Table 3.
Example Comments of How Participants Perceived Leadership Before the Early Career Women’s Leadership Program
| Attaining leadership requires having an area of academic expertise and accomplishments. Leadership is a path to success and respect. (Expectations and assumptions) Making a positive impact. Achieving goals that affect others. (External drivers) |
| “My ideal leadership position would be one in which I get to help younger people discover and pursue their goals, advocate for resources for my team, and celebrate the team’s successes – something like a division or department director. I suspect the keys to obtaining one of these positions is being academically successful, being a respected and well-known colleague, and having some prior smaller leadership roles where you can demonstrate the needed skills on a smaller scale”. |
| Self-doubt mixed with confidence. (Internal driver). |
| “After recently accepting a new role, I somewhat feel like a leader but at the same time still feel very junior in my role and I have to force myself to truly feel like a leader. I have an idea of where to begin but am not fully confident”. |
| Competing professional demands. (External driver) Compromise and sacrifice. (Internal driver) |
| “The goals of a scientist are directly at odds with (the) goals of leadership. Research takes time, attention, and mental energy. The more time you spend doing leadership activities … the less mental energy you have for moving the research forward”. |
| Though leadership opportunities naturally follow academic success, being a leader does not in and of itself lead to academic success. (Expectations and assumptions) |
| “I think I have a lot to offer, but I am finding it difficult to show those skills. The expectation seems to be that I would have skills (in) research, writing, and grantsmanship and that demonstrating these would earn me leadership opportunities. But the skills I would bring to leadership – sensitivity, compassion, creativity, transparency, (and) fairness – do not always translate into success in those other pre-requisite domains”. |
| Being a leader creates work-life imbalance and may be detrimental to personal well-being. (Expectations and assumptions) |
| “I do feel a conflict between taking on bigger responsibilities, more leadership roles, and protecting time for myself and my family outside of work. I think there is general institutional pressure to work more. … It is important to me to have a life that has some balance – rewarding work but also uninterrupted time for family, time for physical activity and sleep, etc. The leadership opportunities that have been offered to me have often felt like a threat to those things outside of work that I value so much”. |