Lilly Mentee Programme
Congratulations on Completing your resilience training for Mentees
Mentorship: Where Your Potential Meets Experience
Resilience is your capacity to
Prepare for
Overcome
Recover
from Challenge
in whatever format it takes
Your Mentor has the wisdom and experience of your organisation to help light the path
it is your job to walk the path
A guide for being a successful mentee
Introduction:
Embarking on a journey within the pharmaceutical sector is both exhilarating and demanding. As a high-value newcomer, you are joining an industry at the forefront of innovation and change. This handbook aims to guide you in harnessing the full potential of your mentorship experience.
1. Embracing the Opportunity:
Mentorship is a two-way street:
Active Engagement: Take the initiative. Ask questions, seek guidance, and be proactive.
Open-mindedness: Be receptive to insights, advice, and feedback.
Share Your Vision: Communicate your aspirations and areas you wish to explore or improve.
2. Building Trust:
A meaningful mentor-mentee relationship thrives on trust.
Honesty: Be transparent about your expectations, challenges, and progress.
Respect Confidentiality: Keep discussions with your mentor private.
Value Time: Respect the schedules by being punctual and prepared for meetings.
3. Setting Clear Expectations:
Your mentorship will be most effective when expectations are transparent.
Define Goals: Outline what you aim to achieve both in the short and long term.
Feedback Preference: Discuss how you best receive feedback – whether you prefer direct critique, more frequent check-ins, or guided self-assessment.
Regular Check-ins: Agree on a consistent meeting frequency that suits both.
4. Active Listening:
Push the button
Your mentor offers a wealth of knowledge. Absorb it.
Listen Intently: Seek to understand, not just hear.
Be Curious: your mentor will respond to curiousity
Ask Clarifying Questions: Ensure you grasp concepts or guidance provided.
Reflect: Regularly ponder on discussions and how they align with your goals.
5. Navigating Challenges:
The pharmaceutical landscape can be intricate.
Seek Guidance: Approach your mentor with challenges you face.
Problem-solving: Before seeking answers, attempt to derive solutions independently, using your mentor as a sounding board.
Embrace Failure: Mistakes are learning opportunities. Discuss them openly with your mentor.
6. Personal and Professional Development:
The industry is vast and constantly evolving.
Continuous Learning: Based on your interests and gaps, attend workshops, courses, and seminars recommended by your mentor.
Networking: Use your mentor's connections as a springboard. Attend industry events and seminars.
Skill Mapping: Regularly discuss and identify areas of improvement, targeting them with actionable plans.
7. Recognizing and Celebrating Growth:
Your journey is about progress, not just the destination.
Track Achievements: Document milestones, no matter how small.
Seek Feedback: Actively request and use feedback to refine your strategies.
Acknowledge Your Mentor: Recognize the role your mentor plays in your growth.
Conclusion:
Your mentorship journey is a precious phase of immersion and growth within the pharmaceutical sector. By actively engaging, setting clear goals, and building a robust relationship with your mentor, you set the stage for a fulfilling and successful career.
Note: This handbook serves as a foundation for your mentorship experience. However, it's essential to tailor your journey based on personal aspirations, challenges, and the evolving dynamics of the mentor-mentee relationship.
People (Mentees) with a lot of natural talent(strong arms) often become self reliant and don’t reach out for help
Smart people get help from the right people at the right time
Lesson 1: Use Mentors and support whereever available
4 Lessons from the performance curve
1) Constant pressure tends to cause a decrease in performance because of the accumulation of cortisol
2) The secret to increasing performance on the right hand side of the curve is to reduce pressure
3) The greatest source of pressure is the pressure we put on ourselves
4) Increasing our capacity means we need to learn techniques for decreasing pressure
Lindsay Vonn talks about why high performers fail at the Olympics
Lindsay Vonn shows how taking care of herself and rituals can help exceptional performance
Self care is the fastest way to start building your resilience
“Putting the priority back on myself” to win gold- Lindsay Vonn
Dr Mike Evans shows just how easy it is to do High value recovery
Resilience and the Mentee training Programme
A Guide for developing Resilience
Introduction:
Congratulations on completing your Resilience for Mentees programme in Lilly! This industry is both challenging and rewarding. Resilience isn't just about enduring challenges but thriving amidst them. This guide will guide you in fortifying your resilience and managing stress as you progress.
1. Understanding Resilience:
Resilience is your ability to bounce back from adversities and adapt in a positive manner to challenges. It involves building your capacity to overcome and recover from the challenges of working and living in a high demand world.
