with mentoring, and I think what it is is mentoring is the common thread that weaves through all of this, whether it be diversity, whether it be conflict resolution. So I'm excited about sharing this particular topic. So we'll talk about finding a mentor and developing a successful mentoring relationship, no disclosures, here are your learning objectives, we'll take a look at the different aspects of mentoring, what to look for in a mentor, what a mentee should expect, a mentor should expect, and finally, some benefits of successful mentoring. So my avocation is history. I love reading about it, and so whenever I begin a topic, I look toward history to see what came before. Here we have a slide, before mentor was a title, it was actually a name, it was found in the Odyssey written by Homer, I actually had to look this up as well, but it was about 850 B.C., mentor in this case was an actual person, it was his name, Odysseus, the ruler of a particular area of Greece was going off to the Trojan War, needed somebody to take care of the city-state, and somebody to educate his son. So here we have it, it's from history, but it's much like all of you, you have your daytime jobs and you're also involved with mentoring. If we look perhaps at a little bit more contemporary view of mentoring and mentorship, it's often like Yoda here, we have one particular individual, probably a little bit of gray hair, a little bit of arthritis, but this individual can read your mind, can take a look at the question that you ask and interpret it perfectly, and then give you a succinct two-sentence answer to this massive problem that you've had. In reality, we're going to find out that mentorship is much more complex than that, and if we look at mentorship, it's much like passing white light through a prism, breaks down into different areas, different colors, like the prism. So you see at the top we have advocate, excuse me, advisor, advocate, coach, counselor, and then we've got sponsor, tutor on the other side, and then at the lower three we see role model, guide, and these are more organic kinds of positions, but we're going to talk about all these in just a minute. If we do a little bit of drill down here, we can take a look for advisor, quite often the advice given is problem oriented, time sensitive, advice usually on personal or focused on specific issues that are in the lives of the mentee. An example here would probably be we have some elective time coming up, what is the best way I could spend that elective time to enhance my career? The coach is task specific, immediate evaluation with feedback, and his time limit is a specific date and time. A simple example of that would be line placement for everything from starting from ultrasound to sterile technique to did you use enough local, these kinds of things, did you adequately assess the x-ray if it needed? And then we have more of the organic areas like role model, and we saw that sort of at the bottom, along the bottom of the diagram there. And this takes, it's more interpersonal and is necessary to really enhance that mentorship relationship. And we're going to see actually that this composite, that wheel that we just looked at and this, mentorship is a composite of all of that. So this came from Google Images, and I thought it was kind of cool. I think it was originally published in a business journal, but not a lot of interesting things going on there, and we're going to highlight these as we go through the talk. So what is mentoring? And then right underneath you see what community do we want to be? That's very important by definition. If you look in the center, there's what I call a confidence graph, and we'll talk about that more specifically. And then along the bottom, teaching and learning, similar to what Sergio just mentioned with his former fellow who was teaching him about podcasting and all that, in a true mentoring relationship you'll have more of a horizontal relationship. Talk about that in a little bit. So we talk about a lot of things, there are a lot of things involved. So what is mentoring? Well, you improve the young professional, you develop him or her, you train them, you motivate them, you coach them, and you inspire them, and this is a very clever little illustration here from Luke Kaplan. If you look at there, it's mentoring right in the center of all of that. So as a mentee, you want to develop a mentor relationship, what do you do? J.D. Vance in Hillbilly Elegy reminds us that social capital is all around us, and those that tap into it, use it, and prosper. So it connects us to the right people, it ensures that we have the right opportunities, and it imparts valuable information. So if you look at some of the characteristics of successful mentors, this I believe comes from Harvard Review, and as a mentee, you're looking for just the right mix. Look for a person who places relationships before mentorships. Mentorships are not a checklist, they're a relationship. Number two, focus on character rather than competency. And when I first read this, I thought, wait a minute here. So in the latter stages of my career, I developed a fellowship for nurse practitioners and PAs in critical care. We'd take the kids right out of school, we'd put them through an additional year of training, and then they would