Career Transitions Mentorship Program (CTMP): About Mentees and Mentors

Mentee–Mentor Matching

The program’s matching algorithm uses age of clinical population and work setting. Participants in the ASHA Career Transitions Mentorship Program (CTMP) can also use profile information, including areas of mentorship and clinical specialty, to help identify potential mentors and mentees.

Requirements of Mentees and Mentors

Participants commit to regular communication with their mentee or mentor during the program. It is okay to continue communicating beyond this period if both the mentee and the mentor are agreeable. ASHA assumes that participants in the program abide by the ASHA Code of Ethics and appropriate professional codes of conduct. Mentees and mentors keep the messages that they receive—and all sensitive information—in confidence.

Mentees and mentors should expect to do all of the following things:

Spend time getting to know each other and sharing common interests, goals, and values.
Discuss expectations, decide what will be accomplished during the relationship and agree on some common procedures.
Establish a communication plan.
Set goals and objectives; develop a mentoring action plan.
Work toward the goals and objectives that you determine together.
Evaluate accomplishments and the mentoring relationship. After the formal mentorship program ends, the mentee and mentor may redefine their relationship as colleagues, peers, partners, and/or friends.

Tips for Writing Mentoring Goals

Be specific. What do you want to accomplish?
Make sure it is something you are willing to commit to. You will need to dedicate the time and effort to achieve your goal, which might include sacrifices to be successful.
Break up your goal into smaller sub-goals. Create little goals that are easy to achieve in order to make your larger goal less intimidating.
Think S.M.A.R.T. Writing a blurb for each letter:
- Specific/Significant: Describe your goal in more detail. Why is this goal important to you?
- Measurable/Meaningful: Try to write a goal that you can measure numerically.
- Achievable-Action-Oriented/Realistic-Relevant: Can you really accomplish your goal?
- Timely/Trackable: How much time will you have to put in on a regular basis to achieve this goal? When do you plan on achieving your goal?
Reward Yourself. Give yourself credit for what you are accomplishing.
Categorize your goals. Categorize your goals into areas of your life that you would like to improve.
Write them down! Write your goal down and review it daily. Think about what you could do that day to help achieve your goal.
Get your family and friends involved. Let them know what you are doing and ask for their support, motivation, and any resources they can assist you with.

Tips for Achieving Your Goals

It's important to track the progress you are making towards your goals to stay focused and motivated. There are several ways in which you can do this. Choose the method or methods that work for you.

Keep a calendar: Mark off the days in which you have made progress on your goals.
Keep a journal: Write in your journal daily about the steps you have taken toward your goals.
Keep a list: Make a list of your goals and cross them off as you accomplish them.
Use a goal chart: Chart the progress of your goals. Having it up where you can see it every day will keep you motivated to keep pushing forward.

Topics That Mentorship Pairs Might Discuss

CTMP participants will identify the topics that are important to them for a successful transition to a new professional setting. This might include administrative areas like documentation timelines and business management, professional areas like service delivery models and interprofessional practice, and clinical areas like brushing up on the latest trends in a given population.

Problems in Your Mentorship Pair?

Please contact your mentoring coaches at careertransition@asha.org if you have not heard from your mentor/mentee, if you have questions or comments about your mentoring relationship, or if you are uncomfortable with any aspect of your mentoring relationship. We will help to re-connect you with your mentor/mentee, address your questions or comments, or re-match you with a different mentor/mentee, if necessary.