Formal Mentoring Programs as a Pad for - EURAXESS · PDF fileFormal Mentoring Programs as a Launching Pad for ... •PhD in yeast ... May have access to formal programs in only one

Joanne Kamens EURAXESS Mentoring 12/2016

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Formal Mentoring Programs as a Launching Pad for Lifelong Mentoring

Joanne Kamens, PhD

@JKamens & @AddgeneFollow Addgene on Facebook and LinkedIn for science and career

content

Addgene’s Nonprofit Mission

Accelerate research and discovery by improving access to useful research materials

and information

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Why Sharing Matters

Simplified logistics = wider plasmid sharing and collaborationBetter data/reproducibility with quality controlled reagentsProtection from materials and data loss due to lab personnel turnoverExpert technical support/curated protocols

NEW! Addgene now provides prepared Lentiviral and AAV preps of our most popular

plasmids

Addgene Statistics

>55,000 plasmids stored>750,000 plasmids shipped to >5,200 institutions, 85 countriesFrom 3,000 contributing labs, >500 institutions worldwide>2,500 plasmids shipped each week


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Deposits From About 40 Countries

Requests From Over 85 Countries


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Addgene as a Global Resource

Optimizing shipping and service solutions internationally3 person Addgene London team to better serve international scientistsAddgene partners with distributors in China, Japan and Korea

United States48%

Japan9%China

7%

Germany6%

Great Britain5%

Canada3%

France2%

Korea (Rep of)2%

Switzerland2%

Australia2%

Rest of World14%

Distribution of Our Top 20 CRISPR/cas9 Plasmids


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How I Got Here – The Basics

•PhD in yeast genetics

Harvard PhD

•RNAi early adoptor•Good at managing•Collaborations

BASF/Abbott(Pharma) •Director of Research

•Business Dev•Alliances

RXi(Biotech)

•Executive Director and all that entails

•?

Addgene(Nonprofit)

Number of People Managed (direct and indirect)

1 2 3 4 9 6 010 20 >6512

How I Really Got Here – Secret Posse of Mentors and Advisors

•Advisor with strong ties to industry

Harvard PhD

•Committee work•Good at managing•Many collaborations•Mentoring/diversity interests

BASF/Abbott(Pharma) •HBA leadership role

•Alliance management•Board roles•BD = networking

RXi(Biotech)

•Executive Director and all that entails

•?

Addgene(Nonprofit)

Referral:Advisor arranged

interviews w/his friends

Direct Contact:Recruited by a long time

friend at lunch

Referral and Direct Contact:Friends referred me, knew the founder and 3 BoDmembers

*

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* Note, roles never advertised publicly

Volunteer leadership and board roles AWIS, HBA, SCFG, Seeding Labs etc. etc.


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Why Mentoring?

“Support for Making Change” –LifeMoxie.com

• Self‐imposed change• New options/opportunity• Imposed change

Main types of change• Work effectiveness• Job readiness• Leadership readiness• Network savvy• Change management

Types of Mentoring

Technical mentoring• Often seeking specific advice or information

• “How did you get this dang machine to work?”

One‐on‐one mentoring• Your old advisor, “mentor for a minute” or long termGroup mentoring • Focus groups, presentations, discussion panels, workshops,

orientations, lunch table chat• Establish cohorts, create community, peer modeling• Excellent place to get started (You are doing it right now…)Formal vs. Informal• Formal mentoring programs• Most often mentoring does not involve a formal relationship

• Anyone can share career advice, inspires as a role model, share experience, hold you accountable


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Potential (and Risk) of Early‐Career Formal Mentoring Programs

Early exposure to formal mentoring programs provides the skills for seeking and utilizing mentors for an entire careerBut beware…A bad mentoring program is much worse than none at all! It turns participants off from seeking or being mentors, sometimes forever

Photo credit Vitaly, via Unsplash

What Makes a Good Mentoring Program?

CHARACTERISTICS OF INEFFECTIVE

FORMAL MENTORING PROGRAMS

•Mentor and mentee matching is ad‐hoc not based on assessment

• Lacks formal goals or objectives

•No clear time frame or time commitment required

• No monitoring or check‐ins

• No accountability

• No clear tie to business efforts exist

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE

FORMAL MENTORING PROGRAMS

•Mentors and mentees matched based on development needs

• Formal goals are outlined and tracked

•Minimum time commitments are designated

• Formal process exists for monitoring the relationship

• Both parties are held accountable; links to talent management exist

• Links to business strategy, goals exist

From the 2010 Catalyst Report “Making Mentoring Work”

One more thing….Training Required!


