Mentorship

I am currently participating in the CSTE Mentorship program as well as personally mentoring a new MPH graduate that I oversee at work. I have been working on channeling our coaches and utilizing the tools they have provided, specifically, active listening, asking questions, and avoiding judgement.  I also try to think about the information I was provided (or not provided) as a new health department staff and impart this to them. My biggest challenge with being a mentor is "imposter syndrome" and feeling like I have something to offer my mentees. This is particularly challenging as I am young(ish) and new(er) in my career. 

I can understand 'imposter syndrome' and been there too!   I do think it is good for a mentee to have a mentor such as yourself new(er) in career for a few reasons, including that you may be able to look back and see your path and have ideas/suggestions for a new MPH graduate at this time. 

I think my challenge in past is making sure a project or topic aligns with my background and vice versa. I typically have had great mentor/mentee experiences with programs outside of CSTE,  but did have one through local organization. The mentee really didn't engage much because they just didn't have the time (working and going to school at the same time). I made a good effort, but eventually, we just did best we could between her schedule (available at night) and mine (little kids grumpy at night).

I would say something that has worked for me, was exposing mentee to as much as possible if they were interested.  E.g., I would bring them to join conversations around outbreaks, give them opportunity to facilitate a meeting, introduce and have them meet other program staff in Division so they can learn about broader public health work, etc. I know that was helpful for me earlier in my career and really appreciated my mentor giving me guidance and connecting me to various programs.  

The mentorship experience I had through CSTE filled a gap I had been pining for dearly -- a space to ask questions about what we're doing in public health these days without fear of political fallout. A space to have a conversation without identifying tasks and deliverables but to consider ideas and feelings (even).

Katrina  I love the reminder to expose the mentee to as much as possible. I have been cross-training my "in-house" mentee as much as possible, but should consider this for the mentees through CSTE. 

I have been lucky enough to have a lot of mentoring experiences and one way to reframe the impostor syndrome tendency is to think about the experience as more of a back-and-forth/two-way street. It's not really that important to be an expert on everything they might want to know, but we all bring different experiences to the table - just like asking for a colleague to read over a cover letter, peers can provide really valuable sounding boards. Like Elizabeth is saying, just being another voice to validate the experience that folks are having at work is something mentees can really benefit from. I have a new mentee who doesn't really have a "work buddy" they trust to talk about challenges in their workplace. I have in the past focused a lot on career advising, resume review, interview prep, cover letter skills - but that's super dependent on where the mentee is in their education/career and what their particular needs are. 

I'm joining this really, really late because I was waiting for the first meeting with my mentees under a mentoring program a couple of us just started here. I am sharing a lot of the resources from the CSTE mentoring program with the other mentors (is it plagiarism if you admit up front you stole from CSTE?). I tried to help some of the newer mentors forestall the imposter syndrome by emphasizing to the group that the mentor's role is not to have all the answers - that we're trying to collectively build a network of strengths, etc. One thing I already heard is that newer hires are acutely aware that pay bumps are nowhere near current inflation ... so I am now thinking of how to discuss other criteria of job satisfaction/professional growth with them. 
I'm wondering how others are tackling the issue of newer hires being aware of having little sense of dept leadership and culture in the postpandemic hybrid world?

Dora, I personally feel free to steal and poach at will for mentoring work! As long as it doesn't get published and we aren't taking credit for creating it, hard to see any harm there. 

I find that a lot of the folks I have mentored over the years benefit from having conversations about their working environment, the management style of their leadership, etc. For example, the fact that my current mentee's manager isn't supportive of her using work hours to participate in the mentorship program tells me something about her workplace and helps me to unravel some of what might be going on. One of my mentees last year needed help with professional comportment and I was able to help steer her in the right direction when she made some slip-ups - like consistently calling me by the wrong name - in the "safe space" of our mentorship relationship.