Being kind in your research life
Dr Doris Tran
Like many PhD graduates, Doris had a period of asking herself whether she should do a Postdoc or move into industry. When I asked her what PhD students should do to be able to move more easily into industry, she felt that PhDs are already doing quite enough. She thinks that industry has a role to play in enhancing its openness in identifying the potential of researchers as valuable employees in industry.
When I asked Doris about tips for researchers to navigate the research environment, she mentioned "kindness". It is not a word we often hear in the research world. Kindness is not an outdated commodity...it is more relevant than ever to challenge the research culture.
About Doris
Dr Doris Tran is an engineer working in the biomedical field. After an industry-funded PhD, she quickly transitioned to working in industry. Doris now works at Scanco Medical as a product manager and is at the forefront of interacting with academics, not as collaborators anymore but as clients for the devices sold by her company.
This will get you thinking about:
· What are the key questions you are asking yourself when navigating your research career and making career decisions?
· Do you keep a list of “dream jobs” to guide your professional and networking path?
· Could you think of a situation where a bit more kindness on your part would ease a research interaction?
Some reflections and questions to ponder based on my discussion with Doris
Untangling our thinking when making career decisions
Knowing how to navigate research careers is at the core of the work I do with research leaders and early career researchers. The worries about taking the right path and choosing the right opportunities come back over and over again in conversations during workshops.
For many research leaders, there is a great sense of loneliness when taking decisions for their own career and the development of their research group. Research leaders will be offered opportunities to lead on projects and will initiate new collaborations without ever knowing if it is the right choice.
When Doris was making the decision on whether to do a Postdoc or not at the end of her PhD, her supervisor asked her a very simple question: “what do you want to do in the end?”.
The concept of “begin with the end in mind” from the famous book of Steve Covey (The 7 habits of highly successful people) is one I have often used during induction sessions for PhD students and Postdocs.
Many research leaders and early career researchers may say- well I do not know what I want in the future, so how can I begin with the end in mind?
Whilst it may be true that we do not always know where we want to be aiming to, nothing stops us from dreaming what we would love to be aiming for.
By living in a highly critical environment like the research environment, maybe dreams for ourselves are removed from the equations.
Research leaders dream projects and collaborations. They dream about experiments, interviews and analysis.
o Can you let yourself dream about what you really aspire to achieve in your research life?
o What could change if you gave yourself permission to dream about the kind of research life you want to live?
o Can you reclaim dreaming to help you gain some ease in making decisions?
Do you have a dream jobs list?
To follow on from this idea of using dream/ dreaming as a powerful force in guiding our decision making, the idea that Doris mentioned about the list of dream jobs is certainly something that I have used myself.
We often do not feel ready to move into the next stage in seniority or to shift to other roles. Many of us have the feeling that we do not have enough skills, experience or whatever else we feel we are missing. Exploring our next stage through embodying possibilities is what the dream jobs list is about.
Instead of judging our own potential to move into the next role (from our very judgmental assessment of ourselves), we could decide to get acquainted with possible new roles through building our dream jobs list. This type of list is a simple process to explore and experiment with what roles we may be interested in doing in the near or far future. By bringing some reality in seeing the competencies and experiences required in job description and person specification, we can bring some knowledge about areas we may want to develop further professionally. The gaps in our experiences become clearer and we can do something about it, as we know in more details what may be required of us in the next role.
Professional opportunities can come our way in odd circumstances when we expect them the least. So, building a mindset for exploring roles and dreaming new professional identities is what the dream jobs list is trying to do. Dreaming is not a waste of time or an idle endeavour. Dreaming our professional self in new roles is an important process of organizing our desires, our values and motivations, so we can gain clarity and take steps when opportunities do present themselves.
o If you don’t have one, get your dream jobs list started!
o Be as wild and daring as you can in adding dream jobs to your list!
o What are the jobs you are avoiding adding to the dream list by fear?
Modelling kindness in your research interactions
What is really the point of kindness you may say when we talk about the research environment?
I would say that for me, kindness in the research environment is about respect and respecting the contributions of others.
Kindness is not listed as a quality among the many cited in the researcher development framework, but the section D1- working with others- People management- does specify “create nurturing/ supportive culture for others”. So, I guess we can assume that kindness fits in there but still this is not a word we use.
