Sometimes, it’s better to focus on being part of the team rather than taking the reins. Leaders don’t always need to be the boss…

There are good reasons to judge someone as being ‘too young’. You wouldn’t want a five year old to drink wine or to drive a car (at least not the motorised kind). However, there comes a point when exclusion based on youth stops being a justifiable safety precaution and becomes a blurry subconscious opportunity blocker. That blocker can be ourselves or someone else. Both matter…

Desperate times can tempt the most principled of us into making bad choices. History serves up stories to remind us why we must always stick to doing our work with integrity. Genuine leaders don’t cut corners…

Switching off the autopilot of polite small talk can lead to truly amazing stories. If a picture tells a thousand words, missing out on a genuine conversation is like wasting a thousand opportunities to connect…

Sometimes (not always), your message will be clearer if it’s shorter…

A lecture that I was never supposed to give ended up changing the way I looked at leadership. A chance experience helped me see that being vulnerable is not the same as being weak. Quite the opposite…

Whilst there are many cases of leaders and supervisors taking drastic, despicable, and embarrassing action to further their careers at the expense of the students in their care, one question is often missed:

What else is going on?

We humans have an enduring fear of the unknown. It’s stressful, crippling, and demotivating all in one bitter soup. In academia, the viva voce examination is a classic source of such anxiety…but how can students manage the stress, and how can supervisors help students prepare effectively?

My father was injured in the Piper Alpha disaster 30 years ago and he struggled with alcoholism until his death at 48, but his experiences inspired me to become a scientist and try to make dangerous workplaces safer…

Over the past several years, I’ve had the genuine pleasure of speaking with students and researchers about their careers. They look for advice and inspiration for about carving out their career path. These students and researchers carry an infectious enthusiasm, a real passion for what they do. But there is a problem…

In the 10th year of my career, after securing an independent academic position, my focus is expanding from lab work to leadership. Of the many important career decisions I’ve made in my first decade in science, few decisions rival the lasting benefits of applying for the SciFinder Future Leaders program. Here are three quotes that embody the lessons in leadership gained from the SciFinder experience…