Last-minute help
These days I’ve been meeting with students preparing for final presentations and asking for last-minute feedback before their papers are due. This kind of support can be tricky in that the students don’t really have time to make big changes. They may be coming to me for a confidence boost more than anything else. So what should I do when I think their work has some fundamental challenges? How should mentors approach meetings like this?
These meetings have been a regular feature throughout my career. The person who finds out they have to teach at the last minute and meets with me the day before? At that point I need to do everything I can to help them make the most of what they have already prepared. I can’t dash their confidence. But I can say, let’s do this for now and then once you get through the first few sessions let’s meet again to make a longer-term plan.
As I wrote about last week, most projects, whether you are teaching a course, giving a big talk, or writing a dissertation, require sustained effort over time. And ideally that means regular feedback over time. But of course that doesn’t always happen.
I’ve talked a lot about feedback and mentoring in previous posts. It's such an important and complicated topic. Remember, there are three main types of feedback: appreciation, coaching, and evaluation. It is important to try to figure out what students most need at a given time. Last-minute help is obviously not the time for evaluation, but a mix of coaching and appreciation is usually the most helpful. After I met one client and gave some strategic suggestions on her plan for her presentation, she said, but my topic is interesting, right? It was clear that in addition to coaching, she also wanted some appreciation. Her topic is really interesting, but in my rush to try to give her a few key ideas that would really help, I hadn’t given her any appreciation. I was glad she asked.
So here’s the approach: I try to think about 2-3 things that would make a difference in the quality of the work that are doable in the time frame. It’s never a good idea to overwhelm someone with super-detailed feedback all at once. Being able to identify a few key categories for them to work on can be much more helpful and manageable. Appreciation is an important component. If there are larger issues that can’t be fixed before the deadline, think about how those can be addressed later, if the deadline isn’t flexible. What will it take to get them over the finish line? In the end, only the scholar can decide how they will approach their work, and at least for teaching and presenting, how you feel and how confident you are is a big part of your success. You have to believe in yourself to stand in front of a group and run the room.
Do you need some last-minute support to finish a project? Are you looking to get or give more thoughtful feedback? I am here.
