A STEMM woman’s guide to leadership characteristics and management skills
Developing strong leadership characteristics and management skills is akin to making sure you are equipped with the right shoes before embarking on a challenging but rewarding new leadership journey
By Patricia A. Maurice and Janet G. Hering
3 September 2024, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13343347
In her December 2023 post, Dean Terri Camesano stated that “All women in academia already are leaders and role-models, even if they may not see themselves in that way.” [1] The Epistimi organization encourages women in STEMM to take on formal leadership roles and this blog focuses on supporting women as they move up the ladder and become senior leaders. That said, not all women should feel compelled to take on formal leadership roles, whether within a university or a professional society. Many women enter into formal leadership positions without having considered whether their temperament and experience are suitable for such a role.
The basic tasks of good leaders
Before discussing leadership traits and characteristics, let’s consider what makes for a good leader. A good leader has a basic responsibility to her organization and should establish and maintain a supportive working environment in which all members of her organization can flourish and do their best work. She also needs to set goals that are ‘right’ in that they are good for the organization, for its members, and for the broader society. This last consideration is particularly relevant for publicly funded higher education and research institutions. In accomplishing these goals, a good leader must be both effective and ethical.
Different leadership styles
Much has been written about leadership styles and characteristics, especially in the business literature; we will not attempt to review the literature here but have included a few references below. There is no “one size fits all” leadership style for women leaders in STEMM. Indeed, one leadership style might work best in one place and time and another in a different context. For example, a new institute that is just getting off the ground is likely to require more hands-on management than a well-established institute. A young department with many junior faculty members may require a different level of engagement than a more established department, although more senior faculty members sometimes can be the biggest troublemakers. Leading in good times is easier and more enjoyable than leading when resources are tight.
In any organization, leaders must find ways of motivating people individually and as a group. Effective motivational strategies will depend on the leader and her situation [2]. With a suitable personality, a leader may exercise charismatic leadership. With access to resources, a leader can use resource allocation as a motivational strategy. Both personality- and resource-based motivation can also be exercised in a negative manner, with bullying as the negative extreme of charismatic leadership and the denial or withdrawal of resources as the negative form of resource-based leadership. A leader can also motivate her followers based on shared values and/or principles, whether defined by the leader or arrived at through consensus. In simple situations, motivation can be procedural, based on compliance with rules and majority decisions.
While we all hope to rely on positive means of motivation, some colleagues may respond more to a carrot and others to a stick. Consensus, although attractive in the ideal, is not always possible, especially when one is trying to effect change.
Do you possess key leadership characteristics?
There are several core characteristics that can contribute to the success of women leaders in STEMM academics. These characteristics will enable a leader to develop, articulate, and build support for a clear vision for her organization. In addition to these characteristics, it is important that the leader have the level of experience and competence appropriate to her leadership position. As we wrote in a previous post, awards and honors, both external and within one’s organization, can help to increase one’s visibility and credibility [3].
Integrity. Our previous post on coping with dishonest colleagues [4] outlines just how destructive lack of integrity can be to individuals and organizations. “Upper-level administrators in any organization set the tone for the entire organization, so lead by example.” One aspect of integrity is the leader’s sincere enthusiasm for the mission of her (academic) organization and its importance to society.
Situational awareness and foresight. A leader must be aware of what’s going on around her and be able to recognize potential threats and opportunities and respond to them effectively and in a timely fashion. To be effective, a leader must keep abreast of developments at global and national levels as well as in her community and institution. A leader can stay ‘in the know’ through engagement with a robust network of friends, mentors, and colleagues both within and outside her organization.
Emotional Intelligence. A leader should have the “ability to understand and manage your emotions, as well as recognize and influence the emotions of those around you” [5]. The five dimensions of emotional intelligence – self-awareness, managing emotions, motivating others, showing empathy, and staying connected – are, in part, skills that can be developed through teaching and coaching [6]. Good manners are a signature of emotional intelligence since exhibiting good manners shows respect for others and makes them feel valued.
Intellectual curiosity. A leader must be able to appreciate and evaluate work well outside their personal domain. This can be difficult for an individual who has gained fame within a narrow research focus unless she can cultivate an understanding and appreciation for ideas and accomplishments in other (sub)disciplines. This is especially important since a leader must understand how funding sources, learning styles, societal needs, and resources change over time.
Problem-solving mind-set. With this attitude, a leader can save time and promote a better work environment. Wasting time on complaining rather than focusing on solutions is one of the less attractive features of academic life [4].
Competitive spirit. A leader needs to recognize and pursue excellence. She should want her organization to shine. At the same time, she should avoid fomenting hyper-competitiveness, which is often counter-productive within an organization.
Resilience and persistence. A leader needs resilience in both her professional and personal spheres. As Dean Koretsky commented in her profile “The other really difficult thing about being a leader is the abuse that we are sometimes subjected to – especially as women in leadership.” [1] Some senior women have experienced coordinated attacks as described in a previous post [7] for the case of Prof. Marcella Carollo. In our post on coping with dishonest colleagues [4], we described a variety of difficult situations that required courage and resilience to navigate.