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A Not So Well Hidden Secret

Mentoring is good for Mentors and therefore, good for the hosting organization!• Develop coaching and management skills• Encourages creative thinking• Enhance leadership skills• Expand perspectives• Increased self‐awareness• Opportunity to share wisdom/experience• Supports inclusion and open communication• Opportunity to strengthen internal networks• Develops a pool of candidates?

“We exist temporarily through what we take, but we live forever through what we give.” –Douglas M. Lawson

Benefits of the Group Mentoring Format

Why go it alone?Anyone can start a peer mentoring groupOne uninvolved person can do less “damage”Mentors from underrepresented groups (there are never enough) can reach multiple mentees efficientlyLead and learn at the same timeAdding peer advice increases diversity of input and perspectivesBroadens your networkIt’s more fun!

Classic reference for this mentoring format: “Every Other Thursday” by Ellen Daniell


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Mentors at Home and Away

Why find Mentors at your place of work/study?• Identify skills you need at work• Share similar core values• Often able to give informed feedback• Complement your area of expertise• Can help you become an “insider” faster• Might also be SponsorsWhy find Mentors somewhere else?• Identify skills you will need • Incite into other work cultures• Often able to give more candid feedback• Opens your networkMay have access to formal programs in only one of these

What Workplace Mentoring is NOT…

NOT a replacement for open dialogue between an employee and his or her managerNot an opportunity to place blame or discuss performance of othersNever a guarantee or promise of promotionNever an attempt to replace spontaneous or informal mentoring

“He did it!”

Mentoring is for looking ahead, not looking back


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So You Think You Aren’t Ready to Be a Mentor…

Think again… everyone has something to give and

something to gain by giving

One of the best ways to learn how to be a mentee is to be a mentor

Mentoring Best Practices – The Training PieceMissed Mentoring Moments in History


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A New Paradigm—The Mentee Leads

Sets meeting times, creates agendasIdentifies topics, questions, development areasFollows through on assignmentsRespects mentor’s time and scheduleAsks for advice and listens to itUtilizes the skills of more than one mentor (Beware over‐dependence!)

A Little Formality is a Good Thing

Create agendasUse content and exercisesPrepare action plansFollow up on assignmentsFocus on GoalsTake time to prepare for mentoring meetings• The more you put into it, the more you get out of it


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What Are We Going to Talk About?

Your Career Journey• Explore your career needs and wants• Discover your strengths, and challenges• Identify opportunities for career growth• Career dreams• Personal Development Plan and VisionIncreasing Visibility• Connection between initiative and

visibilityRaising Your EQ (Emotional Intelligence)• EQ as a factor to your successYour Conflict Management Style• How could you be more effective• Managing up and downInfluencing Others Through Leadership• Leadership and influence qualities

Career Options• Guest speakers• OutreachNetworking for Success• Benefits of building networks• Suggestions for places to reach out• Informational interviews• Getting out thereBuilding Working Relationships• Benefits of positive relationships• Gaining trustSharing Organizational Knowledge• Increasing organizational savvy• Techniques to learn the business• Technical hurdles and solutionsLife Effectiveness• Work/Life Balance

Attend a talk, try a new location, do a quiz, watch a webinar…

What Are We Going to Talk About? Resources are Available!

Scientist Blogs• blog.addgene.org• bitesizebio.com• scienceonline.com• nature.com/naturejobs• www.benchfly.com/blog/career‐development‐

resources/• thesiswhisperer.com• tenureshewrote.wordpress.com• Study Hacks: http://calnewport.com/blog/• blogs.scientificamerican.com• 50 popular science blogs (just Google it)

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060703/multimedia/50_science_blogs.html

Books• Too many to list‐ask me for specific topicsWebsites• Harvard Business Review http://hbr.org/• http://www.CoachforGrowth.com • The Mentoring Group:

http://www.mentoringgroup.com

• Emotional Intelligence (EI, EQ) tests http://ei.mhs.com/

• Center for Coaching and Mentoring: http://www.coachingandmentoring.com

• Myers‐Briggs personality type assessments: http://www.humanmetrics.com

• http://www.Mindtools.com

• nationalpostdoc.org

• thepostdocway.org

• pcdi.nl

• phds.org/postdoc

• postdocjobs.com/resources

• biotechcareercenter.com

• vitae.ac.uk

• mendelspod.com

• NIH videocast: Academia to Industry Transition videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=12169


