Navigating

Your First Lane

Every institution has its own systems, lingo, and cultural norms. Some of these expectations are explicit, while others are implicit. The MGH Institute occupies an unusual niche as a graduate school affiliated with a health care system, so experience at other universities or hospitals may not prepare you adequately for succeeding in our environment. In this lane, your goal is to make a smooth transition to the faculty role and to serve the Institute in an impactful way.

Faculty Forms and Templates

HR Forms on Ask My HR

Forms such as staff/faculty recruitment, tuition remission/reimbursement, training & workforce development and performance evaluation can be found on Mass General Brigham's internal HR system, Ask My HR. Log in required.

Faculty Handbook

Find information such as application for rank, benefits, leave of absence policies and faculty bylaws.

Faculty Mentor

Even for experienced educators, navigating the specialized mission of the Institute with its acronyms and systems requires a patient guide. All newly arrived faculty members are assigned an onboarding mentor to facilitate their smooth transition to the Institute. Mentors have agreed to serve as a neutral source of support for the first year of a faculty member’s tenure.

What is a Mentor?

A mentor helps advance a mentee’s professional development by socializing them to the norms of the institution and guiding them to scholarly and teaching productivity.

Being a mentor goes beyond the role of supervisor, with whom the mentee may not feel comfortable admitting vulnerabilities. Being a mentor also goes beyond the role of colleague in that the mentor gives candid feedback and facilitates opportunities for the mentee’s career progression.

For new faculty at the IHP, mentors are asked to serve for at least one year. Meeting frequency depends on each dyad, though they should check-in with each other at least once a semester.

Career SupportPsychosocial Support

MentorHighHigh

SponsorHighLow

FriendLowHigh

AllyLowLow

What are the responsibilities of the mentor?

Mentors should help smooth the transition of the new faculty member to the IHP and establish a solid foundation for success in teaching and research. Responsibilities include:

Point mentee to available resources and make connections with colleagues
Establish open communication and offer emotional support where needed
Listen actively and do not feel you have to provide all the answers.
Make the relationship mutually beneficial by learning from mentee or pursuing collaborations
Familiarize yourself with the criteria for promotion and the GPS document
Tailor your mentoring style to the needs and interests of the mentee

What are the responsibilities of the mentee?

A productive mentoring relationship should be a two-way conversation. Mentees are responsible for:

Taking an honest self-assessment to define career goals
Initiating contact and scheduling meetings with the mentor
Arriving at mentoring sessions prepared and with an agenda
Following through on mentor’s suggestions
Developing a mentoring network that includes a range of supporters
Saying, “Thank you” to mentors

How do we get off to a productive start?

Before meeting for the first time, a mentor should read the mentee’s CV, and the mentee should conduct an honest self-assessment. In the initial meeting, the two should identify the areas where the mentee needs the most support. You should also agree on pragmatics such as preferred means of communication, frequency of meeting, and means of accountability. Some mentor/mentee pairs sign a written contract attesting to the terms of the relationship.

What if things don't go well?

Ideally, the mentoring relationship will provide mutual benefits. Still, conflicts may arise over inconsistent communication, questions of authorship, or lack of chemistry. Where possible, it’s a good idea to preempt these issues early in the relationship with an explicit conversation about expectations.

You can also devote a mentoring conversation midway through the year to checking the temperature of the relationship. If problems persist, the Office of the Provost will hold periodic meetings with all the mentors where the collective experience of the group might suggest a solution. A final option would be to speak with the mentee’s department chair or assistant dean about ways you can work together to make the relationship more productive.

Milestones

New faculty orientation follows the Guiding Professional Success (GPS) document, helping new arrivals navigate the Institute and learn the expectations for their scholarship, teaching, and service. GPS identifies several milestones that can help structure interactions between mentor and mentee:

First weeks: Schedule face-to-face meeting to introduce yourselves and discuss getting acclimated to the Institute.
First semester: Check-in periodically to ensure an equitable balance between teaching, scholarship, and service.
Mid-year: Debrief about the semester and celebrate successes.
Second semester: Begin to develop a long-term plan for promotion.
End of first year: Assess whether the relationship should continue next year and who else might support the mentee’s professional development.

Two woman holding a replica of a knee while looking at a patients knee

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

As individuals, we can seek to identify and mitigate how our unacknowledged biases, power, and privilege may negatively impact other people.The JEDI office serves as a resource for faculty to learn about how they can contribute to anti-oppression.

woman in scrubs speaks to man in lab coat and woman in black blazer

Interprofessionalism

A defining characteristic of the Institute is its interprofessional focus. Students from different professions learn from, about, and with each other so that the first time they have to work together is not in the practice setting.

Navigating the IHP