By Hannah Pearson
It’s been a huge year for me, I’ve moved out of my parents’ home, bought a house, gotten married, been president of the Melbourne University Botany Graduate Society and taken part in the CEED leadership program (not to mention working on my PhD), so it’s not hugely surprising that my progress in leadership development has been a bit disrupted. The most important lesson I’ve learned through this, however, is how important the people you work with are (I like to think of these people as my team). In some teams you have to drive everyone to get the necessary things done - when you’re away nothing gets done and when you return you have to scramble to fix things. In other teams everyone is pushing towards a goal together and although progress slows when you aren’t there, everyone works together to get the project moving again. Until recently I’ve only had experience with the first type of team, but this year I’ve seen the second type of team for the first time and learned how fantastic it can be. I also now recognise that I could have avoided having such bad teams if I had had better leadership skills.
Transformational Leadership
Like Jeremy and Payal I was struck by the idea of emergent leaders; people who don’t have formal leadership roles but still step up. The more of these you have in a team the more inspiring it is. Without these people, you end up in the type of team where you have to push things every step of the way. During the leadership training we also learnt about transformational leadership skills that many emergent leaders employ.
The 5 key tenets of transformational leadership:
Self Leadership and Values
Throughout this year, I’ve also had an opportunity to develop my self leadership. My husband is a psychologist and he’s taught me about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and (at least to a degree) this is how I try to run my life. Basically, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy tells you that you should accept the way you are feeling and then do what is most consistent with your values. Sometimes this is easy (like when you’re feeling motivated and the thing that’s most consistent with your values is to make the plots for your latest article), and sometimes it’s hard (when you are terrified of public speaking but your values say that you should give a talk at a conference). The CEED leadership course helped me nail down a couple of values that I had been avoiding because they’re just a bit too scary. The thing I have been really avoiding the most is networking. Let’s face it, most people fear networking but it’s part of our jobs as researchers and my values say that I must do it. Confronting this means that I get to do fantastic things like meeting visiting academics and going to visit some of the most prestigious labs in the US. Am I terrified? Yes. Am I doing it anyway? Hell yeah!
I think these three lessons will serve me well in my academic, family and friendship teams. I wish you great teammates, skills to help them excel, and the commitment to follow your values, however difficult it might be.
Transformational Leadership
Like Jeremy and Payal I was struck by the idea of emergent leaders; people who don’t have formal leadership roles but still step up. The more of these you have in a team the more inspiring it is. Without these people, you end up in the type of team where you have to push things every step of the way. During the leadership training we also learnt about transformational leadership skills that many emergent leaders employ.
The 5 key tenets of transformational leadership:
- Model the way: this means that, as a leader, you must be a good team member or you can’t expect others to be.
- Inspire a shared vision: this means that you should develop a purpose and project as a team rather than bringing an idea that you want a team to implement. This is something I have done poorly in the past. I often want to stick to a plan that I have come up with rather than changing it to fit in with what the whole team wants.
- Challenge the process: look for ways to innovate the way things are done.
- Enable others: listen to other people and support their decisions. This is another thing I struggle with. I tend to be a bit controlling and if someone hasn’t finished something quickly enough I will do it instead. Now I know that this takes team member’s responsibility away and causes them to stop making an effort.
- Encourage the heart: this has a bit of a weird name but it basically means that you should tell people when you think they’ve done a good job. This sounds corny but can really make a difference to how motivated your team is.
Self Leadership and Values
Throughout this year, I’ve also had an opportunity to develop my self leadership. My husband is a psychologist and he’s taught me about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and (at least to a degree) this is how I try to run my life. Basically, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy tells you that you should accept the way you are feeling and then do what is most consistent with your values. Sometimes this is easy (like when you’re feeling motivated and the thing that’s most consistent with your values is to make the plots for your latest article), and sometimes it’s hard (when you are terrified of public speaking but your values say that you should give a talk at a conference). The CEED leadership course helped me nail down a couple of values that I had been avoiding because they’re just a bit too scary. The thing I have been really avoiding the most is networking. Let’s face it, most people fear networking but it’s part of our jobs as researchers and my values say that I must do it. Confronting this means that I get to do fantastic things like meeting visiting academics and going to visit some of the most prestigious labs in the US. Am I terrified? Yes. Am I doing it anyway? Hell yeah!
I think these three lessons will serve me well in my academic, family and friendship teams. I wish you great teammates, skills to help them excel, and the commitment to follow your values, however difficult it might be.