Building and Leading a Team

Dorothy Shippen, PhDProfessor Biochemistry & BiophysicsTexas A&M University

Email: dshippen@tamu.edu

Acknowledgements

Dr. Margaret Briehl Dr. Daria Panina NSF Shippen lab members: past, current

and future The school of hard knocks

Resources

Making The Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientific Management for Postdocs and New Faculty (BWF/HHMI) http://www.hhmi.org/resources/scientists.html

At The Helm: A Laboratory Navigator and At the Bench: A Laboratory Navigator - Kathy Barker

Decisions, decisions – Curr Biology 1:1 1996.

Guide for mentors – Nature 447:791, 2007

sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine

Building a motivated research group – Molecular Cell 27:151, 2010.

Leading the Lab

Set the general scientific direction

Hire the right people

Communicate expectations

Keep each lab member motivated

Recognize and resolve conflicts

Promote the next generation of scientists

Hiring the right people

Your ultimate success depends on your ability to hire the right technicians, students, and post-docs and empower them to do their best work.

- Thomas R. CechFormer President,HHMI

The right people

I don’t really know where we should take

this bus. But I know this much: If we get

the right people on the bus, and the

wrong people off the bus, then we’ll

figure out how to take it some place

great.

- Jim Collins, authorGood to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t

The wrong people

People are not a scale of 1-10. There are

negative people. - Jim Forney

In a lab, one bad apple really can spoil the bunch.

CHOOSE WISELY!

Purdue University

Communicate your vision and your expectations Recruit people who embrace this vision.

Attracting Good People

Get the word out – your current lab members can be good recruiters of new talent.

Recognize that good scientists do not have to be a “mini me.”

Recruiting – The Interview

Discuss applicant’s background, qualifications and career goals (What attracted them to your research program?)

Clearly convey your expectations during the interview

Get input from current lab members Call the references (ask probing questions including

information about interpersonal skills)

Trust your instincts

Lab Culture

Build a place in which the lab members understand your expectations and agree with those expectations and try to fulfill them. They must internalize those expectations and think of them as their own.

-Terri Orr-Weaver MIT

Deliberately create the lab culture or it will create itself.

Aspects of A Lab’s Culture

• Scientific excellence

• Work ethic – hours in the lab versus productivity

• Teamwork vs. individual effort – balance building

careers of individual members versus achieving

programmatic goals

• Mentoring – the role of teaching in the laboratory

• Your leadership style

• Lab citizenship – lab jobs and shared workspaces

The direction-self-direction scale

Guided independence and scientific creativity

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Micromanagement Sink or swim

“The skill lies in giving young researchers the freedom to expand on their ideas but gently reining them in when they are off track.”

Guide For Mentors – Nature 447:791, 2007

Creating a desirable lab environment

Express enthusiasm for the science! Be respectful - treat your students and

postdocs as colleagues Listen to concerns and encourage input Reward collaboration and thoughtful risk-

taking

“Family” ties?

“You should act professionally in a professional relationship. Family relationships are best reserved for the personal sphere. The advisor is not a parent, and the postdoc is not a rebellious adolescent, the graduate students are not rival siblings, but it seems as though they are if you watch the dynamics in many laboratories.”

-Cory Bargmann, UCSF

The members of your lab cannot be your confidants. You have to be the boss.

Roundtable Meetings

Everyone presents their most recent results (or roadblocks) at each meeting

All members of the group provide feedback Technical problems are solved by the group Collaborations are established New models are discussed Students and Postdocs mentor each other

Other innovative Approaches & Tools

State of the lab talk - Funding status, hiring opportunities

Strategy discussion or retreat - Set a lab meeting aside for brainstorming together on future directions

Place “bets” on the specific outcome of cool experiments - Losers bring ice cream or pizza for the lab

Celebrate the scientific successes and other important milestones - Champagne, dinner at the PI’s house, lab lunch etc.

Motivation

Conventional wisdom: Motivation is the one thing you cannot teach. A person is either born with it or they are not.

Building a motivated research group

1. Competence: build competence and confidence gradually, clearly stating the purpose at each step.

2. Autonomy: the project should emanate from the person and not an external source.

3. Social connectedness: Someone else in the group (preferably the PI!) must care about the project.

The “TOP” model

Uri Alon, Molecular Cell 27:151, 2010.

Recognizing Conflicts

“For heaven’s sake, Elroy!...NOW look where the earth

is!...Move over and let me drive!”

“Eraser fight!”

(Major) Conflict Resolution/Management

Practice prevention

Look first at yourself

Consider the personalities & hear all sides

Moderate a group discussion

Decide on a resolution

When thinking of asking someone to “get off the bus”, ask yourself…

Have I given the person some type of notice or warning and given a clear indication of what s/he is doing wrong?

Have I given the person assistance to learn new or difficult tasks?

Have I treated the person any differently than other members of my lab?

Does documentation in the person’s file support the reason for discharge?

Asking someone to get off the bus

Work with your Human Resources Dept. to follow institutional policies

Discuss the situation with confidants/mentors

This will not be pleasant. Remember, you run the show. You must act in the best interest of the entire group. If you are losing sleep over the situation and dread seeing that person in the lab everyday, it is time to face the music and make a change.

Present at lab meeting

Write a manuscript

Help review a paper

Give an invited talk for the lab

Attend a national meeting

Mentor an undergraduate student

Discuss work with a visiting scientist

Rewarding excellence

You are a role model.

• Model resiliency. Let them see you sweat. Show that you

can not only survive rejection of manuscripts and grant

proposals, getting scooped, but do better science because of it.

Learn from failure!• Model collegiality. Be respectful of all of your colleagues,

including secretarial and cleaning staff. Look at your students

and postdocs not as who they are now, but as who they can

become.“Making a living is not the same as making a life.” - Maya

Angelou

Resources

Making The Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientific Management for Postdocs and New Faculty (BWF/HHMI) http://www.hhmi.org/resources/scientists.html

At The Helm: A Laboratory Navigator and At the Bench: A Laboratory Navigator - Kathy Barker

Decisions, decisions – Curr Biology 1:1 1996.

Guide for mentors – Nature 447:791, 2007

sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine

Building a motivated research group – Molecular Cell 27:151, 2010.