Mentorship

Giorgia Quadrato’s Mentorship Philosophy

I believe that what distinguishes a mentor from a supervisor is the care and effort that she/he puts into the career growth and development of the trainee. The work of a supervisor is done when the training is finished, but a real mentor is for life. Connection and support are maintained in the next career stages!

People are different, and I believe that our job as mentors is not to create a photocopy of ourselves, but rather to help our trainees find their own paths and reach their own goals.

Identification and appreciation of individual strengths and areas of growth are key for crafting an effective career development plan. I put a lot of effort in trying to understand everyone on the team, and I deal with them in different ways to build on their strengths and work on their weaknesses. I also encourage honest discussion of personal and long-term career goals from the very beginning of the mentor-mentee relationship, as this helps me formulate an effective and individualized training plan.

I believe that the lab should be a nurturing environment that helps the trainees flourish and thrive as both human beings and as scientists. I try to foster a sense of compassion, connection and community between lab members by scheduling social activities and time to rest and play together.

I try to lead by example. For me, accountability is very important, so I do my best to be reliable and punctual. When I make mistakes, I acknowledge them, and I try to make amends to foster an environment of mutual trust and respect.

About every two months, I schedule a lab meeting in which everyone has to present failed experiments and discuss experimental problems. I do this because I want to reinforce the value of vulnerability, and I want to create a safe environment in which trainees feel that it is acceptable and very normal to make mistakes and fail.

I make sure to discuss and communicate clearly to my trainees expectations, priorities and timelines regarding the execution of projects. My experience is that this approach takes pressure off of the trainees and helps them plan a clear strategy and path forward to successfully develop their projects.

Finally, helping the trainees identify and choose the right project is critical for their success. Taking inspiration from the great piece written on this topic by Uri Alon1, I always encourage them to think about the feasibility of the project and to understand how passionate they really are about pursuing that scientific question. In my experience, self-motivation and sense of ownership is maximized if the project is of great interest and if it is challenging enough to be neither too easy, nor too complicated.

 

Uri Alon1, Molecular Cell 2009, “How to chose a good scientific problem”.