By Scott L. Friedman, MD
I suspect that the career of every health professional reading this column was shaped in some way by an unforgettable individual you met during training, a person who influenced your career choice, practice style, or approach to learning – a mentor. The importance of role models and mentors – who guide, support and lead by example – cannot be overstated in medical careers. I was blessed with wonderful role models, beginning with Dr. Fenton Schaffner, my medical school advisor and especially Dr. Monty Bissell, my laboratory mentor at UCSF. It has been noted that ‘great mentors create great mentors,’ and Monty in turn credits Dr. Rudi Schmid with much of his mentoring style and success. Thus, my career, like many in hepatology, reflects a legacy of mentoring that dates back to the early days of our specialty.
Mentoring is one of my personal passions. I read about it regularly and highly recommend several useful resources listed at the bottom of this column. I have tried hard to define my personal principles of mentoring which include the following ten priorities:
1) Always make clear to trainees through word and deed that they are a top priority. To underscore this principle, I always provide feedback on manuscripts or presentations within 24 hours, and I try to remain accessible to trainees, without requiring them to make appointments.
2) Emphasize your lifelong commitment to trainees regardless of their current career choice or institution. Trainees receive a “lifetime contract” of my advice and input. I continue to advise former trainees years after they have left the institution, including several who are now full professors.
3) Expect laboratory trainees to think on their own, pose challenging questions, and seek their own solutions, before asking for help.
4) Insist that the work environment remain open and fully collaborative, making clear that “there are no solo artists.” Data, ideas, and problems must be shared and collective solutions are encouraged.
5) Require trainees to finish what they start and remain focused.
6) Encourage individuals to seek expertise and collaboration wherever these are available, rather than being resistant to assimilating new methods.
7) Teach young investigators to follow the data wherever it leads and not narrowly define themselves in terms of their current interests or expertise, while remaining focused on their underlying question.
8) Convince trainees that writing and presenting one’s work are essential career skills that require constant practice. Each year I give a lecture to our trainees entitled, “How to give a talk,” emphasizing the basic principles of presentation, through both negative and positive examples.
9) Remain cognizant that the ultimate currencies of success in academic medicine are papers and grants, and thus work that is neither published nor funded will rarely achieve sufficient recognition.
10) Help trainees to recognize that tenacity and persistence are vital in overcoming obstacles and are among the most important determinants of success.
Elaborating on the final principle, I think it’s especially important to help trainees to accept rejection and frustration as part of the process. Those who remain focused on achieving success with their papers, grants, and studies are more likely to be rewarded eventually. I often cite my own many rejections of papers and grants, some of which were ultimately felt to be important, as examples of how one must ‘take the long view’ to succeed in biomedical research. In fact, the review of my first NIH grant submission in 1986, proposing to study the newly isolated hepatic stellate cell, included the following statement: “The major weaknesses of this application…cast doubt on the validity of any data obtained and may impair Dr. Friedman’s ability to compete for research funding as an independent investigator.”
The AASLD also promotes a culture of mentoring. Each year we sponsor a terrific Career Development Workshop at our Annual Meeting, and we co-sponsor the Academic Skills Workshop jointly with AGA. All our committees include trainee members, and our most precious programs are our grants for trainees and junior faculty. We sponsor travel awards for medical and pediatric residents to attend our Annual Meeting. We also recognize excellence in mentoring with our Distinguished Educator or Clinician Award at our Annual Meeting. This year’s recipient will be Dr. Laurie Blendis, a wonderful exemplar of a physician-teacher. Similarly, AASLD sponsors annual awards for outstanding adult and pediatric fellow and student presentations. Finally, we make every effort at our Scientific Program Committee meetings to highlight rising leaders in their fields by inviting them to chair oral presentation sessions at both DDW and our Annual Meeting each fall.
AASLD will continue to seek every opportunity to foster mentoring. Our new Strategic Plan http://www.aasld.org/about/who/Pages/AASLDStrategicMap.aspx) includes several key objectives that promote this vital activity. We will also begin listing mentoring resources on our website. If you have additional ideas about other useful resources, please send me an email (Scott.Friedman@mssm.edu). I encourage you to think about how mentors have influenced your life and to pass on this important legacy to the next generation.
Recommended Mentoring Resources:
Lee A, Dennis C, Campbell C. Nature’s guide for mentors. Nature 447: 791-797, 2007.
Pfund C, Pribbenow CM, Branchaw J, Lauffer SM, Handelsman J. The merits of training mentors, Science 311: 473-474, 2006. (www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/311/5760/473)
Howard Hughes Medical Institute website for laboratory management resources: http://www.hhmi.org/resources/scientists.html
Neumayer L. Clinical research. Am J Surg 192:264-266, 2006
Sapienza AM. Managing scientists – leadership strategies in scientific research. Wiley-Liss Publishers, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2004.
Haynes L, Adams SL, Boss JM. Mentoring and networking: how to make it work. Nature Immunology 9:3-5, 2008.
This electronic newsletter is a bi-weekly publication of AASLD and replaces the former bi-monthly print newsletter and weekly e-news. Members are welcome to submit articles and may send suggestions to atracy@aasld.org