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22
minutes : 2 minutes reading | 20 minutes activity
Welcome to the panic room - managing challenging scenarios
Session details
Date: 22 November 2024
A session on strategies for managing challenging scenarios delivered by Curie Scott, Academic Developer at the University of Southampton
Speaker
- Curie Scott, Academic Developer, University of Southampton
Session overview
This session was designed specifically to address leadership or management challenges faced by managers of researchers.
The interactive workshop provided attendees with a toolbox of practical skills and strategies to manage difficult leadership scenarios and confidently navigate the complexities of research management. As well as offering an opportunity to enhance leadership capabilities, the session also enabled participants to connect with peers across other institutions and build their professional network.
Topics covered
- Explore actual and hypothetical leadership scenarios faced by managers of researchers
- Explore strategies for tackling these scenarios through discussion and peer learning
- Scripts for managing difficult conversations with your staff
- Strategies for self-regulating any sense of panic.
Session resources
Shared learnings
- The stress cycle has three stages: 1) perceiving the threat, 2) the fight-or-flight response, 3) relief.
- Examples of challenging scenarios managers of researchers can face include: managing conflict or disagreements between researchers in your team, supporting researchers through challenging personal scenarios; delivering feedback in a constructive way; rejecting researchers you know personally following applications to postdoc positions; dealing with a researcher’s lack of understanding of the demands on you in your role as a PI; communicating bad news about funding (such as funding being suddenly revoked).
- There are 4 basic styles of helping that can be viewed as 4 quadrants on two x/y axes: directive vs. non-directive, and 'stretching' (intellectual need) vs. 'nurturing' (emotional need).
- The CALM method can be a good framework for managing challenging scenarios: Centre and Comfort appropriately; Assess and Acknowledge the situation; Lesson and Lower expectations; Mindful and Meaningful strategies.
- A top tip is to Asses and Acknowledge as early on as possible - if you spot signs of one of your researchers' struggling, it may be helpful to broach the issue, saying something like "I've noticed you seem a little more tense than usual. I'm here if you want to talk, but here are some resources I use to help me."
- External resources that you may wish to draw on or share with your researchers include: Growth Mindset; Handling self-sabotage; NHS ten stress busters; NHS Self Help CBT; Building self-confidence: 7 steps to self-confidence; and Managing failure.
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