Faculty mentoring in practice
Faculty mentoring takes many forms, reflecting the diverse strengths and goals of faculty and their units. Here, we highlight mentoring approaches, models and resources that support faculty growth and connection across tenure‑initiating units (TIUs), colleges and campuses.
Grounded in Ohio State’s Guiding Principles for Faculty Mentoring, these frameworks are intentionally flexible and adaptable. Together, they reflect mentoring along a continuum — from formal to informal, individual to collective — offering options that units and colleges can select, combine and tailor to align with their missions, values and disciplinary cultures.
This page is designed to help Ohio State’s academic community:
- Understand how faculty mentoring can be structured
- Explore how mentoring takes shape in practice
- Access tools that support reflection, planning and implementation
Mentoring approaches
Ways mentoring is structured
Faculty mentoring at Ohio State takes multiple forms, reflecting the varied goals, responsibilities and career stages of faculty. Some mentoring relationships are highly structured and institutionally supported, while others develop organically through connection and shared experience. Most faculty rely on a mix of mentoring approaches, selecting what best supports their professional growth, well‑being and sense of belonging. The approaches below are flexible and complementary.
How mentoring takes shape in practice
The mentoring models below highlight the flexible, diverse ways faculty can engage in mentoring, which support varied styles and needs, shared learning and professional growth.
They reflect flexible approaches — formal and informal, individual and collective — that support mutual learning, reciprocity and meaningful professional development. While not exhaustive, these models offer practical options that TIUs and colleges can adapt to strengthen their own mentoring cultures.
For Mentors
Exploring Your Mentoring Strengths & Needs as a Mentor
This Mentoring Needs Assessment is designed to support you as you reflect on your readiness, aspirations, and needs as you engage in faculty mentoring. Think of this as a welcoming space to explore what you hope mentoring others can look like for you and how it can enrich your professional journey. You can also use these prompts to guide meaningful, open, and empowering mentoring conversations.
Reflecting on Your Interest in Mentoring
What draws you to mentoring, and how does serving as a mentor enrich and strengthen your work as a faculty member?
Understanding Your Readiness and Capacity
How prepared and willing are you to share your experiences, insights, and feedback with others?
Identifying the Focus of Your Mentoring Needs
Considering Potential Barriers and Supports
What obstacles might affect your mentoring, and what support would help you succeed?
Envisioning the Impact of Mentoring on Your Career Path
How can mentoring others help you move toward your goals and strengthen the career you aspire to build?
Which areas of your work would benefit from additional guidance, encouragement, or support as you develop your skills in mentoring other faculty?
Clarifying the Structure of Support
What types of mentoring relationships—formal, informal, peer‑based, or collaborative—best support your lifestyle, approach, personality, or skillset?
Articulating What You Bring to the Mentoring Relationship
What strengths, knowledge, expertise, or experiences do you have that would enrich and strengthen the careers of your faculty colleagues?
For Mentees
Exploring Your Mentoring Strengths and Needs as a Mentee
his Mentoring Needs Assessment is designed to support you as you reflect on your readiness, aspirations, and needs as you engage in faculty mentoring. Think of this as a welcoming space to explore what you hope being mentored by a colleague looks like for you and how it could enrich your professional journey. You can also use these prompts to guide meaningful, open, and empowering mentoring conversations.
Reflecting on Your Interest in Mentoring
What do I hope to gain or learn from a mentoring experience at this stage of my career?
Identifying Your Mentoring Goals
What are my most important professional goals right now?
Which areas would I most like mentoring support in?
Clarifying the Type of Mentoring You Seek
What kinds of perspectives or experiences would be most helpful to me?
Am I open to mentoring relationships beyond my department, college, campus, or institution?
Considering Structure and Engagement
What kind of mentoring model or approach would best suit my style and needs?
- One-on-one mentoring
- Peer mentoring
- Mentoring pods or small groups
- Informal mentoring
Reflecting on My Role as a Mentee
How comfortable am I seeking feedback and guidance?
How open am I to reflecting on feedback and acting upon it?
How will I take an active role in shaping my mentoring experience?
Considering Potential Barriers and Supports
What challenges might affect my mentoring engagement, and what support would help me succeed?
Envisioning the Impact of Mentoring on Your Career Path
How will I know if a mentoring experience has been valuable?
How might mentoring shape my future growth or next career stage?
Formal mentoring
Formal mentoring involves institution‑supported relationships with assigned mentors, clear expectations and defined goals. These relationships often focus on onboarding, promotion and tenure, and role clarity.
