mentoring graduate students and post-docs

Mentoring Graduate Students and Post-Docs

Tony Nunez and Julius Jackson

The Graduate School

November 3 2009

The Graduate SchoolMichigan State University 2007

Double Bind


Sunny Skies


Implicit Expectations

Implicit Expectations: Not stated and rarely understood.

• “What didn’t you understand about what I didn’t tell you?”


Explicit Expectations

Explicit Expectations:

• Clearly Stated

• Checked for understanding

• Unilaterally or jointly set


Window of “Negotiable” Expectations

ExplicitJoint

Unilat eral


Implicit

Power Differential and Unilateral Decisions

• If your intention is to make a unilateral decision, make this clear from the outset.

• Negotiation is not manipulation.

First Steps:

• Agreement about the context and previously set expectations.

• Identify the “issue” as a question that needs to be answer.

Strategies

• Positional Strategy • Interest-based Strategy


Positional Approach

A position is a claim that one makes as the best (or only)answer to a pressing question (issue) .

• “As PI, I will be first-author of any publication from the lab based on a Masters thesis”


A

A What I Want

BWhat I Want

Position

The Positional Approach for Setting Expectations

ISSUE

Position

BC

CompromiseThe Graduate SchoolMichigan State University 2007

Interest-based Approach


Interests are needs that must be satisfied and values that must be preserved when searching for answers to a pressing question (issue).

•Self-esteem•Good working relationships•Research excellence•Funding

A

The Interest-Based ApproachIssue

1234

Interests Options

B

567

ABCDEFG


The Interest-Based Approach

Issue

1234

ABCD

Interests Options

Evaluation

EFG

567

A

CA

AA

C

DC

DD

FFD F

FFF


CONTEXT

ISSUE

DECISION

INTERESTS

OPTIONS

Interest-based setting of expectations

mentoring graduate students and post-docs

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