How to make it all sustainable
In this three-part series, we are looking at the skills that distinguish good Scientific Managers from amazing ones. While the first two parts were about the attitude and communication towards yourself and towards others. This time, it is about your ability to cope with and recover from periods of stress and how you can develop that in yourself.
VII. Build your own resilience
The term resilience comes from the material sciences and denotes the ability of a metal to spring back into its original form after it has been deformed. Hence, a spring has a high resilience, because it is able to go back to its original shape after it has been compressed. A piece of wire, on the other hand, does not have a high resilience. Once deformed, it will stay that way.
We all encounter stress, high-pressure situations and intense deadlines. That stress, if not kept in check, can lead us down the cycle of a burnout if we do not know how to handle it well. The ability of being able to recuperate after periods of high stress is what resilience refers to when it comes to human beings. It can be broken up into different aspects:
We all encounter stress, high-pressure situations and intense deadlines. That stress, if not kept in check, can lead us down the cycle of a burnout if we do not know how to handle it well. The ability of being able to recuperate after periods of high stress is what resilience refers to when it comes to human beings. It can be broken up into different aspects:
- Having a clear vision for your future
- The strength and quality of your social networks, friends and families
- Your optimism and positive self-image
- Your ability to see and accept the reality of a situation
- Thinking in terms of solutions rather than problems
- Your sense of accountability and of being the creator of your own life
- Your ability to improvise when the unforeseen arises
- Your ability to regulate your own emotions and to take care of yourself
This series of articles is meant to make you think. If you are a scientific manager you will encounter challenges. You will also have times of intense joy and exuberance when projects have been successfully concluded. The art is to not depend on every project being an astounding success for you to feel inspired, well off and able to empower others in your team. That state of resourcefulness is more easily achieved by taking care of your own state, your needs and your "Why?". And by getting better and better at communicating with others and enabling yourself to make it all sustainable for years to come. If you have discovered any areas that you want to get better in and you feel that it will make a positive difference in your position as a scientific manager, then get in contact with us. We provide individual coaching and training sessions for scientific managers who don’t just want to be good at their job, but who want to get better and better at it.
Are you one of those scientific managers? I am looking forward to being in contact!
Yours sincerely, Martin Schlicht
Are you one of those scientific managers? I am looking forward to being in contact!
Yours sincerely, Martin Schlicht
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