Tips for success: Fostering a good mentoring relationship

A mentor can mean the difference between a mentoree's failure and success. Yet mentoring is more than an altruistic venture. A good mentor will be more likely to recruit and retain strong student and postdoctoral candidates, and cultivate productive personnel. Despite these advantages, faculty often receive little, if any, mentoring training. Here, three panelists, Marianne Bronner-Fraser, Ph.D., Kathy Iovine, Ph.D., and Carl Thummel, Ph.D., share their mentoring tips. Their mentorees also articulate how these accomplished mentors helped them to grow professionally and personally. Together, their insights outline ways to achieve a productive mentoring relationship, a topic of interest to mentors and mentorees alike.