Scientific managers nowadays have a whole range of tasks and challenges in every workweek. Most fall under two categories: project management and people management. While those two areas are complex and at times tricky to truly master, there are skills that every scientific manager either should have from the beginning or should be developing over the course of a couple of years. The seven most effective skills that I have seen in amazing scientific managers can be divided into how to treat oneself, how to behave in your communication towards others and into how to make it all sustainable.
How to treat yourself
I. Manage yourself first of all
II. Understand yourself so that you can understand others
III. Have a growth mindset
How to communicate towards others
IV. Be a great listener and value feedback
V. Master a repertoire of leadership styles
VI. Be an inspiring presenter
How to make it all sustainable
VII. Develop your resilience
We will talk about these skills in more depth over the course of three separate blog articles. The first one is about skills that have to do with how you manage and treat yourself.
How to treat yourself
I. Manage yourself first of all
II. Understand yourself so that you can understand others
III. Have a growth mindset
How to communicate towards others
IV. Be a great listener and value feedback
V. Master a repertoire of leadership styles
VI. Be an inspiring presenter
How to make it all sustainable
VII. Develop your resilience
We will talk about these skills in more depth over the course of three separate blog articles. The first one is about skills that have to do with how you manage and treat yourself.
How to treat yourself
I. Manage yourself first of all
The idea of self management often gets grouped together with time management, which in our modern day work culture is very often interpreted as “How do I do more work in less time so that I can look more productive and reduce the pressure that I feel from above a little bit?”. The problem about that approach to self-management is that it rarely works in the long run. Managing yourself is all about identifying your goals and then finding the next steps that bring you closer to them. It is about prioritizing the options that are in front of you so that you can maximize your impact and minimize wasted time during your day. It is the ability to say “No.” probably more often than you let yourself say "Yes." to a request. For only when you say "Yes." to a challenge in front of you with a clear conviction that it is the right thing to do, and that it will bring you closer to your goals, you will take accountability for that task and you will see it through, no matter what.
- Do you personally have a vision for your life, your professional career and for your current projects?
- Do you have a “Why?"
- Do you know what it is that motivates you at your core, and what makes you tackle challenges and overcome problems?
II. Understand yourself so that you can understand others
When working as a project manager in the field of scientific research and development, you will undoubtedly need to have a strong understanding of the science and technology involved. It will help you gain trust and respect of those involved. It will also give you more confidence in speaking up, raising concerns and asking for clarification. It will let you understand that two scientists arguing over findings or competing to get results might mean the difference between getting funded or struggling financially and worrying about your career.
Scientific research is about inquiry, discoveries and drawing connections between the dots. Therefore, it should be obvious that feeling inquisitive towards yourself, being curious about how you function and what makes you tick is a skill that makes a difference for a scientific manager. Nevertheless, we often tend to forget the introspection and discovery of our own strengths, and we tend to assume that it's all about the project, the goals, or the funding, and that we as human beings in that system are not as important. The truth is, a person who does not understand himself or herself is rarely able to truly understand other human beings. And to understand other human beings, so that you can you can see where they are needed and what intentions and values they bring to your project is a highly important skill.
Do you have a space or a regular time in which you can practice introspection? If you don’t you might want to establish one. Maybe it is a coach with whom you take regular supervision sessions, maybe it is a group of peers that can support you in that. Maybe it is a mentor that you find for yourself or a regular practice of introspection by yourself. Whatever works for you, ensure that your understanding of yourself, your own needs, your own quirks, and your own strengths grows over time, for it will help you with both your people management and your project management.
Scientific research is about inquiry, discoveries and drawing connections between the dots. Therefore, it should be obvious that feeling inquisitive towards yourself, being curious about how you function and what makes you tick is a skill that makes a difference for a scientific manager. Nevertheless, we often tend to forget the introspection and discovery of our own strengths, and we tend to assume that it's all about the project, the goals, or the funding, and that we as human beings in that system are not as important. The truth is, a person who does not understand himself or herself is rarely able to truly understand other human beings. And to understand other human beings, so that you can you can see where they are needed and what intentions and values they bring to your project is a highly important skill.
Do you have a space or a regular time in which you can practice introspection? If you don’t you might want to establish one. Maybe it is a coach with whom you take regular supervision sessions, maybe it is a group of peers that can support you in that. Maybe it is a mentor that you find for yourself or a regular practice of introspection by yourself. Whatever works for you, ensure that your understanding of yourself, your own needs, your own quirks, and your own strengths grows over time, for it will help you with both your people management and your project management.
III. Have a growth mindset
The growth mindset is a term that got coined by Carol Dweck. It distinguishes the way of how effective people think from the way an ineffective person thinks in a certain situation. The latter, called the static mindset, is what lets you look at a problem in front of you and mainly see the obstacle. The static mindset makes you see the failure that your work has been. Or, even worse, the failure that you yourself feel like for not having been able to prevent the problem in front of you. It doesn't empower us to overcome those problems, but rather numbs us and makes us feel in need of help.
The growth mindset, on the other hand, is what lets you look at a problem and see the challenge. It stimulates you to keep thinking about what it truly is that you are witnessing and how the best solution for the situation can be found. The growth mindset lets you be curious about what it is that you will find. If an approach to the problem turns out to not quite work, it will inspire you to keep looking rather than to declare defeat and feel helpless.
While your initial reaction to that description might be "Oh well, then I am completely about the growth mindset!", you might find that you, as much as everybody else, have certain areas where you have a tendency towards a growth mindset, and other areas where you tend to have a static mindset.
A coach or a mentor can also be of great help when it comes to challenging you about moving out of static mindsets and making yourself aware that it is time for a growth mindset in a certain area of your life or of your project once again.
The growth mindset, on the other hand, is what lets you look at a problem and see the challenge. It stimulates you to keep thinking about what it truly is that you are witnessing and how the best solution for the situation can be found. The growth mindset lets you be curious about what it is that you will find. If an approach to the problem turns out to not quite work, it will inspire you to keep looking rather than to declare defeat and feel helpless.
While your initial reaction to that description might be "Oh well, then I am completely about the growth mindset!", you might find that you, as much as everybody else, have certain areas where you have a tendency towards a growth mindset, and other areas where you tend to have a static mindset.
- Maybe you are great at listening to people and you are constantly curious about how to get better at that. But you might have a different attitude and mindset when it comes to “leadership”, whatever that means for you.
- Maybe you are curious and inquisitive about numbers, but you don't think of yourself as a skilled writer of funding proposals. Question yourself and you will learn more and more about all the different areas that you can get better in.
A coach or a mentor can also be of great help when it comes to challenging you about moving out of static mindsets and making yourself aware that it is time for a growth mindset in a certain area of your life or of your project once again.
Next week, we will look at the skills that help Scientific Managers to effectively deal and communicate with others. In the meantime, go and check out www.ScientificManagers.net, it’s a treasure trove of resources for leaders just like you.
RSS Feed
