Livre d'Or

I had an awesome supervisor. I seriously wouldn't have made it without her. Here follows an assortment of good stuff she did and other good things:

* get your PhD student to write things up as she goes along, ideally for publication. This makes thesis writing less of a giant burden as quite often you can repurpose half-written papers as chapters. Also if any of it does get published that will be extra confidence and CV points for her.
* be enthusiastic. I don't just mean provide praise and encouragement, but every so often have a big joyous chat about how exciting and inspiring your field is and all the places your/her research could go. When bogged down in details of research it's easy to fail to see the wood for the trees.
* encourage her to have a life. PhDs are hard work and if she can find some fun and a support network that will help endlessly.
* she will probably take longer than she has funding for, most people seem to. Find out now about what options are there, then in two years' time you can say useful things like "you should sign up with this society now, and then if you need money next year they'll give you a grant".
* keep tabs on how she's progressing; make meetings frequent and low-stress and let her ask you questions as often as she likes. Don't be afraid to call her out if she's being crap - but be adult, constructive and supportive about it.
* keep her in the loop, and especially let her know when you're e.g. off on holiday/to a conference. There's nothing worse than feeling like your boss has forgotten you!
* encourage her not to get a job until she's written up; when you're supposed to be writing up, pretty much anything looks more attractive, and a job will probably mean it never happens...