Building great labs/depts/institutions

I will keep this short. 


The sign of a great leader is their willingness and ability to lend wings to junior members of their team so that they can fly and achieve their potential. 

Unfortunately, what I see all around me are overwhelmed people in leadership positions who keep resources and opportunities to themselves despite their inability to take more on and be able to do a good job with any of it. This behaviour may not even be intentional. This is what they probably had to do to survive in a low-resource environment. However, when everyone does this, we collectively stifle scientific progress by not allowing meritorious young researchers to do the best possible work. Academia is not meant to be a dog-eat-dog world, but that is what it has turned into. 

I do see rare people who are true leaders in academia. Without exception, they all give support and resources to people who are junior to themselves and pass on opportunities, especially when they themselves are not fully qualified to take them on (and a junior member might be). They are the ones who leave a true legacy. People remember them for longer. 

I think about this a lot as I struggle through various challenges. 

 

  

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