Managing Upward

Join us for this two-hour interactive workshop externally facilitated by Dragonfly Mental Health (https://dragonflymentalhealth.org).

Supervisors want their students to succeed. Unfortunately, many supervisors have been submerged in the overworking culture of academia which dismisses mental health and wellness as a priority. Therefore, their perception of what it takes to succeed in academia is likely biased toward working non-stop and without boundaries, and they might expect or encourage their students to do the same. These expectations may not be explicitly stated but are evident in the way a supervisor works with their students. Fortunately, graduate students can take meaningful steps to care for their own mental health and wellness by “managing upward”.

Managing upward refers to creating a good and productive working relationship with your supervisor, to your mutual benefit. In business, this term is often used when discussing how to be a better employee. In academia, managing upward is a skill that graduate students can apply in their relationship with their supervisor, to support their health and wellness while maintaining a good supervisory relationship.

This workshop is based on the principles laid out by Dr Christiane Whitehouse in her 2020 blog post for Voices of Academia. Co-developed with Dragonfly Mental Health, this workshop delivers immediately usable skills that can be applied to improve communication and expectations between graduate students and their supervisors.

What it Includes:

2-hour workshop giving an overview of:

• The importance of the supervisor/PGR student relationship for mental health in academia
• Common supervisor/PGR student relationship issues (i.e. micromanaging vs absentee advisor)
• Setting expectations and boundaries
• Managing upward skills including establishing reasonable timelines, optimizing time spent with supervisor, renegotiating agreements when things change, mutual accountability
• What to do when communication fails

There will also be a catered networking lunch with other PGR students and Research Institute and Doctoral School staff.

To register your attendance please visit https://managingupward.eventbrite.co.uk.