Nadia Spencer-A Confidence Challenge

1. What leadership characteristics does Prof. Banesh have in this case study?
2. Develop a set of discussion points to frame a possible direct conversation between Nadia and Dr. Asadi which explains to him how his negative comments and threats are impacting her.
3. How would you help graduate students understand the possible power dynamics and address the fears they may have about speaking up? How does this connect to enabling further conflict in an organization?
4. How did Nadia's self-confidence levels influence her approaches to her dilemma?

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Nadia Spencer - A Confidence Challengeby Liesl Folks, PhD, MBA and Nancy Schiller,MS

Case Scenario - Part 1

I was pretty excited when I was admitted to the PhD program in Civil Engineeringwith funding as a teaching assistant (TA), and also more than a little nervous aboutwhether I was good enough to succeed. I knew I had the support of some of theprofessors, since a couple of them had actively encouraged me to apply when I wascoming through the undergraduate program. Lots of people had recommended that Iconsider going elsewhere for graduate school, but I wasn't ready to move to a newinstitution in a new town where I'd have to start building up a support network andmaking new friends all over again. It was hard enough to do that once as an AfricanAmerican female in an engineering field! When I was accepted into the PhD program,my mom was hugely supportive and encouraged me to do it, but of course she didn'treally understand what it would entail. She was a long way away, living in the Bronx,and she had never been to college. My transition to graduate level courses wasn't toobad, and I got some good grades in that first Fall semester, which helped me to feelmore confident. But then things got difficult.During the second semester of my PhD, I was assigned to be a TA for a class taughtby Professor Asadi, a structural engineer who had first come to the USA from Iranabout 10 years ago, to do his PhD. We started discussing the possibility of me joininghis research group too, as a funded research assistant - then he would become myPhD advisor. He was often very friendly and used to take me to Starbucks for a coffeewhen he graded papers with me. But I quickly learned he behaved very differentlywhen he was unhappy with my work. Then, Prof. Asadi used to yell at me, whichmade me feel uncomfortable and quite nervous.As the semester progressed and the class work increased in complexity, I began todread my scheduled meetings with Prof. Asadi, dreading that he would yell and banghis fist on his desk yet again. Sometimes he would yell at me in his first language,

Persian, and I would assume from his tone that he was probably calling me an idiotand cursing me. I guess he knew from the expression on my face that his yelling wasmaking me anxious, as he would sometimes say things like, "I do not want to yell atyou anymore," and "I am only trying to help you become abetter researcher," and "you make lots of mistakes, but if you work harder, I won'thave to yell."I didn't really respond to these comments. I couldn't work out anything to say thatwould make the situation better, so I just kept quiet. Prof. Asadi never sat down withme and helped me correct the mistakes he felt I had made in developing the answerkeys for the class assignments. Even though I usually had arrived at the right answers,he didn't seem to like my approaches to problem solving. Instead, he would re-dothem himself, but then complain that "he had spent the whole evening fixing myerrors."By mid-semester, I was feeling increasingly unconfident because I felt that I wasclearly not capable of doing the work he would assign me. "How can I possiblycomplete a PhD research project if I can't even grade undergraduate papers properly?"I asked myself. But after he finished yelling at me, Dr. Asadi would frequently takeme to Starbucks for a coffee and say, "I believe in you, and if you work to improveyourself, you will be an excellent researcher." Then, my confidence would pick upagain, and I'd think "Maybe I can do a PhD ...". I'd start thinking again about themany research questions we'd discussed that were really interesting to me.I decided to just spend a lot more time working on the tasks he assigned to me,figuring that things would get better if I worked harder over the rest of the semester.

Case Scenario - Part 2

But then the threats started.One day Prof. Asadi startled me by saying, "If you do not improve, I'll tell Prof.Banesh that you aren't a good TA, and you will lose your funding and never become aTA again." Another time he said to me, "I will tell all my colleagues that you are aterrible TAI have to protect them from you because you will ruin the wholesemester for them." Prof. Banesh was the department chair, and she did all the TAassignments, I knew. So, I took these threats to heart if I didn't have the fundingfrom a TA position, there was no way I could continue to do my PhD!During the final week of the spring semester, Prof. Asadi came into my office andstarted yelling at me that I hadn't finished all of the work he had asked me to do; he said: "You are incompetent and will never finish your PhD." There was chalk in myoffice, and he grabbed the chalk and broke it in half with a violent action, then threwthe pieces down. Frankly, at that moment, I was scaredhe seemed so angry.Luckily, my lab-mate came into my office a few seconds later, and Dr. Asadi stoppedyelling and told me to come to his office when I got the chance. Instead of going tohis office, I started avoiding him.

Case Scenario - Part 3

I felt like a total failure. I wasn't confident that I would do well in my final exams thissemester because I had spent so much time doing Dr. Asadi's grading that I hadn'treviewed all the course materials in as much depth as I normally did. But I managedto avoid seeing Dr. Asadi in person until after I finished my own final exams.Then I packed to head home to New York for good. It was clear to me that Icouldn't succeed as a PhD student.Before I left town, I wanted to say goodbye to all the people who had helped meduring the 5 years I had been on campus. One of the department staff who had kindlyhelped me out several times, Marisa, started chatting with me (as she always took timeto do!) about my family, and what my plans were for the summer, and so on. I didn'treally have good answers this time, and she started looking at me with a quizzical lookon her face. Finally, she said to me "What on earth is going on with you?" I don'tknow how she could tell that something was wrong, but I broke down in tears thereand then.I told Marisa some of the story ... and that I was planning to leave the PhD program.Next thing I knew, she had dragged me into Prof. Banesh's office to tell her about mydecision to leave.And the rest is history.Prof. Banesh listened carefully as I explained my problems with Prof. Asadi and mydecision to leave the program. She told me that, in contrast with what Prof. Asadi hadtold me over and over, she and other senior department faculty members were verycertain that I could succeed as a PhD student. She convinced me to stay in theprogram and assured me that she would help me find another, supportive professor tobe my research advisor. She even arranged for me to have office space in a differentbuilding so that I wouldn't run into Prof. Asadi in the hallways.Epilogue: I found out later that Prof. Asadi's contract as a tenure-track facultymember did not get renewed, and he had to leave the university after the nextsemester, because of his aggressive and belittling behavior towards me and otherstudents. My department chair, Prof. Banesh, and the Associate Dean for GraduateEducation worked with me to help me get through the situation and to settle into asupportive research group that really suited my interests.I went on to become a leader within my department by serving as the president andvice president of several student clubs. Also, I became a leader in the National Societyof Black Engineers and won several awards for leadership and dedication to theorganization. I am finishing up my PhD and have already secured a great job workingat a national laboratory