Navigating Mentoring Crossroads: Empowering both mentees and mentors to have productive conversations

Abstract: The Postdoc Academy has been providing flexible online and in-person professional development training opportunities for postdoctoral scholars (postdocs) to develop skills necessary to support a successful postdoc experience and to transition into their next career. Mentoring relationships play a critical role in postdoc training, especially the one postdocs develop with their advisor. Mentoring influences trainees’ satisfaction with the postdoc experience, overall self-efficacy, and professional well-being. However, postdocs may lack agency on the way they are mentored. To support postdocs further, the Postdoc Academy received supplemental funding to optimize mentoring relationships between postdocs and faculty, with an emphasis on promoting inclusive mentoring practices for marginalized groups. This supplement provides frameworks to support mentoring dialogues and facilitate Productive Conversations on the 10 topics covered in our courses.

By the end of our session, attendees will be familiarized with the Postdoc Academy Supplement offering for postdocs and how our Productive Conversation Framework can be leveraged to fill mentoring gaps for trainees at their institution.