How can coaching conversations help you as a researcher?

Who is Dr Sandrine Soubes?

My name is Sandrine and I am a coach working with researchers and research leaders.

As we have not met before, I though I would introduce myself so that you can understand how I came to work as a coach with researchers.

I am the founder of Tesselle Development, a consultancy supporting researchers and research leaders with their professional development.

I have a PhD in Molecular Biology, a Doctorate in Education, and years of experience helping researchers to develop their leadership skills.

My experience
I previously worked as a research scientist in the USA (at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland) and the UK (The University of Sheffield). As a biologist, I have worked on the bacterial cell cycle, the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, cell differentiation and early patterning in the developing brain.

Since leaving the laboratory, I have worked as a developer of professional development programmes, trainer, facilitator and coach, first at the Centre for Stem Cell Biology, then for the Faculty of Science at the University of Sheffield. With 16 years as a researcher developer, I have instigated many programmes that support the leadership of researchers. I was a founding member and instrumental contributor of the Think Ahead team at The University of Sheffield, which won the 2014 Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding support for early career researchers.

In 2019, I started working as an independent consultant (my business is called Tesselle Development). I continue to support researchers and research leaders navigate the complexities of the research environment. What really rocks my boat is to create spaces for conversations, either through my coaching work or during interactive workshops. I have also loved the conversations I have previously engineered between researchers and members of the public through multiple weird and marvelous outreach/ public engagement events and projects.

Some random facts about me

• I have 2 Doctorates (one in parasitology and one in Education).

• I am a mosaic artist and a member of the British Association for Modern Mosaics.

• I have managed to keep sane raising three boys.

• Even though I have lived longer in English speaking countries than my own country, my French accent is as strong as the day I left France!

Key drivers and values

• Enabling others to thrive

• Supporting Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in the research environment

• Challenging set views and status quo

• Helping researchers see possibilities and alternatives when they feel stuck

• Reigniting a belief in choices when researchers have lost track of their self-belief and awesomeness.

I like to say

"Ask for forgiveness, not permission".

My Postdoc experience:

• I changed country and I did not have a clue about the British Higher Education system.

• I switched research area from parasitology (malaria) to developmental genetics.

• I had a one-year old son when I started my Postdoc and then a maternity leave in the middle of my post-doc.

• I had a really nice Principal Investigator who let me take many opportunities.

BUT

• I did not have a clue about what I wanted to do.

• I did not really understand what I needed to do to be strategic as a Postdoc.

• I lost confidence in my professional skills because my experiments were not going well.

• I did not have access to support to make sense of how to make the most of my Postdoc.

As a coach and facilitator, I have made it my professional commitment to support researchers learn to navigate the research environment with a little bit more ease than what I had!