Excellence Everywhere - National University of Ireland, Galway

chapter 4managing your many roles“ I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremittingdevotion to the things you want to see happen.”frank lloyd wrightThe day has finally come when you take up yournew position. At least in the space of your ownbench (and in some readers’ cases, maybe across awhole institution), you are the boss! What got youhere is your creativity and scientific expertise. Butyou will quickly realize that the day-to-day operationof the laboratory—the projects that get done,how time is spent, which needs get priority—alsorequires strong leadership and management skills.This chapter describes the skills involved in leadingand managing a group of people, but many of theprinciples here can be applied if you only manageyourself and your day-to-day work, even if you arestill under the authority of a more senior scientistwho directs the project of which your work is apart. It also offers some suggestions on how tobuild these skills.Whether or not you are in charge of your own groupof workers and thinkers, the basic ideas may helpyou as you think about how to get the most out ofyour resources. As you get ready to start your job,you should work through how you will manage thingsas your own research operation grows.The chapter is organized in four sections. The firstprovides a definition of leadership in the contextof directing a scientific laboratory. The seconddescribes a process for developing a vision foryour laboratory. Your main role as a leader will beto organize and motivate the people in your labto enact this vision. The third section is about differentleadership approaches and how you mightproceed as you develop your individual leadershippersonality and style. The fourth discussesthe role of the laboratory leader in building andsustaining an effective team—that is, how tocommunicate with the people with whom youwork, how to motivate them, how to make decisionsand resolve conflicts, and how to set andenforce expectations and rules of behavior.This chapter draws from material developed byEdward O’Neil, director of the Center for theHealth Professions at the University of California–San Francisco, as well as from interviews withscientists with years of experience runninglaboratory research programs.managing your many roles45