Taking Control: Managing Your Supervisor

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Taking ControlManaging Your Supervisor

• Tristram Hooley
• Senior Programme Manager

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What is Vitae?

• Realising the potential of researchers
• What we do
• Policy
• Practice
• Resources/Courses
• Evidence
• www.vitae.ac.uk

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Examples

• The Balanced Researcher
• What do PhDs do?
• Website Postgraduate Researchers
• Website Careers

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Session outline

• Who can help?
• The supervisors role
• Problems and why they occur
• The students role
• Plan for managing your supervisions
• Assertiveness Techniques for student-supervisor
  interactions
• Summary

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Who can help?
Second supervisor Postgraduate tutor Other
academics Research staff Technicians Librarians Tr
ainers Career advisors
Who else?
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SupervisorMan
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But
they are only human
Perhaps it might help if
they had a bigger brain
or a smaller ego
or extra arms
or a mini me
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Now you have the technology

• Draw your perfect supervisor. (5 minutes
  silence)
• Feel free to add genetic modifications or to
  cyborgise them.
• Dont worry about any discomfort to the
  supervisors make sure that they suit your
  needs.
• Once youve finished share it with your
  neighbour(s).

5 mins
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Your supervisor and you

• Your supervisor should usually
• ensure that you understand what is expected
• meet you regularly for a formal supervision
• give guidance about literature, training,
  research techniques and academic conventions
• provide constructive feedback on written work
• advise on courses, both specialist and concerning
  transferable skills
• advise you on where to present your work

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Your supervisor and your project

• Your supervisor should usually
• ensure that you understand what is expected
• ensure that you are aware of how your research
  fits into any research groups or projects of
  which you are part
• help you to co-ordinate the supervisory team
  responsible for your project
• give feedback on your overall progress
• help you to submit on time
• read and comment upon the whole of the final
  thesis.

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What can go wrong?

• In groups/pairs, discuss and list some of the
  problems that can occur in the student-supervisor
  relationship

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Why do things go wrong?

• In groups/pairs discuss and list some of the
  reasons why these may problems may occur.
• How does your supervisor spend his/her time?

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Follow advice

• The researcher should typically
• undertake research training as agreed
• produce written work as agreed
• comply with reporting procedures
• arrange for informal sharing of information and
  practice
• decide when to submit the thesis and ensure that
  it is submitted on time
• ensure that the thesis complies with regulations.

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Be proactive

• The researcher should typically
• take responsibility for finding out what is
  expected
• take the initiative in raising problems or
  difficulties
• help the supervisory team to ensure consistency
• discuss with the supervisory team how to make
  guidance more effective
• agree and organise a mutually convenient schedule
  of meetings

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Managing the Process
Agree a plan of supervisions
Prepare for supervision
Submit work for supervisor to read
Six monthly review of progress
Annual meeting with your thesis committee
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Managing Supervisions

• Produce a written report or piece of written work
  for each supervision.
• Prepare for each supervision, construct an agenda
  for each meeting and send it to your supervisor.
• Take notes during your supervision.
• Summarise decisions made at the end of the
  supervision.
• Send your summary to your supervisor and bring it
  to the next supervision.

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Assertiveness

• Non-assertiveness Getting pushed around by
  others.
• Assertiveness Standing up for yourself and
  getting your way some of the time.
• Aggressiveness Upsetting people in order to get
  your way this time.

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3 Step Method
Step 1 Show you listen and understand Step
2 Say what you think and feel Step 3 Say what
you want to happen
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3 Step Method
Step 1 Show you listen and understand I
understand that you are very busy and that you
have limited time. Step 2 Say what you think and
feel However, I am feeling very anxious about
whether I am going in the right direction with
this section, and without your feedback I feel
unable to progress further. Step 3 Say what you
want to happen I need you to read this outline in
the next week and tell me if there are any major
omissions, and whether the structure make sense.
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The Broken Record

• Useful in conflict situations, when refusing
  unreasonable requests, when expressing feelings
  and opinions, especially when the other person
  isnt listening.
• Speak as if you were a broken record
• Calmly but persistently make your point
• Avoid argumentative bait or irrelevant logic
• Stick to your point until you are heard

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Fogging

• Useful in deflecting criticism and/or anger in
  others and promoting calm communication.
• Acknowledge the persons feelings
• Agree with the person (without commitment)
• The person will find it harder to continue with
  the anger or criticism.

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Fogging

• Acknowledge the persons feelings
• I appreciate that this draft was not easy to
  read, and that this took you more time than you
  could afford to spend on it. It is frustrating to
  have to struggle to understand a messy first
  draft.
• Agree with the person (without commitment)
• Yes, it would have been better if I had paid more
  attention to the language. You know from my
  previous drafts that I can write better than
  this, but on this occasion I was struggling with
  the analysis of this data and that ate up time I
  would have otherwise have spent on redrafting. I
  appreciate that you took the time to look beyond
  the errors in the language.
• The person will find it harder to continue with
  the anger or criticism.

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Role play practice
Student Scenario youve been working on a
particularly challenging bit of coding for the
last few weeks. You have got quite stuck and
think that you need a bit of input in order to
make any further progress but your supervisor
seems to be avoiding you. You have emailed
reminders and got no response. You resolve to go
to see your supervisor to try and make an
appointment to discuss this later on in the week.

• Supervisors Response
• Im very busy.
• Im just off to a conference, Ill see you when
  I get back
• Im trying to get a paper written before I leave
• Why dont you leave the coding and do a bit of
  literature searching
• You really need to be more independent - work it
  out.

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Role play practice
In groups of three, take turns in taking on the
role of the supervisor, student and observer.
Student role practise using the 3 step method
and broken record to ask your supervisor for what
you need. Supervisor role try to make it
difficult for the student by focusing on how busy
you are and how difficult it will be to fulfil
the request Observer role watch the interaction
of the student and supervisor so you can provide
feedback on what you think worked well.
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If things go wrong

• Talk to your supervisor bring the problem into
  the open
• Try and analyse the situation and work out what
  is going wrong
• Gather advice from those around you
• Constructive complaining
• Know your rights

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Take home messages

• Your supervisor is only human, but usually has
  your best interest at heart.
• You need to be proactive to make the most out of
  your supervisor
• Remember your supervisor is only one source of
  help and support
• If you have problems deal with them quickly.