Are Leaders Born or Taught?
21/11/10 20:10 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Submitted by S. Pelech - Kinexus on Sun, 11/21/2010 - 20:10.
While having leadership capability is a definite asset for a principal investigator, so are many other qualities such as the ability to teach, fund raise, and budget that are also ingredient to success besides those outlined by DrdrA at Blue Lab. Those individuals that pursue graduate degrees are more likely to play some kind of leadership role. However, only a small percentage of graduate students will actually become principal investigators. As a professor, I always remind myself about how many people I actually need to train to replace me. Hence it is better to focus on the quality of training than the quantity of trainees that an investigator may supervise.
Leadership ability is undoubtedly partly genetic and further developed during a lifetime of observation and experience. I don't think this ability can be significantly acquired from a few lectures or a course on the subject. For running a research lab, it is emerges from years of observation of the management styles of supervisors during the graduate studies and post-doctoral experiences. Trainees learn what is good and bad during their long apprenticeships and eventually apply these lessons.
Link to the original blog post.
While having leadership capability is a definite asset for a principal investigator, so are many other qualities such as the ability to teach, fund raise, and budget that are also ingredient to success besides those outlined by DrdrA at Blue Lab. Those individuals that pursue graduate degrees are more likely to play some kind of leadership role. However, only a small percentage of graduate students will actually become principal investigators. As a professor, I always remind myself about how many people I actually need to train to replace me. Hence it is better to focus on the quality of training than the quantity of trainees that an investigator may supervise.
Leadership ability is undoubtedly partly genetic and further developed during a lifetime of observation and experience. I don't think this ability can be significantly acquired from a few lectures or a course on the subject. For running a research lab, it is emerges from years of observation of the management styles of supervisors during the graduate studies and post-doctoral experiences. Trainees learn what is good and bad during their long apprenticeships and eventually apply these lessons.
Link to the original blog post.