Formal mentoring is especially effective for:
- Clarifying institutional expectations and processes
- Supporting key career transitions
- Providing consistency and transparency
Informal mentoring
Informal mentoring is unstructured and relationship‑driven, oftentimes emerging through collegial interaction, shared work and mutual support. Faculty at Ohio State consistently identify informal mentoring as one of the most meaningful and impactful sources of guidance.
Informal mentoring supports:
- Trust and belonging
- Candid advice and emotional support
- Practical professional guidance
Hybrid mentoring
Hybrid mentoring blends structure and flexibility, offering clarity while allowing relationships to develop naturally. These approaches, including peer and team mentoring, often emphasize research collaboration, leadership development, community building or shared learning.
External mentoring
External mentoring includes mentoring relationships outside a faculty member’s TIU or the university, often through disciplinary networks, professional associations, collaborative research or national programs.
External mentoring can provide:
- Broader disciplinary perspectives
- Field‑specific expertise
- Neutral, confidential guidance
These relationships extend and enrich internal mentoring by strengthening professional networks and offering particularly meaningful support for faculty seeking specialized or targeted guidance aligned with their work, goals and aspirations.
Ways mentoring takes shape in practice
The mentoring models below highlight the flexible, diverse ways faculty can engage in mentoring—that support varied styles and needs, shared learning and professional growth. While not exhaustive, these models offer practical options that TIUs and colleges can adapt to strengthen their own mentoring cultures.
They reflect flexible approaches—formal and informal, individual and collective—that support mutual learning, reciprocity and meaningful professional development. While not exhaustive, these models offer practical options that TIUs and colleges can adapt to strengthen their own mentoring cultures.
Mentoring models
Mentoring Pods
Small, structured groups that bring together senior and early‑career faculty for guidance, clarity about expectations (including promotion and tenure) and peer connection.
- Clarify expectations (especially P&T)
- Share departmental norms and culture
- Build belonging and reduce isolation
- Offer consistent support and accountability
Career Circles
Peer mentoring groups consist of five to seven early‑ to mid‑career faculty who work together over time, with senior faculty rotating in to provide guidance on advancement, role clarity and community building.
- Support progress toward tenured professor
- Clarify departmental, college, regional campus, and university expectations
- Provide structured career planning
- Reduce mid‑career stagnation
Communities of Practice
Role‑based peer learning communities where faculty with shared responsibilities exchange expertise and strengthen collaboration.
- Course or practice observations
- Teaching innovation swaps
- Promotion rubric walk‑throughs
- Peer troubleshooting (e.g., workload balance, recognition)
Constellation Mentoring
Personalized mentoring networks that faculty tailor to their own professional goals and needs.
- Research mentor
- Teaching mentor
- Culture or politics guide
- Funding or grants mentor
- External mentors or emeriti mentors
One‑to‑One Mentoring
Formal or informal individual mentoring relationships that offer personalized feedback and confidential guidance.
Panels
Multi-voice, conversational sessions in which faculty share perspectives and answer questions on specific topics to demystify career pathways and normalize shared faculty experiences.
- Personalized guidance
- Confidential conversations
- Deep support for research, teaching, or career direction
Workshops
Skill-building or knowledge-sharing sessions led by faculty experts or senior mentors on topics of expertise.
- Grant writing
- Research impact
- Teaching innovation
- Leading a lab
- Community engagement
- Navigating promotion processes
Committees as Mentoring Spaces
Service committees serve as mentoring opportunities, offering learning and guidance through shared work, increased visibility and deeper understanding of institutional norms.
- Help faculty understand expectations and norms
- Build visibility and networks
- Provide mentoring through shared work and observation
Micro‑Mentoring Moments
Often informal, these brief, targeted interactions offer timely clarity or guidance in response to specific needs.
- Provide quick clarity on a focused topic
- Offer an immediate, actionable takeaway
- Support timely guidance without requiring a full workshop or meeting
Examples:
- Clarifying a P&T criterion
- Explaining annual review expectations
- Navigating departmental culture or politics
- Reviewing a grant paragraph
- Offering a teaching or practice tip
- Giving fast guidance on workload alignment
- Suggesting the next person or office to contact
Mentoring Resources
Ohio State Mentoring Initiative
The Ohio State Graduate School’s Ohio State Mentoring Initiative offers resources to strengthen mentoring relationships and support professional development for faculty mentors, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and mentees. Resources include mentoring training through Ohio State programs, online learning opportunities, evidence-based mentoring guides, mentor-mentee agreement templates and structured tools for setting expectations, communication and goals. Additional resources feature national mentoring organizations, STEMM mentorship training, career development materials and publications by mentoring scholar Beronda Montgomery. The initiative also provides dedicated toolkits for mentors and mentees, helping participants build productive, inclusive and supportive mentoring partnerships across the university.