How Mentoring Helps Faculty Navigate Academia's Changing Landscape
Effective mentoring is crucial amid unprecedented challenges in higher education. Maria Wisdom's book, How to Mentor Anyone in Academia, offers guidance for faculty supporting colleagues in an uncertain environment.
The Mentoring Gap
Over half of college students expect professors to mentor them in their career development, yet many faculty members lack formal training in mentoring practices. This gap is concerning as universities face political scrutiny, shrinking budgets, increased workloads, and fewer job prospects for students.
Beyond Natural Talent: Mentoring as a Learned Skill
A persistent myth in academia is that mentoring is an innate talent rather than a skill. Wisdom challenges this, arguing that effective mentoring includes specific competencies that can be learned. She identifies three approaches to mentoring:
Mentoring with heart - Emphasizing empathy, understanding, and kindness.
Mentoring with backbone - Providing structure, consistency, and clear expectations.
Mentoring like a coach - Combining both approaches through structured conversations.
Important Do's and Don'ts for Faculty Mentors
Do:
Establish clear expectations at the start of the mentoring relationship and hold regular check-ins.
Practice active listening and ask thoughtful questions rather than simply talking at your mentee
Create space for reflection that helps mentees recognize their own talents and resources
Model self-care and work-life balance to avoid perpetuating burnout culture
Encourage experiences beyond traditional academic paths that develop adaptability in an uncertain job market
Don't:
Don't assume mentoring is an innate talent that cannot be developed through practice and training
Don't limit your mentoring to your discipline - many mentoring skills transcend academic specialties
Don't perpetuate academic hierarchies by positioning yourself as the sole knowledge provider
Don't rush mentoring meetings or allow yourself to be distracted during them
Don't mentor in isolation - share challenges with colleagues to develop better approaches collectively
Breaking Down Academic Hierarchies
Traditional academic mentoring often reinforces hierarchical relationships where professors serve as the "fountain of all knowledge" and students as passive recipients. Effective mentoring disrupts this dynamic by empowering mentees to take greater responsibility for their own growth while providing a supportive framework.
By asking thought-provoking questions instead of merely dispensing advice, mentors assist mentees in developing critical thinking skills and self-reliance that will benefit them throughout their careers.
Building a Culture of Mentorship
Improving faculty mentoring requires cultural change within departments and institutions, not just individual relationships. Wisdom advocates normalizing conversations about mentoring challenges and creating support networks for mentors.
Department chairs and administrators can promote this cultural shift by including mentoring on meeting agendas and acknowledging effective mentoring in promotion and tenure decisions. Without institutional support, mentoring becomes invisible labor that contributes to faculty burnout.
Final Thoughts
As organizational consultants, we recognize effective mentoring offers a significant return on investment for institutions. Supported faculty are more likely to stay, and students receiving quality mentoring tend to succeed academically and professionally.
By viewing mentoring as a learnable skill instead of an innate talent, universities can create training programs that benefit mentors, mentees, and institutions. In challenging times, these relationships may become the most valuable resources for navigating an uncertain future.
This blog post was inspired by Kathryn Palmer's April 18, 2025, article in Inside Higher Ed.
