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Why don’t they tell Postdocs this Stuff? – Secrets to a Successful Science Career

Posted by , on 10 December 2013

Some scientists would say that postdoctoral fellows have the most desirable position in the lab. As a postdoc, you have the research experience from your PhD to give you credibility at the bench. You have the independence to run your own project and supervise students, but without the time commitments and administrative duties of a principal investigator. In addition to publishing papers, you can develop your writing by contributing to fellowship and grant proposals and maybe pen a review. These are all types of professional development opportunities that are critical to building your future career. The postdoc is, in essence, a hands-on apprenticeship to curate the next generation of scientific leaders.  But the degree of professional development for the unspoken things, so called “soft skills” that are key to running a successful lab beyond the research bit, is limited.

How do you learn these secrets? In some cases, maybe your supervisor gives you tips. Maybe you read some of the many management books like “At the Helm” or “Lab Dynamics: Management and Leadership Skills for Scientists”. But what if you still have little idea how to hire, manage, motivate, and inspire people to work with you? When faced with the next step beyond postdoc – running your own lab, whether in academia or industry – what can you do to prepare yourself?

Being a group leader may not come with an instruction manual, but training is available if you know where to look for it. For years the EMBO has been offering lab management courses for group leaders and postdocs. These courses are extremely popular – more than half of the 2014 sessions are already booked. The goal of the workshops is to improve confidence in management skills that may be overlooked in standard science career development. As an 2010 EMBO Fellow, I was able to secure a last-minute spot, and last November I spent three days secluded in a hotel outside of Heidelberg sharing ideas with other postdocs also looking to learn tips to make them better future group leaders.

One of the most surprising aspects of the course was the intensity. Spending long hours talking about interpersonal relationships is draining for anyone, especially in a room full of near strangers. At the beginning of the workshop, we learned about ways of communicating and how this plays a role in managing our interactions with our colleagues. Whether you are a graduate student or the director of an institute, how you speak to someone reflects your message and intentions. It also can garner different reactions depending on how it comes across to the listener. We practiced effective ways to address colleagues to garner the best results. (Note: if you turn your nose up at role-playing scenarios and group work, then be prepared to be out of your comfort zone during lab management training!) Communication is at the heart of everything when it comes to being a leader and a manager. This theme held true throughout the rest of the course and is one of the main take-aways.

Another characteristic of an effective scientist (and definitely one for running a successful team of researchers) is good time management. This skill is hardly a secret, and one that we can all improve for ourselves; but group leaders also have to face time management issues and problem solving for others in their labs! How do you handle that and still accomplish what you need to get done? At the workshop, we called this “who’s got the monkey?” When faced with the constant knock at the office door, successful managers help their team members solve their own problems, not by taking the problems onto themselves. The trick is making sure that the “monkey” stays with its original owner and giving the owner the necessary tools to “take care of it.” In other words, if you are going to run a productive lab, you can’t solve every problem yourself – you don’t have time! You must trust and support those who work for you to help move your lab forward.

Finally, and for me the most revealing part of the workshop, was the evaluation and discussion of personality types and how this contributes to management style. Maybe some scientists would dismiss this type of information as trivial, like taking a magazine quiz. But it is crucial to recognize that our inherent differences as individuals does play a role in our science and how we could run our lab. There are factors to consider in how we respond to stress, treat other people, and what our expectations are in professional relationships. Learning that I tend towards the “Helper” personality was eye-opening, both in terms of what I do really well and what I can do better. On a good day, I see the best in those around me and can help them to develop their potential. On a bad day, I tend to be defensive and manipulative. Knowing about ourselves, and who our allies can be in dealing with complicated situations, make us better managers. Knowing about other personalities that exist in the lab also makes us more effective in our interactions with each other. This is a critical point to building a team that enjoys not only doing research, but also working together with one another.

The steps it takes to secure an independent position from a postdoc are daunting. Developing the soft skills to run your lab shouldn’t be intimidating, and learning from management and team-building experts can help.

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