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For Graduate Schools, HR & faculty boards

Academic Leadership: training for supervisors and mentors

Good leadership in academia is not self-evident. The workload is high, the focus is often strongly on content, and research groups are increasingly international and diverse. A supervisor guides a PhD candidate in a relationship that lasts for years, in a role that balances between coach, manager and professional sounding board. Meerkat for Universities offers two training lines that help to master that role.
The entrance question differs per university: Sometimes the conversation starts at the Graduate School, sometimes at HR or at a faculty board that wants to strengthen the quality of supervision. Both training sessions below can be used separately from each other.
meerkat effective leadership teaser

Training for PhD supervisors

We see supervisorship as a relational leadership process. The quality of PhD supervision depends not only on professional expertise, but especially on the quality of the working relationship. How to create a psychologically safe environment, coach with impact, give critical reviews in a constructive, appreciative way?

The training combines classroom training days with intervision, and covers, among other things:

  • Coaching & Communication — Basic Skills, Role Differences and Power Dynamics in the Academic Context
  • Psychological safety — In asymmetrical relationships and within small research teams
  • Well-being, stress & conflict management — Recognising overload and pressure to perform, managing conflict patterns
  • Responsible & inclusive guidance — Dealing consciously with diverse, international PhD populations
  • Self-knowledge & personal leadership — Learning to understand one’s own behaviour and impact on others

We work experientially: With the well-validated Birkman method, real-life simulations with professional training actors, dilemma constellations and case histories that supervisors themselves bring in.

For professors and (co-)supervisors who supervise PhD candidates.

elvira loibl
We really enjoyed the PhD supervision training. It created a very open and engaging space to reflect on our own supervision practices and to exchange experiences with colleagues. We particularly liked the session with the actor, where we could practise different communication styles in realistic supervision situations. This made the training very concrete and helped us think more consciously about how we approach conversations with PhD candidates. We left with useful insights and practical tools that we can directly apply in our supervision.
Elvira Loibl, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Criminal Law and Criminology, Maastricht University

Training for PhD mentors

In addition to the formal supervisor, the mentor is often the person a PhD candidate can turn to with questions that are not directly related to the research. This training strengthens mentoring skills with a strong focus on asking questions instead of immediately advising, so that PhD candidates themselves become stronger.

The program consists of two core sessions of half a day, with an optional third session and optional intervision:

  • Session 1
    Fundamentals: emotional dynamics, building trust, asking questions versus advising, structuring a conversation, cultural dynamics
  • Session 2
    Practicing with an actor:     authentic flexibility, working with mentors’ own cases, practicing with varying intensities
  • Optional session 3
    Deepening:     empowering the PhD candidate in complex supervision dynamics, the 6- and 36-month interviews, dealing with unrealistic expectations and perfectionism
For groups of 6–8 mentors.
meerkat OW8A1830

Do you want to
strengthen the quality
of supervision and mentoring
within your faculty?

We are happy to think along with you about which training — or combination — suits you best.
Plan a meeting