Criteria for distinction
It is great to know persons who support your learning journey with regard to your job and your career.
They may do so in different ways.
💭 There are four criteria for distinction:
- Role: Why does that person have that support role?
- Who sets goals and is ultimately responsible for their attainment?
- Which competencies do they need to perform their role well?
- How do they support you?
Typology
| Leadership | Mentoring | Coaching | Sponsoring |
| Role = position | Role = self-chosen | Role = job | Role = self-chosen |
| Goal definition and responsibility: with the leader | Goal definition and responsibility: with mentee | Goal definition and responsibility: with coachee | Goal definition and responsibility: with sponsor (perceived protégé’s goals) |
| Competences: Technical, methodological, communicative | Competences: empathic listening, self-critical, self-reflected | Competences: Methods regarding processes of learning and consultation | Competences: power and influence |
| Support: instruction, control, delegation | Support: experience, access to own networks | Support: questions, structuring | Support: door opening Condition: protégé supports sponsor’s vision |
So that means:
💡 A PI, PhD supervisor or your boss is not a mentor.
Mentor and mentee should not be in a relationship of dependence.
Photo: Unsplash
