Leadership: Best Practices and Advice

Leading and managing this lab is not the easiest task, but if done right is an enjoyable and very rewarding experience. This page contains best practices and advice specifically for students who are leading this lab.

Be open about procedures, policies and selections.
It's often way easier and beneficial to be open than it is to close things up. The circulation of information is critical to the success of the lab - being open will help people be aware of the whole situation as fast as possible. If you need to select people for conferences or positions, be open the process so everyone knows what's happening.

Skills take time to build, so tread carefully and plan accordingly.
Trivial things to you may not be for others. Don't forget at some point you were probably bad at certain things.

Big accomplishments can only come through teamwork and communication.
You cannot do things alone and you need a team of 3-4 people to help run the lab. You need to know them, trust them and be able to rely on them when you drop the ball (we all forget things or mess things up).

Everyone make mistakes
Students especially will make mistakes and do things wrong. Forgive, move on and help each other out. Remember this when assigning mission critical things - if it's really important have multiple points of failure. Start earlier, involve more people or change what you're doing. Things that are hugely risky should be carefully considered.

Practice self-reflection
Consider how you can improve but don't put yourself down. If you did the best you could at that moment, you did the best that you could. Think about how things went wrong and how they went right. Consider how you can improve things for later on.

Read books
Leadership books will give you some perspective on different kinds of leadership styles and environments. Not all of the advice will be applicable but reading will give you more tools to choose from when the time arrives.