Mentoring has long been a cornerstone of academic life. Yet in today's complex, diverse and rapidly changing university environment, traditional approaches centring on the transfer of advice are no longer enough.
In Superior Mentoring, organisational psychologist Mark Douglas re-thinks the mentoring of academics by integrating the structured, insight-driven practices of executive coaching with the experience-based guidance of senior scholars. The result is a practical and intellectually grounded approach termed Academic Navigation - a model that balances thoughtful questioning with carefully considered advice.
At the centre of this approach is the ORGaNISE framework, a clear and adaptable structure that guides mentoring conversations from goal-setting through to action and implementation. Supported by powerful, open-ended questioning techniques, this model helps mentees develop clarity, take ownership of their decisions, and create realistic plans for their academic careers.
Drawing on decades of experience working with research leaders and institutions, Mark also explores how mentoring systems can be designed, implemented and extended - both within universities and through external partnerships.
This concise and highly practical booklet offers a fresh perspective for academics, research leaders and institutions seeking to strengthen mentoring capability and better support career development in higher education.
Douglas, Mark: - Mark Douglas, BA DipApPsych, DipT, FCOP, is an organisational psychologist who established Ethos in 1991 in Adelaide, Australia. As a consulting organisational psychologist, facilitator and coach, Mark has worked extensively across a wide range of industry sectors, including higher education, government agencies, the private sector, and not-for-profit sectors. His career has combined leadership development, work team improvement, strategic planning, governance, mediation, and executive coaching.Mark established Envisage Academic Mentoring in 2018, incorporating an online approach to mentoring, bringing together the principles of executive coaching with the traditional approach to the mentoring of academics. Mark is the owner and primary facilitator of the Ethos Research Leaders Forum, a five-day program run over five months for current leaders in higher education. This program has been running continuously since its inception in 2008. The Ethos Research Leaders Forum is currently the most enduring higher education leadership course operating in Australia. The Essence of Research Leadership, a two-and-a-half-day in-house program for early-career researchers and mid-career researchers (www.ethos.com.au), has been running since 2015. Over 1000 research leaders in Australia have benefited from the Ethos approach to training research and academic leaders across these two programs.Mark also presents the podcast, the Ethos Forum Podcast, an exploration of academic and research leadership (https: // soundcloud.com/ethosforumpodcast). Mark is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide and a Fellow of the College of Organisational Psychologists in Australia.
