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Guidance on Building a Faculty Mentoring Network

Informal mentoring relationships we establish ourselves can often be more helpful and satisfying than formal assigned mentors. It takes time, intention and strategy to build these networks, and the “rules” for doing so aren’t always clear.

At a workshop moderated by Maria Wisdom, assistant vice provost for faculty advancement, three professors at different career stages shared what has worked for them. Here are excerpts from the discussion.

Move Beyond the One-Mentor Model

“I was holding on pretty tightly to the one-mentor model…. What I started doing is just having conversations with people outside of my discipline around issues that we cared about. … I wasn’t asking them for something. I needed relationship-rich conversations, not just transactional. And what has ended up happening with my reframe is it’s a mentoring network. It’s not ‘what do I need from folks?’ It's ‘what do I need now, and then who is in my network that might connect over this?’” –Jennifer Ahern-Dodson, Associate Professor of the Practice of the Thompson Writing Program

“I have a certain perspective as far as viewing mentoring like, ‘I have a set of needs that I need met.’ And then those needs can be met by multiple people.” –CJ Appleton, Assistant Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy

“Almost anyone has the potential to teach you something. Similarly, you have the potential to mentor almost anybody as well.” –Suzanne Barbour, Dean of The Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Education

Gather a Posse of Peer Mentors

“Every place I’ve been, I’ve been able to find a group of people that I call my posse. I don’t call them peer mentors, but that’s effectively what they are. They’re a group of folks who are willing to tell me not just what I want to hear, not just what I want to do, but what I need to hear, and they have skills, interests, expertise and experience that complement mine. It’s a very informal way of getting mentoring, but for me it’s been absolutely essential.” –Suzanne Barbour

Consider Forming a ‘No’ Committee

“I love this posse idea. I actually call it my ‘no’ committee, the people who can help me be thoughtful about what I say yes to and why at what point in my career. … It has been really helpful to have someone not in a position of authority over me but someone who’s just neutral and [can say], ‘what I hear you saying is this.’ … What took me a long time to say out loud is that I am not an inexhaustible resource. I have limits. And thinking about it from a capacity perspective is a way to have a ‘no’ committee.” –Jennifer Ahern-Dodson

Seek Connections and Offer to Be Helpful

“If I’m reading something from somebody that I think is really amazing, I will literally stop and I will e-mail them. It doesn’t matter whether they’re at Duke. I will e-mail them and say, I really like your work. I would love to hop on a call with you just so we could talk. … But really, I’m trying to find other people who are like me. And if I find enough people who are like me and we connect, the next thing that I try to do is be of service … I want to establish the fact that I’m here to be helpful in any way that I can be.” –CJ Appleton

Say Yes to Opportunities to Meet People

“When I go to [events or meetings], I’m going to try and meet one new person or have a conversation. … I love Shonda Rhimes’ book, ‘Year of Yes,’ because so often as academics, we’re told to say no with good reason, but what happens if you say yes to something and then have a very specific goal in mind: [meet] one new person?” –Jennifer Ahern-Dodson

“I find sometimes when I’m faced with a situation that makes me uncomfortable but that I know is in my best interest, that it’s easier for me to get what I need if I think of it in a transactional way. … I almost put a price tag on it and say, ‘It’s an hour of your time, Suzanne, but just imagine how many people you’re going to meet and what impact you can potentially have with them, through them, after spending that hour.’” – Suzanne Barbour

“Sometimes discomfort [regarding reaching out to new people] is a prerequisite to growth. If you go to the gym, you’re going to be sore afterward. And I think that over time, that discomfort changes. I’m not saying that it always goes away, but when you’re doing something new, it can change, and that can actually turn into a strength. I think flexing that muscle often enough to where it isn’t as discomforting as it was before is an important part.” –CJ Appleton

Give Yourself Grace

“Be aware of the story you’re telling about yourself that’s connected to mentorship, and then give yourself grace and all of that to grow and not always be the way that you’ve been. Maybe there is something that has been a barrier. It doesn’t always have to be that way, and those things can change.” –CJ Appleton

Resources

Main image: Jennifer Ahern-Dodson, CJ Appleton and Suzanne Barbour