Mentorship Planning Resources

Students sitting on the lawn by the UNT Soaring Eagle Sculpture

For a mentoring relationship to be successful, mentors and mentees must establish a positive environment of respect and open communication. To make the most of a mentoring relationship, mentors and mentees should establish clear expectations, commit to regular meetings, and develop a relationship of reciprocal collaboration. Faculty mentoring relationships should help faculty acclimate to UNT and reach their professional goals.  

Through Faculty Success, all UNT faculty, staff, and graduate students have access to many resources related to mentoring through NCFDD. Mentors can refer to the UNT Mentor Quick-Start Guide for suggestions. Below, our team has provided additional curated resources to help you along your mentoring journey. 

Mentorship Documents

Mentees and mentors may find the following documents helpful for organizing and documenting their mentoring relationship. In a network model of mentoring, it’s helpful for faculty to identify multiple mentors who can provide support in different areas. Faculty Success provides a mentoring map for mentees to use to brainstorm current and potential mentors: 

Mentoring Map 

Mentoring agreements can help mentoring pairs agree on clear expectations and provide additional documentation of the mentoring relationship. Below, Faculty Success provides two documents, an initial mentoring agreement for negotiating expectations, and a yearly summary for documenting meetings and progress toward goals: 

Initial Mentoring Agreement 

Mentoring Agreement Yearly Summary 

Discussion Topics for Mentoring Meetings

The following list is intended to serve as potential topics to be discussed during mentoring meetings, as well as activities to grow and sustain the mentoring relationship. The collection, aggregated from several universities, is meant to be customized to the specific needs of the faculty.

  • Provide advice on University and College policies.  
  • Building a career trajectory with short- and long-term goals and a plan for achieving these.  
  • How to become visible and respected in their field.  
  • Discuss tenure and promotion process including preparing dossier when relevant 
  • Discuss departmental climate and provide advice on faculty relationships and student interactions. 
  • Review annual evaluation materials and provide feedback. 
  • Discuss how to deal with the pressures and crises of professional life.  

  • Discuss the informal norms of academic life, such as the department’s academic culture, how to balance service, teaching, and research responsibilities, and rebounding from publication rejection or poor teaching evaluations.  
  • The social expectations and norms of becoming a departmental colleague.  
  • Which departmental and university events are important to attend.  

  • How to build networks with colleagues at UNT and elsewhere.  
  • Explore technology transfer implications of research. 
  • Discuss relevant patent development and licensing. 
  • Explore consulting opportunities. 
  • Help identify strategies to network with various community groups. 
  • Assist in developing best practices for working effectively with community groups, NGOs and businesses at the local through global levels. 
  • Discover and make changes to mentor/mentee relationships and practices as needed.  

  • Review CV and provide feedback. 
  • Identify sources of support for internal funding.  
  • Review grant applications 
  • Create a research plan, where to publish and how often, and how to negotiate collaborations.  
  • Collaborate on research projects, manuscripts, and presentations.  
  • Advise on key relationships to cultivate and facilitate introductions.  
  • Invite protégé to present at workshops or conferences.  
  • Advise about key conferences your protégé should consider attending.  
  • Introduce the mentee to colleagues with similar research or teaching interests. 
  • Share experiences with journal referees and editors. 
  • Discuss research management strategies. 
  • Encourage participation in regional and national meetings and professional associations. 

  • Discuss potential service opportunities at the department or university level (e.g., service on committee) 
  • Discuss scholarly service opportunities (e.g., journal reviewer, conference organizers) 
  • Discuss ways to balance service and research/teaching 
  • Provide advice regarding avenues for community engagement 
  • How to evaluate requests for service to the department and profession.  
  • Share which kinds of service are more highly valued or promotable service. 
  • Steering on which University and external committee work should be pursued. 
  • Share sources of support for professional development opportunities. 
  • Provide guidance on ways to decline service requests. 

  • Introduce protégé to other faculty members 
  • Introduce protégé to staff who can provide useful resources 
  • Attend mentoring workshops together offered by UNT 
  • Exchange, review and discuss each other’s vitae. 
  • Get to know each other informally, e.g., by sharing coffee or a meal, or attending an on-campus event. 
  • Introduce the protégé to staff members in their department and college. 
  • Introduce the protégé to campus resources such as the UNT Libraries. 
  • Suggest useful books, articles, websites, podcasts, or blogs. 
  • Communicate resources and opportunities to the protégé. It also involves nurturing the protégé’s career through assisting them in identifying and choosing career development opportunities and linking to colleagues and professional networks.  

  • Review students’ teaching evaluations 
  • Review expectations about teaching, grading, and teaching evaluations.  
  • Identify sources of support for teaching at the University of North Texas.  
  • Discuss effective instructional skills. 
  • Discuss teaching materials and strategies for effective teaching. 
  • Share useful teaching resources. 
  • Observe protégé teaching in classroom and offer constructive feedback  
  • Review time management strategies 
  • Share techniques for managing courses. 
  • Discuss teaching, advising, and relating to students. 


References

  1. University of Michigan-Dearborn: Faculty Mentoring Tips & Resources
  2. Michigan State University: Mentoring Toolkit
  3. University of Buffalo: Elements of Effective Mentoring
  4. Georgetown University: Guidelines for Mentors and Mentees