be hired by our institution to practice in the ICU with Vish. So one of the things when you develop the curriculum is how are you going to do this? And we found something called Cobitrice, which is out of Europe, it's a training program they use to train intensivists there. You may be familiar with it, but it is a competency-based curriculum. So our key word in training these people was competency. So when we make a statement like focus on character rather than competency, it raises, at least for me, it raises some interest. But the thing here is that we are to focus on the individual, not, again, whether they are competent to put in the arterial line and then interpret the waveforms and make right clinical decisions based on that. As important as that is, the relationship comes before that. The other thing is a good mentor is known for optimism. Now I put in honest in parentheses, that's my word in there. So optimism is not everything's great, everything's working well every day. Honest optimism is, well, we've got a problem here, but we're going to work through it, and we're going to get you through this, and we're going to make sure that everything is right. So it's not a Pollyanna approach, it's an honest approach. And then two, the successful mentor is more loyal to the mentees than institutions. He's not institutionally driven. This is not just another training program that we're putting people through. We need to develop individuals. So is it possible to find the perfect mentor? As a mentee, you're looking through, you're going through the checklist, you've done your homework, you're looking for these individuals. But as several of our speakers have said now, look outside the box. I think Lynn mentioned this, and Sergio and others. This quote from Condoleezza Rice, I think, summarizes it well. If she'd waited for an African-American female who was a Soviet specialist, she never would have had adequate training because there simply weren't any. Interestingly enough, most of her mentors were old white guys, not like myself. Of course, I put these men ahead of myself, but, you know, she found the people who had the expertise. And you heard Lynn mention that a few minutes ago, and she went to them and she learned. All that to say that your initial image of what you want in a mentor may change over time and probably should change over time. So getting started as a mentee. It's necessary to reflect on what you want to gain from this relationship. Spend time thinking about that. Again, like we've said in the past, spend time identifying the person with the greatest experience in the area that you want to grow in. And then once you meet that individual, express your goals and hopes to that individual. These things we can accomplish together. Number four is important. Create structure for time together, and our busy schedule is very, very difficult to do. Always as a mentee, convey appreciation. We have our daytime jobs that we are functioning in and will be evaluated in terms of promotion and pay raises and so on and so forth. So a lot of this is sort of gray area time in between the lines. So as the mentor takes time from his or her schedule to make time for the mentee, convey appreciation. Be respectful with communications. Again, we've talked some with how to communicate, email, texting, so on and so forth. I think the key piece here is timely communications and making sure that you stay in touch. And then getting back to sort of the Condoleezza Rice thing, seek out cross-professional opportunities for mentorship. All of us know that early in our critical care careers, one of the most valuable assets that we had was the staff nurse at the bedside. And he or she was our mentor and bailed us out more than once. So look across the fields. The respiratory therapists should be able to give you very good explanations on the different kinds of ventilation and so on and so forth. Take advantage of the rich resources that we have in the ICUs. The mentor, as well, should have some considerations. First of all, choose your mentees carefully. Again, this, I believe, comes from the Harvard Business Review. They suggest, during the initial meeting, actually setting up a little bit of a task for the mentee to do. So trying to adapt this to medicine, you might want to take an article and say, OK, I'll meet with you, but I want you to take a look at this article and present it to me. Just to establish if this person is really interested, whether this is just an idea in his mind or whether he or she is really interested to dig into it. And look at the way they present, the care that they take. It doesn't have to be perfect, but just that they do what you ask them to do. Second, establish a mentorship team. I mean, this would be particularly true for Vish and the people at Emory, where they have multiple hospitals across the city. It's not possible for a mentor to be in a spot, in all spots, at one time. So there needs to be some sort of reference person in these different locations as they rotate. And that should be delineated as you establish this relationship with a mentee. Second, run a tight ship. If I had to put that in one word, I'd just say accountability. Running a tight ship does not mean you run a rigid schedule. It can flex and so on and so forth. But establish