Small Talk with Myself How to become a good PhD supervisor (Part I - The What, the Why, and the Who)
Mar 12, 2026
A concise guide to what good PhD supervision involves and why it matters. Short profiles of five supervisor styles and their strengths and risks. Tips for choosing students wisely and interview questions that reveal resilience, fit, and work habits. A quick self-survey to spot your supervision style and advice on balancing adaptation with consistent expectations.
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Know Your Why Before You Supervise
- Supervisors must first clarify what they want and why before acting as supervisors.
- Zuduo Zheng ties this to Habit 1: knowing purpose shapes supervision style and intentional improvement.
Five Common Supervision Archetypes
- Supervision styles cluster into five archetypes: broker, manager, collaborator, ghost, and weather forecaster.
- Each has strengths and risks; collaborator yields rigor, broker opens doors, ghost and weather create biggest student harm.
Graduation Dinner Shows The Ghost Supervisor Problem
- Zuduo Zheng shares a story of a graduand whose supervisor didn't recognize them at a dinner, illustrating the 'ghost' supervisor problem.
- The tale shows absence can be mistaken for invisibility and harms student recognition.