Some laboratory heads or corporation managers like to “draw a pie” to the junior mentees or subordinates. It is definitely not a sign of healthy working culture.

It is important for both mentors and mentees to realize their expectations from each other. Yet, drawing a pie in the sky is a different thing, which only highlights the “attractive outcomes” while ignores or hides the real actions and difficuties for reaching that goal. With that said, any goal without listing precise and detailed work plan as well as potential technical difficuties is unrealistic.

Also, setting unrealistic goals will harm the trust between mentors and mentees. The more happiness and excitements you become when receive “a big pie”, the more disappointed and frustrated that both parties will feel when the goal is never going to be accomplished.

Based on my experience, mentors draw mentee a big pie:

• When the mentor does not know how to motivate the mentees.
• When the mentor is stressed out and wants to speed up every thing while fails to focus on any thing.
• When the mentor has a fuzzy idea.

On the other hand, mentees always “enjoy the pie” will never grow into fully independent researchers.

Solutions

From a perspective of mentee, I think the pie drew by mentors are usually starts from a fuzzy idea that come from nowhere. Therefore, the mentees have the responsibity to evaluate the goal instead of being blindly excited. A good solution I always do it to evaluate the goal by communicating in depth with the mentor: think hard about the detailed work plan, technical difficuties and cooperation potentials. Thinking it over will normally lead to immediate rejection to that fuzzy idea.