From Mentee to Sponsor: Redefining Your Role in the Academic Ecosystem
Ripples on the water surface.
I help mid-career researchers develop sustainable, impactful research programs designed for the next phase of their careers. Click here to find out more.
You no longer need to look up for validation; it is time to look down and pull others up. True mid-career power lies in shifting from a passive mentee to an active institutional sponsor.
Our theme of the last couple of weeks has been about taking back control during mid-career. This week, we’re extending those discussions and diving into how to maximize your influence. I know this seems hard to believe given your “middle-child” status, but trust me, it’s there, and your junior colleagues and graduate students are waiting for you to exercise it.
The Difference Between Mentorship and Sponsorship:
We’ve covered the difference between mentorship and sponsorship before. But this discussion isn’t about you finding a sponsor; it's about you becoming ONE!
As you recenter your research program, you also need to build a network of current and future collaborators who share your values and sense of possibility. But this won’t happen without some effort on your part. If you want change, you need people around you to help make it happen.
Sponsorship in action:
Sponsorship can take many forms. If this is new to you, here are a few ideas to get started. The first is a lower-stakes option, but as you practice and gain confidence, I promise you can make it to #3.
1. Ask junior colleagues and graduate students what’s working (or not). We’ve all heard the comment, “Well, that’s how it’s always been,” after someone asks why. But dismissing these questions, and the underlying observations, trains junior colleagues and students that their perspective isn’t valuable and change is not on the table. If you want improvements, you need to ask for ideas.
2. Be ready to demonstrate the change process. I know this takes time and energy that you don’t feel like you have. But as a sponsor, the action itself matters. Making this time shows your junior colleagues and graduate students that you trust their ideas and are invested in their success.
3. Use your tenure. If point 2 felt like extra work, this one might feel dangerous. I get it. But I’m not talking about externally facing actions that will get you flagged on social media. I mean more actively calling out actions and behaviors in your own departments, schools, colleges, and institutions that don’t reflect your values. When you don’t speak up about these things, you reinforce a system that serves no one.
Shaping Departmental Dynamics:
In health care, there is a term “clinical inertia,” which is the observation that certain patient care practices persist in part because we’re in the habit of doing them. This is despite changing data and standards. They are our routine.
I feel like academia is like this too. I’ve had so many conversations with faculty across schools, colleges, and institutions where we’ve lamented the same issues, but little has seemingly changed institutionally. I used to believe that having institutional influence was the key to springboarding these changes (think top-down change management). I now understand that while this is possible, it is not practical.
I now believe that a more sustainable model for change is working bottom-up by changing your immediate surroundings. Creating a culture with your colleagues and graduate students where new ideas are welcome and considered, where you make the time to walk people through the change process, and where you can discuss deviations from your stated values in ways that ensure you learn and improve.
I’ve felt the benefits of creating these micro-environments for myself. I now believe that the ripples created by my own micro-environment will ripple out and give other people the permission they need to do the same for themselves. And you know how overlapping ripples work 😜. So, are you ready to create your own ripple?
(Words: 627)
Not sure what you need? Complete this 3-minute survey to see if I can help.