Whatever your career path whether it’s in academia, industry or elsewhere, at some point you will be responsible for managing/supervising others. You will need to provide varying levels of training, supervision and leadership. You may also be asked, formally or informally to be their mentor, and it is also possible that you will be asked to mentor someone who is a colleague.<br/>These are very different roles and of all of them being a mentor is the most difficult because it is not about you it is all about the person who is being mentored.<br/>Mentoring is very important as enables other people to achieve their current and future goals and ambitions and helping people to develop is not just worthwhile for the individual it benefits the team. The skills of a mentor incorporate many aspects of the teacher, manager and leader roles but there are important differences and additional attributes that you need if you are to be an effective mentor. Empathy and active listening skills are just two of the essential attributes a mentor must possess on order to help them first define their goals and then set them on the path to achieving them.<br/>In comparison, teaching, managing and leading are easy!<br/>But the rewards of successful mentoring are huge for both parties. I will be providing examples and observations on being mentored myself, throughout my career, and also hope to pass on experiences that I have found helpful in my attempts to mentor others, in industry and academia, over the last 40 or so years.

Teacher, supervisor, leader – mentor?

ACS Fall 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.