I have individual meetings with my team members once a month and typically include summer students. When I asked the student about her project, I noticed she couldn’t quite articulate it. I had delegated supervising the student, let’s call her Terra, to a postdoc in my lab. I asked the postdoc, Anna, to join our…
In last week’s blog, I discussed the challenges you face as a new PI. These do not only apply to new PIs BTW. They are problems that many faculty face if they haven’t shifted gears. This week, we will share seven fundamental principles that will help you navigate your faculty role. Research informs us that…
You are an excellent researcher. Otherwise you wouldn’t have been given a lot of money, space, and the opportunity to lead a research program. And for having done whatever it took to get you here (likely a lot of research with a lot of trial and error and failure, a lot of persistence and resilience),…
In our previous blog post, we addressed the systemic issues afflicting academia, ranging from subjectivity and bias in merit evaluations to overemphasis on competition and narrow focus on metrics, to the disregard for teaching and service. This week, we delve into a series of countermeasures that could facilitate the transformation of the academic landscape. We…
The realm of academia, once held in high esteem as a fortress of knowledge and intellectual growth, finds itself grappling with a pressing issue—the pervasive mental health crisis and toxic culture that now permeate its hallowed halls. A growing number of faculty and students are finding the courage to speak out about the mounting levels…
It’s interesting how often we hear people talk about success and its celebration. Don’t get me wrong, celebrating achievements is important and beneficial. However, today I want to shift the focus to mistakes and why we need to celebrate them. When a significant mistake occurs, it’s common for the blame game to commence. We’ve all…
I don’t know about you but I spent the first part of this year deep in grant writing mode. The grant is resubmitted and I emerged – after a few days of relaxing and recharging – ready to return to my passion for teaching leadership. The weeks leading up to a grant deadline are a…
If you ask me for one easy thing that you can implement now to empower your team members, I’d say: Don’t give career advice. Maybe that is surprising because our mentees certainly ask for it. And why not provide what they ask for, right? In other words, why not give them the solution they are looking…
A while ago, I sat down with influence coach Lacy Schoen to talk about influence in academia and how to use it to advance our careers. You can listen to the podcast episode here. Lacy and I had been working on building my influencing skills to advance a mission that is dear to my heart, namely creating…
Happy New Year, Team Leader! May it be a productive, successful, but most of all fulfilling, and joyful 2021. May we be able to hang out with our teams again without having to worry about a pandemic. One of the most frequently asked questions that I receive is: What are your systems and strategies to keep…