2. Key Components of Resilience:
a. Self-awareness: Recognize your feelings and triggers. Self observation is the key skill that improves self awareness
b. Self-regulation: Manage your reactions to stressors. Relaxation and meditation techniques (See section below) are the
key skills for down regulation 0f the activation we experience as stress and pressure
c. Optimism: Keep a hopeful outlook. Problems are just looking for solutions. Our thoughts and beliefs are
crucial to solution focus.
d. Problem-solving: Develop strategies to tackle challenges effectively. Effective problem solving is a function of the prefrontal cortex
meaning anything that reduces cortisol improves capacity for more effective problem solving. Exercise burns
up cortisol and relaxation reduces its production
e. Social Support: Feeling connected into the world you live in
3. Stress Management Techniques:
a. Relaxation and Meditation: Focusing on the present moment can ease feelings of anxiety. Evidence based relaxation techniques
reduce the human stress response. These techniques also improve the quality of sleep
b. Physical Activity: Engaging in regular exercise can diminish stress hormones and elevate mood and improve sleep.
c. Sleep Hygiene: Prioritizing good quality sleep is vital for cognitive functions and mood balance.
4. Building Resilient Mindsets:
a. Reframe Challenges: See challenges as growth opportunities.
b. Stay Connected: Nurture supportive relationships with peers and mentors.
c. Set Realistic Expectations: Understand that errors are part of the learning curve.
5. Practical Resilience-building Activities:
a. Journaling: Writing about your experiences can provide clarity and a space for reflection. Journaling stimulates the prefrontal cortex.
b. Gratitude Practice: Regularly focusing on the positive aspects of your life can change your perspective.
c. Simple Breathing: Focused abdominal breathing exercises can help regulate immediate stress reactions. Long slow exhalation
is the key to regulating the stress response
6. Seeking Support:
Always remember that seeking guidance is a sign of strength. Smart people know where to get good help fast. Use your mentors, talk to peers. Vulnerability once seen as a weakness is now seen as a leadership trait.
Peer Support: Engage with fellow graduate trainees. Shared experiences often provide solace.
Professional Support: If feelings become too overwhelming, consider seeking professional counseling or therapy.
Conclusion:
Resilience is a quality that can be nurtured and developed. Embrace each challenge, prioritize your well-being, and understand that every experience, be it positive or negative, contributes to your professional growth in this dynamic industry.
Note: This handbook is meant to provide a foundational overview. As you continue your journey, it's crucial to explore and find the resilience and stress management techniques that resonate with you personally.
4 Relaxation/Meditation techniques
These techniques have been proven to reduce cortisol production, improves quality of sleep, improve energy production (mitochondria) and have peen proven to reduce gene expression for oxidative stress (aging) and inflammation. Relaxation and meditation is at the core of fast high value recovery.
We recommend you try all 4 tracks and practice the one you prefer or gives you the most benefit 3/4 times per week
The first track is Progressive Muscular Relaxation (PMR) and is useful for improving sleep and reducing fatigue and muscular tension. Try and lie down to get the full experience
The second track and the most popular is Autogenic Meditation developed in Germany by two doctors who showed this technique is especially good for digestive disorders, migraine, improves sleep and reduces cortisol
The third track is a sound meditation that was developed with a sound designer to bring you on a sensory/auditory journey that many find very relaxing. For best results use a speaker and listen to the sound with your whole body and not just your ears.
The final technique is visualisation which found popularity after many high performing sports people began utilising the benefits for performance and recovery in the 1970’s. Visualisation is very powerful in helping people recover from certain diseases
Thinking Skills
As discussed from the training how we think can be a source of great pressure pushing us to the right hand side of the performance curve
Below we have a thought’s questionaire to give some insight in any negative thinking patterns you may have
Just push the button
Dr Mike Evans gives some great insights into how we think and the impact of thinking styles
Thinking and behaviour
are very closely linked
Tim Urbane gives a humorous insight into one of the biggest factors that inhibits behaviour change
SLEEP
Sleep is an essential component of a high perfroming brain
Sleep onset insomnia and early waking insomnia usually happen when we are overly active when going to bed
Practicing a relaxation technique (PMR or Autogenics ) when you go to bed will help
as well as practicing some simple sleep hygiene
Resilient Leadership section
Future Leaders need Resilience to thrive in a high performing environment
Self reflection and self awareness are essential components of a progressive leader
Understanding you own vulnerability is the starting point for self awareness
and reaching out for the support and mentorship which will progresses your career
Brene Brown gives insight as to why vulnerability is a leadership trait
Motivation to Change
Daniel Pink tells us some surprising truths about what motivates us
Inspiration and Connection
Jill Bolte Taylor gives one of the most inspirational speeches in the History of TED Talks using Genuineness and Authenticity and showing how deep connection is a fundamental process for humans
I have included this talk because it is a great example of making the impossible possible. Evelyn Glennie is a deaf percussionist who got accepted into the london school of music demonstrating how challenge + motivation = possibility. She was told she would never be a precussionist. SHe adapted and became the first Deaf person to be accepted into the prestigious school of music
I hope you find these supports both meaningful and inspirational. I hope it provides the insight to approach the mentoring in a way that inspires both you and your mentors and please if you have any questions and/or queries please send them to me ray@resilienceinternational.com
and please remember “Work is too important for us all not to enjoy it”
I have included my linkedin profile below if you wish to connect
Mobile: 0868387136
email: ray@resilienceinternational.com
Ray