About one and a half years ago, I wrote about the topic of mentoring morphogenesis of a Ph.D. You can read it here on my thoughts on essential traits that make a good candidate for being a researcher. As similar to all mentor-apprentice relationships, the relationship is two-way traffic. In this post, I’d like to share my current view of good mentoring… (hum… “A good mentor, will be” Master Yoda is watching) 🙂
One of the biggest and most important jobs (responsibilities actually) in academia is mentoring. It is a tremendously rewarding process. As a mentor, I cherish a wide variety of talents – often hidden in their raw form (as raw as rocks sometimes). As a craftsman, I have unstoppable impulses to polish a piece of raw rock into a shiny gem – it is the most gratifying experience. This “polishing” process itself is not always smooth and easy. It requires discipline to adhere to the core philosophical principles while embracing a consistent adjustment tailoring toward each piece of precious “raw materials”!
Core Values
- Mutual respect (very very important!)
- The desire for excellence (very very important!)
- Empathy, honesty, and unconditional love (very important for coaching effectively!)
- Humility (hard to have when you at the top. So it is even more important!)
Mentoring Philosophy
- Give back to trainees who give their best (mutual respect).
- Build capacity to enable and empower trainee’s full potential.
- Build a flat organizational structure. The best idea wins. No authoritarianism!
- Build a team as a caring family working toward the same mission while. achieving personal goals.
Goals in Execution
- Structure strategic and inter-dependent projects to maximize core competency and improve operational efficiency.
- Build a versatile platform to enable high-level research training possibilities
- Provide a strategic and deliberate plan for trainees.
- Provide swift, thoughtful, substantive, and achievable feedbacks to the trainees.
- Set measurable goals in daily communications