Feature Paper: Lahav G (2010). How to survive and thrive in the mother-mentor marathon. Molecular Cell, 38:477-480.
Author Abstract: This article is for women who ask whether it is possible to combine motherhood with academia and still be successful and happy. It is also for those working with, bosses of, or married to such women, giving them a better feel for the challenges mothers in academia face, and the strategies that can be used to survive and thrive in both of these worlds.
Note to Readers: Follow links above for author email, full article text, or the publishing scientific journal. Author notes in my review are in quotes.
Review: While the specific focus of this paper is for mothers in academia (both teaching, in research, or entering school) I hope that others are not put off by the title of the article, because I think it has a lot to offer anyone either in science or just trying to excel at their given profession while balancing a personal life. I think this article is also good for any student. I will address my review towards the latter crowd as I don't expect many mothers in academia to be reading this review. However, if you are a mother in academia, I recommend you follow the link in the article above to read the full article for specific details that can help you.
The author gives a handful of excellent tips that will help anyone:
1. "Discover and use the 'good enough' principle." This is a principle that I learned way too late. Everyone trying to pursue the career of their dreams wants to be excellent. Please note that I'm not referring to the average person working in a job just to pay the bills, who probably works 10 productive hours out of a 40-hour work week. If you are in that latter category, then this principle is probably already solved for you or you need to apply it to the area you are really passionate about (perhaps a hobby). Some people take this principle all too personally and settle for a partner later in life because they are afraid they can't meet "Mr." or "Mrs." Right. The author and I are not talking about settling. We're talking about learning to pick manageable goals and to learn how to cut off projects. Every scientific project creates more questions than answers so it is important not to spend so much time trying to answer everything that you lose track of the small picture. We need to learn to move on and to remember that scientific knowledge (or any knowledge) is only good if you share it with others. Remember, we live in a community. It doesn't help if you keep it all to yourself, so stop spending years finishing a degree or years on a project when you could just finish that project and degree and get working on the next small step. In the end, you'll be great anyway! But you must be consistent. To learn when "good enough has been reached" (in the author's words) you can start by setting a one-week goals, finishing them, and moving on to the next task. Yes, you know that you may have done a better job on each task given more time but in time you'll learn that it is okay to wrap up all the small tasks to complete the larger picture in as short a time as possible (without compromising too much on quality).
2. "Delegate, delegate, delegate..." Surround yourself with excellent people so that you can give each of them responsibilities and tasks. To be a leader you need to share your knowledge and not micro-manage everything and you have to trust your team. And remember, you always have a team of people in your personal network.
3. "Learn to say 'no' and to feel okay about it." In order to prioritize your values, not only do you need to decide "what to do first and how much time to spend" on each task, you have to decide what not to do. This goes for all work, when you shouldn't be a doormat to everyone's request. From my own experience, I take on too many projects at the same time (see step 5 below) and this causes me to take too long with projects. Learning to limit what you do is very important towards succeeding.
4. "Break big dreams into small practical tasks and reward yourself for achieving them." Once you learn how to say no and once you set limits on how long you spend on each task, you need to figure out all the steps needed to reach your goals. You also need to have specific tasks to delegate to your team or contacts or colleagues so they won't aimlessly pursue unstructured tasks that will only frustrate them. Also, when you reach certain milestones in your project, take a break to ensure your happiness and health as well as recharge your "creativity, brainpower, and scientific appetite."
5. "Compartmentalize your brain and calendar." Learn how to focus on one task at a time. Regardless of our profession or passions, there are few of us that can sustain living, eating, and drinking every moment in pursuit of our goals. For most of us it is important to separate your different roles in life. Work is work, home is home, social life is (you get the idea). You need to schedule your vacations and make personal goals in the same way you deal with your work goals through every step outlined here, including delegating to others where possible. Remember, we all have a social network regardless of how small we think it may be. The author also suggests scheduling your calendar to include time for all your important goals so that you are consistently working on them.
6. "Discover the things that make it worth it."Beyond whatever difficulties you face that make you wonder about your career, there is something in there that struck your imagination once and that keeps you going now. Figure that out and surround yourself with a team of people that support your goals and vision. If you are hiring people make sure that not only do they share similar goals, but they have a personality you get along with. Throughout our lives we are in situations as diverse as being the student as well as the teacher. We always have something to teach others and we should aim to be humble enough to learn our entire lives. The author mentions some excellent skills we'd all benefit from developing further: "patience, trust, kindness, and understanding the importance of self-fulfillment."
And as the author notes, in the marathon of life and career, if we "run without joy, it really doesn't matter if you are the first to get to the finish line."
No comments:
Post a Comment