By: Maria Qadri The post I intended to write for Thursday was a beautiful thought -- but the missed deadline I self-imposed is the exclamation point on a common struggle throughout my Ph.D. process. I care about the extra-curricular activities I choose to be involved in because I see their value on multiple fronts. HOWEVER, ultimately I'm only one person and I cannot bear the burden of this beautiful project myself. We are lucky to have an excellent team with a variety of opinions -- when one suggested that we let the deadline go by, I allowed myself that tiny breathing room. The essence of my intended post was to tell you about the new transition phase for Rutgers iJOBS senior editing team: I am working non-stop to graduate by May after a six-year journey; Samantha is newly employed; Myka is seeking employment; and Chris is paring down his leadership experiences to finish his degree in the next 9-12 months. We are mindfully making the decision to pass the torch of leadership on to a new team over the next 4 months, while we are still in physical/digital proximity for any short or long questions on how to do whatever needs to be done. I will allow the new team the honor of introducing themselves and instead offer a few lessons I have learned about leadership both through the blog but also through some other experiences here at Rutgers. In no particular order:
- Delegate. Delegation means asking for help from someone while giving them the resources they need to be successful. I may have a tiny problem with control and the belief that if I don't do whatever IT is, IT won't be done or IT won't be done the right way. Pro tip: there is no right way. Be clear about the task and explain why the task is important. Offer them the necessary resources. Do not do IT for them.
- Trust. Delegation is easier with people that you trust and know you can rely on - if you don't give them the chance, they won't be able to show you that you can trust them and rely on them. Get over your baggage and give people at least one chance to demonstrate their abilities - what is the worst that can happen?
- Maximize your available resources. Every now and again when I'm stressed out, I fantasize about having more people to help me with tasks. I'm not being hyperbolic when I use the word fantasize, and I'll demonstrate my point with a crude analogy: Instead of trying to recruit more cats, train the kittens who are there. I cannot MAKE anyone be interested in writing for our blog. I CAN help the writers who are interested but struggle with coming up ideas, writer's block, or meeting deadlines IF they are interested. Recruitment is important -- just don't hang all of your hopes on a tenuous premise.
- Communicate. Then, communicate again. Be clear when speaking and writing, especially by demonstrating WHY what you're saying matters, and then follow up. This is a helpful lesson for leading up (your advisor, your committee, etc.) and leading down (new rotation students, undergraduate researchers, etc). Universal graduate school and life truths: people are busy, and people are forgetful. If you make a request that is more than a week away, follow-up and gently remind them of the impending due date in between the ask and the deadline; otherwise, the likelihood that the task's completion depends entirely on the individual's own level of commitment to achieving the goal and their personal level of organization. By using Basecamp, we automated that follow-up process with the writers and alleviate that burden for the senior editors. We also stored written repositories of the random stuff in our brains on Basecamp to preserve our knowledge for everyone even after we step back from our positions. If a writer forgets how to do something, the prepared document serves as a searchable reference guide.
- Set S.M.A.R.T. goals. I learned about S.M.A.R.T. goals in my undergraduate design class, and I still re-learn the value of this type of goal-setting on a daily basis. Creating a to-do list with everything I have to do is wonderful to keep thoughts from bouncing around my head. However, sometimes the to-do list actually shames me into feeling unaccomplished because I made the list too long to realistically achieve in one day with no focus on concious prioritization. You can read about S.M.A.R.T. goals on the interwebs as well as healthy goal-setting specific to the Ph.D. process. Make your to-do list differently by distinguishing your priorities by rank (mentally or actually) and by accepting that some tasks will roll over from day-to-day. Do the hard ones sooner than later because willpower only decreases as the day goes on. Right now at 1 AM, my to-do list has a wealth more on it, but my health takes priority. I'm going to bed and saving the rest of my thoughts for Thursday. Tune in then!