 13 mentor-mentee pairings and identified many topics for group mentorship events (such as procurement, travel, honorariums, BOX, etc.). In November 2017, a formal kick-off of the program served as the perfect opportunity to make introductions and to review the guidance document prepared by the D&I Council subcommittee, which provided useful tips and tools for mentor-mentee pairings. Throughout the year, the turnout at group mentorship brown bag events was an obvious indicator of success, averaging 22 attendees per event!
Following Torres’ recap of the program, IAEA Training Coordinator and EGS D&I Mentor Subcommittee Member, Natalie Zender, provided a summary of feedback from the Mentoring Program participants based on a survey that was sent by the EGS D&I Council at 6 months to check-in. Nearly 50% of respondents attributed the program to improving their skillset and other positive feedback included feelings of empowerment and benefits of networking. Still, opportunities for improvement are evident and mainly reside with the mentor-mentee pairings, which for almost a quarter of respondents are no longer active.
Susan Podoba (left) and Wendy Torres (right) lead a group activity at the EGS-SA Mentoring Program Celebration.
To close the event, Mentor Subcommittee Members, EGS Directorate Executive Assistant, Susan Podoba, and AMD Division Executive Assistant, Sharon Nykolyshyn, led an exercise where participants shared their ideas for future group mentoring sessions, brown bag training and professional development topics and renewed interest in being a mentor, mentee or both.
More than providing an avenue for staff to find a mentor, the EGS-SA Mentoring Program is helping to build a culture of mentorship, which goes hand in hand with modeling Argonne’s Core Values: Impact, Safety, Respect, Integrity, and Teamwork. Mentoring is a professional relationship that promotes talent development and trust by bringing employees together to share knowledge, skills, and experiences. We can all benefit from wider access to opportunities which aids to professional and personal goals to build a more capable, satisfied, and committed team.
About the Mentoring Program, Zender said, “It’s been a rewarding experience to be part of the creation of this mentor program – this mentor culture, really. The act of collaborating with the subcommittee on the development of this alone was a great opportunity for me to participate in a sort of group mentorship as I learned so much from their experiences and feedback. And, I hope to continue to use mentorship as a tool for the rest of my career.”
Creating a culture of mentorship is a continuous journey of listening, learning, and practicing. Sharing her own perspective as a mentor, Wendy Torres notes, “Mentoring is one of the best gifts you can give someone else. It helps to bring the best out of somebody else’s talents.”
The Postdoctoral Program Office will offer the first Meaningful Mentoring Workshop of the year on January 31, 2019. This first session will focus on two fundamental skills in mentoring–setting expectations and assessing understanding. Future sessions to be scheduled will address maintaining communication, setting mentoring goals and basic steps in building a mentoring relationship.
The series is recommended for anyone seeking to strengthen skills as either a mentor or mentee and have more meaningful mentoring relationships. The target audience includes postdoctoral appointees, mentors and supervisors. Topics covered are applicable to non-research settings as well.
The workshop will run from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Food will be provided. All are welcome to attend. Please register through the RSVP link by January 28th.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
Identify expectations for mentors and mentees
Understand the impact of misaligned expectations and making assumptions
Communicate expectations using tools such as mentoring compacts
Assess understanding through thoughtful questioning
Workshop Agenda:
Introductions
Overview of mentoring, mentor/mentee roles and phases of mentoring relationships
Case study exercise–challenging assumptions
Case study exercise–aligning expectations
Overview of tools to set and assess expectations
Case study exercise–mentor/mentee misunderstanding
Overview of communication tools for assessing understanding
Summary and relation to core values
Facilitator:
Kristene (Tina) Henne, PhD, is the Postdoctoral Program Lead at Argonne. In this role, she facilitates postdoc career development, mentoring, advises the Postdoctoral Society of Argonne and serves as a navigator for postdoctoral issues. She has presented JumpStart Seminars on Mentoring at Argonne and has facilitated mentoring workshops for organizations such as the National Postdoctoral Association and the Association for Women in Science, Chicago Chapter. Henne earned her Ph.D. in biological sciences from Purdue University and holds certificates in Mediation Skills Training from Northwestern University School of Professional Studies and the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago.
In the middle of grad school, I had a particularly bad thesis committee meeting. I had hit a plateau with my progress in both my research and professional growth and it showed…badly.
My committee hammered away, question after question, for which no answer seemed satisfactory. I wanted to shrink into invisibility. My graduate advisor watched the whole episode in silence.
I went home and cried, thinking this was the end. There was no way they’d let me finish my degree now. I wondered how they could do this to me? After how hard I had worked up to that point? How could my advisor let this happen to me? How could he let me fail like that?
