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), you should be proud of yourself! We definitely are!
The role of a PI brings exciting opportunities for making substantial contributions to advancing your field. You now have the ability to enhance your scientific outcomes, build a team of exceptional researchers, and make an even more tangible impact, one with your unique spin to it.
And with this new role comes responsibility, as famously said by Spiderman’s Uncle:
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
As a PI, you will encounter various new responsibilities, such as:
- Responsibility and accountability for the success of your research group.
- The need to secure sufficient funding to support your research endeavors.
- The task of finding competent and capable team members to collaborate with.
- Overseeing multiple projects instead of focusing on a single one.
- Balancing teaching assignments and other academic service.
- Taking on the responsibility of mentoring and supporting other individuals.
- Navigating the complex landscape of academic “politics.”
This list could go on, but let’s stop here.
Additionally, when transitioning to a new institution, you will need to familiarize yourself with its administrative processes, comply with various rules, policies, and regulations, and understand how the institution functions, ideally how the money flows.
Really, get clear on the money part! I, Stefanie, made some mistakes as a new PI that cost me the equivalent of a postdoc salary for several years. All because I was successful in getting grants early on and didn’t fully understand budgets.
Through our interactions with clients at GLIA-Leadership, we have identified common stumbling blocks.
Problems and challenges faced by both new and seasoned PIs including myself:
- Uncertainty about how to step into their new role without all of a sudden doing several jobs.
- Difficulties in recruiting the right team members and setting them up for success, especially when they are not as skilled as they first seemed.
- Insufficient support from their institution or lack of resources, in some cases even roadblocks thrown into people’s way by their own leadership.
- Experiencing recurring breakdowns in research and maintenance processes, without apparent reasons.
- Feeling overwhelmed by the complexity and increased responsibilities of being a PI.
- Falling into unhealthy behaviors and, in some cases, experiencing burnout due to excessive workload.
In this blog post a couple of weeks ago we also wrote about the mistakes Stefanie made when she started her lab in 2016.
We do not intend to discourage you.
Many PIs before you have developed themselves in this role. Yet, frankly with varying degrees of success at different stages of their career. We all know this person who would be an even more effective leader if they checked their ego at the door. And that doesn’t necessarily have to have affected you directly. I experienced several folks throughout my career who are fantastic in one role, for example as a mentor to their team. But in other roles, e.g. relationships with collaborators–not very effective. Or they are great with people on their team who are just like them. But they are not so effective in leading team members with dramatically different workstyles and get frustrated or worse.
Remember, the toxic academic culture that is talked about? There is a reason for that, actually several. We discussed them in previous blog posts (Why nothing changes & How we change the system). There is the prevailing academic culture and the system of course.
There also is the factor of YOU and your skill to lead in different contexts.
In the microcosmos of your own team, you are the biggest determining factor of your team culture and performance.
Yet, you’ve had significantly less leadership, management, and mentoring training than training in your research discipline. That’s okay. Your technical skills got you here. But they alone won’t make you a great leader and mentor.
It would be dishonest to claim that I can give you a “5-Step process to fix all your current and future challenges as PI”. There are lots of these threads out there because it’s a compelling promise: Do these few things and live will be good!
Let’s bust some common myths on the topic:
- ‘I have great leader attributes’. Believe me, I am with you on that one. You wouldn’t believe the number of personality tests that I took that nicely fed my ego because they told me that I have what it takes to be a great leader.
- But there is no such thing as a born leader or manager. There are people who naturally present with larger confidence than others. But that’s not necessarily good leadership.
- Anybody has the capacity to learn effective leadership and management. It is comparable to learning a new language: first, you must learn the vocabulary (leadership and management methods and techniques), then train speaking (leadership and management strategies), and finally, immerse yourself in continuous practice.
- ‘I have good intentions to be a great mentor and strong values.’ That absolutely is the best starting point! But it’s not enough. I learned that the hard way.
- Unfortunately, we soak up leadership behaviors, mostly unconsciously from key people in our lives. That can put you ahead in the game of learning to be a good leader or disadvantage you. Either way, all of us have to undo patterns that are not effective.
- The question is not what you do when things go well. The question is how you respond when the rug gets pulled out from under you. Do you direct your emotions toward other people then? Or do you stuff them down, which also isn’t healthy? Can you manage a volatile situation and not stew on it for days? Those are just a couple of things I am still learning to handle better. That means I learned the vocabulary (leadership and coaching tools). But I can’t always remember the correct words when I am in a stressful situation. Implementation takes practice and feedback from experts.
- ‘Do these 10 steps to turn yourself into a great leader.’ I like optimists and consider myself to be one. But it is not only unrealistic but also dangerous to buy into the idea that you turn yourself into a fantastic leader overnight.
- Leadership is a practice and it’s one that can be a lot of fun. It’s a journey of self-discovery and a journey of learning about human behavior and potential.
- It also is about implementing systems that reduce your workload and stress. And that simply doesn’t happen quickly.
Leaders who approach their role with “intentional leadership”, rather than simply leading through their default behaviors, are more likely to succeed in their endeavors.
Okay, I said 3 times now that there isn’t a simple 5-step process. But there are a set of fundamental principles for smoothly launching and running your research team, which we will cover in our next blog post because this one is getting lengthy.
Stay tuned for practical guidance and strategies that will empower you on your journey as a successful principal investigator.
Stefanie