accountability. It's very, very important. To be a really good mentor, too, you should be able to anticipate problems before they come. You know, I know you're going into this rotation in a particular ICU. Let me tell you about the surgeon that works there, what he likes, what he doesn't like. And so the mentee, as they go in, would be able to hopefully steer away from some of the problems that may occur. If rifts do occur, by all means, address them. And we'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. Don't commit mentorship malpractice. Be honest. The word integrity is huge. And so don't use your mentee as slave labor to gather data. You know, if he or she is working with you and the paper is published, make sure their name gets on the publication. These kinds of things. Just everyday thought. And then third, prepare for transition. There may be a point where you outgrow your relationship. You can refer them on to other people. I love what Lynn said about this society and reaching out, and it's a big society, so it's difficult to get going. As a matter of fact, Judy Jacoby told me that when I first came, she was instrumental in plugging me in and getting me going. So prepare for that transition. General expectations from both. Bilateral interactions. We talked about that paragraph with the mentee and the mentor. Mutual time of respect for qualifications. Relational clarity. No smoke and mirrors. It's all clear. The same chemistry. The last boss that I worked for at Emory, he and I couldn't have been much different. But because we had the same vision, we worked together very, very well. And I count that as one of the highlights of my career. So we had the same chemistry, but we were totally different people. Striving to understand each other and each other's interests and values. You've delineated that well in other talks. Creating an enduring relationship. And expect interpersonal fluctuations. There we go. This kind of crude little graph shows confidence over time. This is the development of confidence in the relationship. Yellow is at the beginning of the relationship where things are easy and light. In the pale blue, we'll see a problem or intervention. We see a little dip in the confidence level there because there's some frustration and anger in the fuchsia portion. And then eventually as you work through that together, confidence continues to build. Specific expectations from each of the mentors should be less benevolent sharing of information, much like mentor to the son of the king. And more bidirectional, as we've said. Use a more Socratic method to guide the mentee in the insights. And then for the mentee, be prepared for encounters. Don't just show up, but be ready and ask questions after question after question. So we all sort of quake in the face of evaluations. We all think it's much like the judge there with the gavel that's ready to come down saying you fail. But that's in a proper relationship. That doesn't happen. Again, evaluation is open with full disclosure. There's an assessment that should be analytical, but nonjudgmental. And here's the key part. Real-time feedback as much as possible. Those of you who have been trainers, you know if somebody sort of slips to the side, all of a sudden the problems become bigger and bigger where they could have been either solved or averted if you'd been given more real-time feedback. Benefits for the mentee. You see I'm getting a little short on time here. So it can help you merge into the organization. It certainly expands your ways of thinking and problem solving by the different kinds of mentors that you have. You have access to other resources. I think the big thing down here, and Vish mentioned this, we'll just skip down to engagement at work and retention and career satisfaction. I believe Vish shared, what is it, $150,000 when somebody leaves. So if we do our mentorship right, we can increase the engagement at work. We can better retain people and create greater career satisfaction. Benefit to mentors. They're exposed to new ideas, much like Sergio mentioned. The second category I want to personally highlight because as I look back on my career, I put in lots of central lines, art lines, chest tubes, intubations, had lots of fun in the ICU, but the thing that I look back on the most and appreciate the most is those relationships that I developed with my colleagues and with my mentees. That is a real treasure and gives you satisfaction. You can develop some new skills and networks, collaboration, and advancing your own goals. Benefits for the organization, again, greater productivity, and then financial savings. Talk to you about that $150,000. The benefits to the organization are huge. These are intangible things between the lines, difficult to tell the bean counters and so on and so forth, but absolutely essential. So let's finish with a summary here from Rudyard Kipling talking about the relationship between the wolf and the pack, but as we back up and look a little bit more at the 80,000 foot view, if mentoring is done right, supports and develops young professionals, encourages senior staff, and strengthens institution, which ultimately leads for better patient care. Thank you.

mentoring

diversity

conflict resolution

mentor roles

personal growth

career satisfaction