Kindling the fire: The power of mentorship

Abstract

A mind is a fire to be kindled, not a vessel to be filled. —Plutarch Mentorship may be conceptualized as a deliberate, effortful relationship characterized by mutual growth and shared altruism with a primary goal of the personal and professional development of the mentee.1 This tradition is longstanding (in Homer’s epic poem, Mentor was the guide of Odysseus’ son), and Hippocrates begins his oath not with discussion of patient care but on the profundity of mentorship (“I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow”).2,3 Mentoring relationships have the power to be singularly transformative: to create conditions ripe not only for career success but, more importantly, for the highest degrees of self-actualization. Thoughtful discussion of the nature, qualities, and best practices of mentorship is instructive in...