Going back to school and facing my advisor was one of the hardest things I had to do as a graduate student. He must want me to quit, I thought. He’s trying to get me to quit. As we talked, though, I realized he wanted just the opposite. He wanted me to be successful. He wanted me to finish. But, he wanted me to “own” my work. Admittedly, I had not taken full ownership of my success yet.
Falling down like that was just the kickstart I needed to see my degree to completion. And as hard as it was for me to fail, it was just as hard for my advisor to let me fail. Luckily for me, he was invested enough in my success to help me get back up.
Secretary Perry talked about falling and failing in his visit this past week. When asked for advice to early career professionals, he told us to not be afraid to get out of our comfort zones, that it is okay to fall down and fail and that sometimes, we need people to help us get back up. And that is what mentors do.
Mentors are not there to be our “fixers.” They are there to help us grow–professionally and personally. Sometimes that growth involves learning from failure. Gifted mentors know when to step back and when to ask what we’ve learned from these occasions. They know how to let us come to our own conclusions. Mentors can offer us a hand up, but it is up to us to keep standing and move on.
I don’t recall ever thanking my graduate advisor–my mentor–for helping me get over that hump. Maybe I should. Now would be a good time to do that, as January is National Mentoring Month.
This is the perfect time to reconnect with your mentor. Ask them to coffee–and buy! Drop them a few lines to let them know what they’ve meant to you. Send them a hand-written note. Reverse the role and ask them what help you can offer. Whatever you do, take some time to honor mentors this month.
Join us on January 24th as we honor the 2017 Outstanding Mentor and Supervisor Award recipients. It’ll be a nice celebration of mentoring at the Lab. And hey, why not bring your mentor with you?
Argonne’s Women in Science and Technology (WIST) Program presents a “Mentoring and Networking for Career Success” Workshop Friday, March 20, 2015, from 9 a.m. to noon, at Bldg. 240, Rooms 1404/1405.
Registration
Register by Tuesday, March 17, to attend. Space is limited. Register »
Abstract
Mentoring and networking go hand-in-hand in making a successful career in any discipline, particularly in science. Both are known to have a very powerful positive impact on the careers at any level. Mentoring can be an equally valuable and rewarding experience for the mentor who seeks to aid others in career advancement as well as the mentee who benefits from this effort. However, as researchers we often have limited exposure to effective mentoring and networking practices and techniques.
Through a series of exercises and role playing scenarios, this workshop provides training in mentoring techniques that are proven to be effective. It also provides guidelines on networking and the different types of networks that are essential for career advancement at all career levels and aspirations.
A COACh Facilitated Workshop
This Workshop will be taught by COACh professional facilitators Geraldine Richmond and Laura Greene. COACh is an organization assisting in the success and impact of women scientists, engineers and researchers.
Join the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) Chicago Chapter for their Fall Kickoff Networkathon on Thursday, November 20, 2014, from 6-8PM at D4 Irish Pub & Cafe!
Expand your network of Chicagoland STEM professionals in a speed networking format with topics including academia, industry, outreach, and science writing.
The cost is just $5 for AWIS members and $10 for non-members and includes food and non-alcoholic refreshments.
Register at awiskickoff.eventbrite.com. Tickets are also available at the door for $7 (members) and $12 (non-members).
If you are interested in joining AWIS, attend to learn what AWIS-Chicago is all about and deduct the $10 ticket from your membership dues.
On August 5, 2014, Argonne’s Mentoring Exchange hosted An Armchair Conversation About Professional Development Opportunities and Challenges with a group of 50 employees from across the laboratory.
The conversation featured Laboratory Director Peter Littlewood, Senior Organizational Development Specialist Laura Altergott (HR), Program Leader and Senior Advisor for National and Global Security Programs and recipient of Argonne’s inaugural Outstanding Staff Mentor Award Keith Bradley (EESA), and Postdoctoral Program Coordinator Tina Henne (CEPA). Gender Diversity Specialist Erin Thomas (OTD) moderated the discussion, which explored recent successes and future challenges to developing an organizational infrastructure for robust and quality mentoring and professional development.
If you missed the conversation or would like to experience it again, full video of the event may be found here.
About the Mentoring Exchange
Argonne’s Mentoring Exchange brings together programmatic and operations staff from all five directorates to workshop best mentoring practices and advise senior management on professional development challenges and opportunities. For more information, please email [email protected] and stay tuned to Argonne Today for future event announcements.
January is National Mentoring Month, which is a time to reflect on how mentoring has added value to our lives, as both mentors and mentees. Never has being connected to a mentor been more important than during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many of us find ourselves working remotely and at greater risk of loneliness and feeling disengaged.
