finding a good supervisory match
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different supervisory styles
As a general rule the relationship you have with your respective supervisor is one of the most important ones you will have in graduate school. This is the person you will need to turn to for feedback on your work, advice about jobs, and future career. It is worth making sure you have the right supervisory match.
The following four supervisory styles might help you narrow down the person that would be the best fit for you ...
A pastoral supervisor might be really emotionally encouraging but someone who does not provide a lot of guidance around timelines or expectations.
A contractual supervisor would be someone who would provide a lot of personal mentoring and specific guidelines around expectations.
A laissez-faire supervisor would essentially leave you to your own devices, neither giving you a lot of mentorship or guidance in your work.
A directorial supervisor would give you a lot of guidance around structure in your work, but without a lot of warmth or mentorship outside the work.
To figure out which supervisor style might be best for you, we encourage you to reflect on your learner needs.
You might like to ask yourself the following questions:
How important is it for me to connect to my advisor/supervisor on a personal level (i.e., for us to know each other as people) rather than simply at a professional level?
Would I rather work on my own (i.e., decide myself what I do, how, and when to accomplish an objective) or meet with my advisor/supervisor frequently and receive detailed instructions on how to accomplish my goals?
One important thing to remember is that none of the styles is necessarily better than others.
Another important thing to remember is that it is quite likely that your needs won’t be the same at the beginning, mid-way, and toward the end of your doctoral journey and you might benefit from different styles (most advisors/supervisors will automatically adjust the level and kind of support they provide as you make progress in the program). For example, early on in your program you might appreciate detailed instructions or frequent checking in with your advisor/supervisor, while later on in your program you might appreciate a higher level of independence in your work.
In an ideal case, you should be able to talk to your advisor/supervisor about significant changes in your needs and figure out a way to address them.
You can visit Supervision Guidelines for Faculty – Section 3: Supervisory Styles – School of Graduate Studies for more information.
Here is an example of someone assessing which style might be best for them.
You'll note that based on the needs and desires they identified, a contractual supervisor would be their best choice followed by pastoral. If they were with a laissez-faire or directorial supervisor, they would likely come up against some challenges because very little of their needs would be met.
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