Looking in the dictionary for synonyms of kindness, I came across a very long list:
“kindliness, kind-heartedness, warm-heartedness, tender heartedness, goodwill, affectionateness, affection, warmth, gentleness, tenderness, concern, care; consideration, considerateness, helpfulness, thoughtfulness, unselfishness, selflessness, altruism, compassion, sympathy, understanding, big-heartedness, benevolence, benignity, friendliness, neighbourliness, hospitality, amiability, courteousness, public-spiritedness; generosity, magnanimity, indulgence, patience, tolerance, charitableness, graciousness, lenience, humaneness, mercifulness; British informal decency; literary bounteousness.”
What would be your definition of kindness in the research environment?
I started looking online about what people are saying about kindness in academia and research. As always Google brings us many interesting and diverse articles. In the Times Higher Education, one article ask the question like I do about the place of kindness in academia. I also came across a blog that pulls together short testimonials of kindness in academia. There is even a twitter account dedicated to it (@AcademicKindnes). One way to make kindness visible in our research world is to share testimonials from the experiences of individuals in the research environment. One such project (supervisionaries) was led in my previous institution by my colleague Dr Kay Guccione who asked PhD students/ Postdocs to post in an online board comments about how well they had been supported by their PIs and PhD supervisors. In addition, the contributions of academics as mentors were also made visible. This was a great example of making some of the contributions- kindness in action- visible.
Kindness is unlikely to be one of the measures on your annual performance review or probation panel, but kindness is what will change the research culture for the better, when we dare to be a little kinder to others everyday.
What is going to be your way to bring more kindness into your research encounters?
o Acknowledging the feelings of others. The emotional life of others is different than yours. You may not feel stressed about certain things that your Postdocs/ PhD students find incredibly challenging to deal with. If their emotions are very different than yours and if you do not understand why others feel the way they do, showing kindness could simply be about taking the time to listen, not try to swipe things under the carpet and finding ways to help others manage their feelings.
o Saying thank you to the non-academic professionals in your institution. There are a great many professional roles in universities and everyone has a part to play. I have often observed tensions between the academics and the “others”, where colleagues across the institution may feel frustrated and not respect the role and complexities of the role of each other. You may have an encounter for example, with someone from research services pestering you (or that’s how you experience it) to submit a document for a grant application. They know you are very busy, but they want to help you get done all the myriads of small admin tasks so your grant can be submitted. Kindness could be here to see these employees as people who are on your side and are just trying to help you. They won’t get rewards if you get your grant, but they will certainly appreciate you take the time to thank them.
o Keeping others in the loop. As a research leader, you will always have too much on your plate. This is not something that ever seems to improve. You will face hard and soft deadlines put in place by others or yourself. As we work in such inter-connected ways, our work is always dependent on someone else doing their bits in the puzzles of projects. Kindness in project management is about keeping the conversation going and letting people know where you are at, instead of ghosting students and colleagues when you are late with a task. They may just appreciate a quick line or call, so they know what to expect. It does not take much but it makes a massive difference to others in how they feel about the work. I have seen this so often when PhD students are waiting for comments on their thesis chapters, or Postdocs are unclear with what is happening with their contracts. Even if the task is not quite finished, kindness to others may just be to let them know what the status quo is with what they are hoping you will do for them.
o Giving space to others to shine. As a research leader, you will have many opportunities to present your work at conferences. This is for you always an opportunity to meet new colleagues and build collaborations. It exposes you to the scrutiny of your peers and make your work more widely disseminated. Kindness when it comes to conference exposure could be that instead of doing the presentation yourself, you give way for your Postdoc or PhD student to present instead of you. It will not take anything away from you but it has the potential to make a massive difference for the exposure of the early career members of your team. When we have worked incredibly hard on building our research groups, we may want to benefit from the limelight of being a successful researcher. Giving the space to others to shine will not take anything away from you. By giving space to others to raise their research profile, you are encouraging the progression of your team members into their own full potential. And, that’s kindness!
“If you are seeking the help of others, reach out when you have ready to ask them the right questions. Don’t just ask others to problem solve for you if you have not put some thoughts into it first”
