New Mentoring Resources
Ujima Donalson, Executive Director
On April 18, I had the distinct pleasure of listening to five UW leaders talk about mentoring and their career paths in front of more than 200 UW employees at the annual Support Professionals Spring Retreat hosted by POD. Meanwhile, a live-stream of the panel presentation was being viewed on more than 40 devices, and the video has been watched hundreds of times since. The feedback we’ve received has been tremendous, and I credit panelists Ann Anderson, Christina Chang, Nicki McCraw, Linda Nelson, and Gene Woodard for their honesty and openness. It’s not often we get to experience such esteemed leaders talking about their journeys—missteps and all—and sharing insights about the successes they’ve had along the way.
In conjunction with this panel, which was moderated by Vice President of Human Resources Mindy Kornberg and sponsored by UWHR, POD launched new mentoring tools and resources on our website. These efforts are part of a larger UWHR strategy to bolster retention, foster engagement, and enhance workplace culture across the University.
New Online Resources
The new Mentoring tools and resources webpage includes an overview of mentoring, an "Is being mentored for you?" decision tree, and two downloadable PDFs, as well as the mentoring panel video.
- Quick Reference: For UW employees acting as a mentor or hoping to become one, this guide provides tips and strategies for identifying a mentee and ensuring a productive partnership with a mentee.
- Mentoring Toolkit: The toolkit provides tips, checklists, and worksheets to guide UW employees through every step of the process, from self-discovery to mentor selection and ensuring success in a mentoring relationship.
We’ve continued to promote these new resources through the UW Insider and other channels, and I’d like to ask that you make sure your team is aware of them. In addition, I hope you’ll take the time to watch the mentoring panel video and encourage your staff to do the same.
About the Panel
During the 90-minute presentation, panelists responded to pre-arranged questions about their career paths to and through the UW and discussed how informal and formal mentoring helped them along the way. They also spoke about their own strategies for mentoring others and answered questions from the live audience, as well as via email from those live-streaming the presentation.
The infographic below summarizes participation and higlights participants' overwhelmingly positive response to the mentoring panel.
