November 22, 2011 | By Ellen Meader, Student Affairs Program Manager, Rackham Graduate School
Open, honest and frequent communication is key to building and maintaining a productive relationship with your faculty mentor/advisor/dissertation chair. No matter what level or stage you are in as a graduate student (i.e., master’s, doctoral pre-candidate, doctoral candidate), communication with your faculty mentor is essential for your success. Here are some points to consider to develop positive communication between you and your faculty mentor:
- Initiate a conversation early in your working relationship, and be prepared with specific questions (see next point).
- Be active, responsible, and organized: set meeting agendas, prioritize discussion issues, lead the discussions.
- Agree upon expectations and required work, and put this in a written plan (e.g., mentoring plan, individualized development plan). If your faculty mentor doesn’t write this up, then take the initiative to do this and have your faculty mentor sign off on it. Review your plan periodically and update it with your faculty mentor.
- E-mail summaries of meetings (agreements, assignments, work outlines), re-stating tasks and the division of labor to ensure you are both on the same page.
- Learn your advisor’s communication style: When does e-mail suffice? When must you meet face-to-face? Can you ever call him or her at home?
- Be persistent and patient.
Rackham has published a mentoring guide for graduate students, How to Get the Mentoring You Want: A Guide for Graduate Students.