Another aspect of professional resilience for a woman leader is the ability to cope with an environment that is dominated by men and reflects conventionally male values. Some STEMM disciplines are more gender-balanced than others or even have a majority of women at the student level. Yet women remain dramatically under-represented at senior levels and in leadership as shown in the graphic accompanying our first post [8]. Thus, women advancing up the academic leadership ladder need to be prepared to function effectively in an increasingly male-dominated environment.
A women leader also needs resilience in her personal sphere. Women often shoulder more caring responsibilities (whether for children, aging parents, or partners) than men. Even in egalitarian (heterosexual) marriages, husbands spend more time on leisure activities and wives more time on caregiving and housework [9].
Resilience allows a leader to have the persistence that is needed to get meaningful things done. This is especially important when a leader is attempting to effect change in the hierarchical and tradition-laden academic environment.
Do you have essential management skills?
Although there are some overlaps between leadership characteristics and management skills, there are also important distinctions. Leadership tends to be more strategic and management more operational. Management skills can be more easily learned or developed than leadership characteristics, which are more often inherent (or perceived to be inherent) to a leader’s character.
Organization & time management. If a leader isn’t well organized with good time management skills, she will not be able to juggle the diverse responsibilities of leadership. This is a common source of frustration for other members of a leadership team and for colleagues within the organization.
Delegation. A leader’s time management can benefit greatly from support by an effective and efficient executive assistant, who can, for example, help to manage the leader’s email traffic and avoid (or at least minimize) the time lost on email. This benefit can only be realized, however, if the leader is able to delegate responsibilities to others and to resist the temptation to micro-manage. This applies not only to working effectively with an executive assistant but with other colleagues to whom specialized tasks may be delegated. This goes hand in hand with the ability to say no to non-essential requests.
Collaboration. Collaborating is a great way to learn. Through collaboration, a leader can increase her own knowledge and skills, gain insight into the competencies of her colleagues (a first step toward delegation) and strengthen her organization by including a variety of voices and perspectives. In a previous post, we highlighted the benefits of diversity and inclusion for organizations, especially in enabling universities and academic research institutions to address societal challenges more effectively [10].
Communication. As academics, we are used to communicating with students and our professional colleagues. We may even have experience communicating with the media, but likely only in the context of our technical expertise. As we advance in leadership, we need to communicate on topics beyond our own technical expertise or more generally on organizational strategy and goals. We may also be faced with sensitive conversations with potential donors or contentious discussions with politicians or journalists. Professional training can be helpful, even including a little legal training. None of us can read minds, so good communication requires good listening skills.
Meetings skills. Much of our communication, for better or worse, occurs in meetings. Since meetings can be a huge time sink (both for leaders and other participants), they need to be worthwhile and productive. To this end, we hope that our tips on preparing for and chairing successful meetings [11, 12], as well as the special challenges of remote and hybrid meetings [13] could be useful.
It’s not about perfection
None of us will be perfectly prepared for a leadership position and even the best-prepared leader can run into adverse conditions beyond her control. Luck can play a big role in any career. A great leader can wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time (or vice versa). Far too often, successful women leaders become targets of coordinated attacks by people who are not ready to accept a woman’s successes.
Despite this, leadership has many rewards and offers opportunities to make positive changes in the academic system [14]. It is a huge privilege to have the chance to increase equity for all and to improve the working conditions in our organizations so that individuals can fulfill their multiple responsibilities and flourish.
Some questions for further thought and discussion
· Which of the characteristics listed above do you believe you already have reasonably developed and which may need more work? If you hope to develop as a leader, what is your plan for self-improvement?
· What leadership training have you had? If you haven’t had formal leadership training, look into getting some so you will be prepared.
· Are there any other characteristics that you think help define successful women leaders but that we’ve missed? If so, would you be interested in writing a follow-up blog post? (Contact us at: epistimiblog@gmail.com.)
References
[2] Knight, R. (2024) “6 Common Leadership Styles — and How to Decide Which to Use When”, Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2024/04/6-common-leadership-styles-and-how-to-decide-which-to-use-when
[3] https://www.epistimi.org/blog/nominating-women-in-stemm-for-awards
[4] https://www.epistimi.org/blog/liar-liar-campus-on-fire-how-to-cope-with-dishonest-colleagues
[5] https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/emotional-intelligence-in-leadership
[6] Goleman, D. The emotional intelligence of leaders, 2007, New York: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company. Note that many of the concepts are summarized in [2].
[8] https://www.epistimi.org/blog/a-little-less
[9] 2023 PEW Research Center report: In a Growing Share of U.S. Marriages, Husbands and Wives Earn About the Same, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/04/13/in-a-growing-share-of-u-s-marriages-husbands-and-wives-earn-about-the-same/
[11] https://www.epistimi.org/blog/successful-academic-meetings-part-1-preparation
[12] https://www.epistimi.org/blog/successful-academic-meetings-part-2-chairing-a-meeting-fgnk3
[14] https://www.epistimi.org/blog/the-joys-of-being-a-senior-woman-leader