Type 1: Aggressive and Negative: This is the most commonly known and most commonly found type of supervisor. They are extreme types of antagonists and mostly impolite and insensitive. They often do not think about putting mud over all your ideas and make you feel like a fool.
Type 2: The Cribber: It is another category of supervisors and their primary focus is on their troubles and they emphasise more upon moaning about their problems than anything else. Listening to their complaints with patience repeatedly is the only choice that we have.
Type 3: Non Responsive: a whole lot of PhD supervisors fall in this category of being non responsive. They would not respond to phone calls and emails and would become just inaccessible. It is always a good idea to give these types of supervisors a chance to respond and then eventually take control of your own thesis.
Type 4: Over friendly: this category is a very risky category of supervisors ad they make a whole lot of promises to you. However, unfortunately a lot of their promises are empty promises. Relying upon these types of supervisors may not reap very profitable results. Self-dependence is the key here one again.
Type 5: I know it all: These people have a narcissist approach and have a string belief that their way is the only way and the right way. They do not seem to approve or appreciate ideas and directions that do not align with their thought process. Nor do they give the liberty to the scholars to explore and take the decisions with their own experiences. Dealing with these kinds of supervisors can be actually a task.
Type 6: The indecisive: The frustration level of the students multiplies with supervisors that are indecisive; they bring in changes in the topic, methodology, interpretations every time they see the work. They hesitate and lack confidence in their decisions. Assertiveness from the end of the students would help in bringing out the advantages of a particular decision.
Type 7: The Nagging: Rarely but there are supervisors who are micro managers with their students. They would want to know every little detail about their students’ projects and so many times would initiate calls and communication after work hours. Setting the scope of your project rightly is required at this stage.
This is so true! You get to meet various types of guides. I have experienced with a nagging one at first and then my University changed my guide. I was lucky I should say as the second one was rather a good one, helped a lot and it really depends on your guide, as to how your research grows.
Good luck to all researchers with this!