Life Cycle of Mentoring Relationships

From the first steps of matching with your mentor to the final stages of independence and your own career success, your mentoring experience will probably move through the cycles of most senior/junior or master/protégé relationships: tentativeness, eagerness to please, identification with the mentor, dependence, a "second nature" comfort in communication with the mentor, and finally, independence.21 We cannot state more clearly than as stated in the VCU Mentoring Guide,22 “It is during the first four stages of tentativeness, eagerness to please, mentor identification and dependence that both mentor and mentee need to be cautious. Since the two of you are not equals, the potential for exploitation on either side is present.” 23 As the Mentoring Manual from VCU warns, “both parties need to guard against over-dependence on the mentor. While this may be flattering for the mentor and comfortable for the mentee, it does nothing to promote growth for either. Over identification with your mentor may lead you to adopt less than desirable traits, or at least traits that do not mesh with your own lifestyle (such as sitting on so many committees that you have no time to spend on personal interests).”21

Mentoring Partnership Life Cycle Diagram 24

RESOURCE: Tasks and Goals At Different Stages of a Faculty Career in Academic Medicine

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