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Purpose

This resource should be used at the initiation of a mentoring relationship to allow the mentor and mentee to self-reflect on how each of them understands mentorship and to identify where the mentor's and mentee's beliefs converge and diverge. 

Instructions

Step 1

The mentor and mentee should independently review and respond to the FAIM Mentor / Mentee Mentorship Expectations Scales worksheet. 

Step 2

A mentor and a mentee should then collaboratively review their responses within the FAIM Mentor / Mentee Mentorship Expectations Scales worksheet, ask questions, and make clarifications. This will allow mentors and mentees to more easily identify where their ideas converge and diverge as they collaboratively establish mutual expectations.

As a next step, a mentor and mentee should meet to discuss and begin drafting their Mutual Expectations Agreement Plan, which will serve as their mentoring plan. During this initial discussion, the mentor and mentee should begin to communicate about their mutual expectations for their mentoring relationship.

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Purpose

Mentors and mentees should individually reflect and collaboratively discuss, set, communicate, and refine their mutual expectations.

Instructions

We recommend mentors and mentees engage with the FAIM Mentor / Mentee Mentorship Expectations Scales worksheet prior to discussing and filling out the FAIM Mutual Expectations Agreement Plan. The Scales worksheet can help mentors and mentees identify where their ideas about mentorship may converge and diverge.

We also recommend mentors and mentees use the FAIM Identifying and Defining Your Values worksheet to identify and explore how to live your core values through decision-making and behaviors in academic and professional relational environments.

Step 1

The mentor and mentee meet and use draft responses and the FAIM Core Mutual Expectations for Graduate Education to inform the collaborative development of their personalized FAIM Mutual Expectations Agreement Plan. 

Step 2

The mentor and mentee review, discuss, and finalize their individualized FAIM Mutual Expectations Agreement Plan. The plan should reflect a mentor’s and mentee’s collective understanding of mutual expectations and commitments to one another and serve as a guide for the ongoing management of their mentoring relationship.

Step 3

The mentor and mentee should revisit the FAIM Mutual Expectations Agreement Plan on a cyclical basis to make changes reflective of where the mentee is in their degree progression and the current needs of the mentoring relationship.

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Purpose

This worksheet can help you identify your core values, or the ways of thinking and being that you hold most important. It can also help you explore how to practice living your core values through decision-making and actions in academic and professional relational environments, such as within a research team or a one-to-one mentor/mentee relationship.

Instructions

Step 1

Review the comprehensive, but not exhaustive, list of values in this resource.

Step 2

Identify and circle up to 10 values that resonate most with you.

Step 3

Reflect upon the 10 core values you identified and select the 5 values most important to you. Next, select the 2 core values that are essential to who you are and underlie your actions.

Step 4

After you identify your 2 core values, complete this worksheet to capture:

• How do you already, or aspire, to demonstrate your core values within your professional and academic relationships?
• What tendencies do you have that may be misaligned with your values?
• What circumstance might make it difficult to act in accordance to your values (e.g., times of stress, conflict, etc.)?

Step 5

Identify a few tactics to realign your decisions with your core values.

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A mentor network map for graduate students to map and strengthen their mentoring network can be found as a downloadable worksheet in the FAIM Practical Tools and Resources folder. For more information and resources on how to complete a mentor network map, visit the NCFDD Mentor Network Map resource page.

Science Careers Individual Development Plan helps employees define and pursue their career goals. myIDP provides:

• exercises to help you examine your skills, interests, and values.
• a list of 20 scientific career paths with a prediction of which ones best fit your skills and interests.
• a tool for setting strategic goals for the coming year, with optional reminders to keep you on track.
• articles and resources to guide you through the process.
•  

Imagine PhD is a free online career exploration and planning tool for PhD students and postdoctoral scholars in the humanities and social sciences. Imagine PhD provides tools for scholars to:

• assess their career-related skills, interests, and values.
• explore careers paths appropriate to their disciplines.
• create self-defined goals.
• map out next steps for career and professional development success.
•  

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Purpose

The FAIM Guide to Establish Research Group Shared Expectations is a practical tool for research group discussions in the following areas:

• communicating and clarifying the mission of the research group;
• defining shared values for scholarly engagement within the group;
• sustaining and refining shared values;
• establishing community norms and standards; and
• creating and maintaining supportive and productive research environments.

Mentors and mentees can use this tool to individually reflect and then collaboratively discuss, set, communicate, and refine their shared group expectations.

Step 1

All group members should review the prompts in this resource as well as the FAIM Identifying and Defining Your Values worksheet independently ahead of a group meeting to prime themselves for a productive discussion.

The FAIM Identifying and Defining Your Values worksheet can help you identify and explore how to live your core values through decision-making and behaviors in academic and professional relational environments.

Step 2

Schedule a research group meeting dedicated to creating shared expectations agreements.

Step 3

During a meeting, the research group should discuss each item, and individual group members should share their thoughts. The faculty mentor should help make sure every group member has an opportunity to share their reflections and ideas before, during, and/or after the group meeting.

Step 4

Codify the group’s collective shared expectations agreements.

Step 5

Cyclically engage in discussions to refine the research group shared expectations, especially during times of transition (e.g., project completion, changes to the group’s composition).

Notes

Research Group Guidebooks, Manuals, etc.

Developing a shared expectations agreements is distinct from a group guidebook. The former requires dialogue and co-construction within the entire group, whereas the latter is prescribed by the head of the research team, or faculty mentors. A sample handbook can be found here.