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What Are We Going to Talk About?Activities and “Exercises”

Forced Choice Analysis

Things I need to do today Slash marks #

Give AWIS Talk xxxxxxxx 8

Respond to HBA Mentor issue xxxx 4

Read articles on nanoparticle delivery xx 2

Call collaborator to check on project status xxxxxxx 7

Make dinner 0

Review contract edits and respond to lawyer xxxxxxx 7

Prepare slides for quarterly BoD meeting xx 2

Call my parents x 1

Meet with Dmitry about outreach priorities xxx 3

Choosing Task Priority


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Things I need to do today Slash marks #

Give AWIS Talk xxxxxxxx 8

Respond to HBA Mentor issue xxx 3

Read articles on nanoparticle delivery xx 2

Call collaborator to check on project status xxxxxx 6

Make dinner xx 2

Review contract edits and respond to lawyer 0

Prepare slides for quarterly BoD meeting xx 2

Call my parents xx 2

Meet with Dmitry about outreach priorities xxxxxx 6

Figuring Out What I LIKE

Providing Honest Feedback

“What have you learned?”Enables you to discuss a person's performance, what has been learned, plan effective next steps. Feedback is help and it should result in authentic assistance for your partner to become more effective and successful.You must be able to state your appraisal truthfully and in no uncertain terms.Formalize the process so it is more comfortable

“Well a pop-up doctoral dissertation is certainly an original idea…”


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Asking “High‐gain” Questions

It is easy to feel that the best way to help is to offer answers and recommendationsAsking high‐gain questions puts you in the tactical mentoring roleDisciplining yourself to ask questions before jumping in with ready answers dramatically changes the mentee's experience• Ensures two‐way communication in the mentoring

relationship. • Helps mentee think through issues instead of

having you do it all• Discloses your mentees' thoughts on issues, giving

you a greater opportunity to help them clarify courses of action

Tell me more about…

O.K., when was another time when…?

What led you there?

What have you learned?

I’d be interested to know your reasons for…

Mentoring Skills: Goal Setting


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Track Your Goal Progress

For real. It makes a differenceCreate mechanisms for tracking goals• Mentoring notebook if you still like written notes• Share a Google.doc• Formalize a Development Plan (templates at blog.addgene.org)

My First Major Goal:Knowledge to Gain/Skills to

Build/Attitudes to Develop (What must Iacquire/improve?)

Proof(How will I know

I did it?)

DevelopmentActivities

(How will I gain/build /develop)

PotentialMentors

(Who mighthelp me?)

TargetCompletion

Date

Mentoring Best Practice: Accountability

SupportChallengeBring experienceInstill/share visionConstant feedbackRecord goals…check back

From Creating a Mentoring Culture by Lois J. Zachary


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Key Steps to Success

Commitment to making and taking the time• Make your meetings a priority• You can only reap the rewards by putting in the effortClearly defined goals, roles, expectations, time frames• A little process can be good, make lists, create agendas,

formalize feedbackFocus on implementation—Act on your plans!• Take responsibility, use it as a leadership opportunity

Thanks for Listening

Questions?

Don’t miss my Mentoring 101 E‐book for Scientists available for download at blog.addgene.orgI love to do mentoring workshops and advise for peer mentoring groups. I don’t charge (but appreciate travel support). Please contact me if I can help!

@JKamens & @AddgeneFollow Addgene on Facebook and LinkedIn for science and career content


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A Better Way to Share—Plasmids and Science

"What Makes a Good Mentor?" and 6 More FAQs About Science MentoringScientist Networking: What is an Informational Interview?Advice for Moving Into Sales After Your Science PostdocDeveloping Transferable Skills During Science TrainingPlasmids 101: What is a plasmid?The 10 Most Distributed Plasmid Technologies in Addgene's First 10 YearsUsing CRISPR/Cas9 to Edit Disease Out of the GenomeDrew Endy Introduces the Biobrick Public Agreement Plasmid CollectionOverwhelmed? Take a Break with our 5 Favorite Science ComicsKiran Musunuru on the Newest TALEN Genome‐Editing SystemFrom our Table to Yours: An Inside Look at Lunch at AddgeneLet There Be LITE Plasmids

blog.addgene.org

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Formal Mentoring Programs as a Pad for - EURAXESS · PDF fileFormal Mentoring Programs as a Launching Pad for ... •PhD in yeast ... May have access to formal programs in only one