Mentors attitudes

Ragins, B. R. and Cotton, J. L. (2000). Marginal mentoring the effects of type of mentor, quality of relationship, and program design on work and career attitudes. Acad. Man. J., 43, 1177-94. 

In many circumstances, factors other than business knowledge will be more important in determining the quality of a mentoring relationship. These include that mentors must possess a particular set of skills, abilities and attributes. Furthermore, they must be familiar with mentoring techniques and processes and possess the right attitude towards mentoring. We will take a look at all of these components in the following sections. 

Enthusiasm for the mentee involves having a very positive attitude towards him or her, and having the mentee s best interests at heart. Mentors should genuinely believe in the mentee s potential to improve his or her performance. They must also take the mentee s problems, desires and aspirations seriously. 

Business knowledge and experience, the right attitude, nine t) es of skills and three t) es of attributes although a mentor... 

There are usually two types of trainers within mentoring schemes external facilitators/consultants who train program co-ordinators and relationship supervisors and trainers (internal or external) who are responsible for equipping mentors and mentees with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to make relationships a success. To make things simpler, we will typically use the term trainer to refer to both types, but will make it clear, whenever a further distinction is necessary. 

Secondly, define whaf f)rpe of affifude you would like fo see associated with each role (e.g. with that of a mentor openness towards the mentee being committed to the mentee and having his or her best interests at heart). Explain to trainees why the attitudes you expect them to hold are actually important. 

There follows an outline of a possible training agenda for mentors. You do not have to include all of the components into your training session which ones to include and to what extent will entirely depend on your trainee s level of knowledge, skills and attitudes prior to training. 

Attitudes towards the mentee a discussion of affifudinal requirements with regard to the mentee could be as follows mentors ought to ... 

As with the mentor training, you might want to add a briefing on attitudinal requirements to the agenda point of expectation management. Desirable mentee attitudes include ... 

How has mentoring affected attitudes to working life outside the formal aspecfs of fhe program ... 

An important feature of good selection is to have clear criteria of what makes a good mentor and what t)q)e of mentee you are looking for. Wifh regard to mentors, this would include assurance that someone has the right attitude to mentoring, is capable... 

Special thanks are extended to my mother, Majorie Hewitt Suchocki, for her love and for instilling in me a positive attitude about life s work. Personal thanks are also extended to all my friends and other relatives for their support throughout the years, most notably to my mother-in-law, Sharon Hopwood, for photo research and for being a wonderful grandmother. Personal thanks also go to my past mentors, Professors Everette May and Albert Sneden of Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Mentoring and support are extremely important (see Figure 6.15). The faculty have to be willing to help those students who may have a little trouble with some of the courses at the start of their careers. If a student wants to do chemistry and if he or she has had some experience and has been nurtured at a good school, the faculty have to be willing to help them along. In short, the sink or swim attitude has proven to be very counterproductive. 

Why was Hopkins so supportive of women scientists We find an interesting parallel with a mentor of women researchers in radioactivity, Ernest Rutherford. Both Rutherford and Hopkins were very close to their respective mothers. Rutherford wrote frequently and endearingly to his mother in New Zealand throughout his life,14 while the Hopkins archives contain several items of correspondence with his mother that show an exceptionally strong mother-son relationship.15 In fact, the first 10 years of Hopkins life was spent alone with his mother.10 Such strong maternal bonds may well account for supportive attitudes towards women students. 

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