Building and Leading a Team

1. Building and Leading a Team Dorothy Shippen, PhD Professor Biochemistry & Biophysics Texas A&M University Email: dshippen@tamu.edu

2. Acknowledgements • Dr. Margaret Briehl • Dr. Daria Panina • NSF • Shippen lab members: past, current and future • The school of hard knocks

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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. Cech Former President, HHMI

6. 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, author Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t

7. The wrong people People are not a scale of 1-10. There are negative people. • Jim Forney Purdue University In a lab, one bad apple really can spoil the bunch. CHOOSE WISELY!

8. Attracting Good People • Get the word out – your current lab members can be good recruiters of new talent. • Communicate your vision and your expectations Recruit people who embrace this vision. • Recognize that good scientists do not have to be a “mini me.”

9. 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

10. 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. Deliberately create the lab culture or it will create itself. -Terri Orr-Weaver MIT

11. 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 • Lab citizenship – lab jobs and shared workspaces • Mentoring – the role of teaching in the laboratory • Your leadership style

12. 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

13. 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

14. “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.

15. 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

16. 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.

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

18. Building a motivated research group The “TOP” model • Competence: build competence and confidence gradually, clearly stating the purpose at each step. • Autonomy: the project should emanate from the person and not an external source. • Social connectedness: Someone else in the group (preferably the PI!) must care about the project. Uri Alon, Molecular Cell 27:151, 2010.

19. “For heaven’s sake, Elroy!... NOW look where the earth is!... Move over and let me drive!” Recognizing Conflicts “Eraser fight!”

20. (Major) Conflict Resolution/Management • Practice prevention • Look first at yourself • Consider the personalities & hear all sides • Moderate a group discussion • Decide on a resolution

21. 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?

22. 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.

23. Give an invited talk for the lab Help review a paper Write a manuscript Present at lab meeting Rewarding excellence Attend a national meeting Discuss work with a visiting scientist Mentor an undergraduate student

24. 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

25. 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.