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You're listening to Significant Impact, the podcast for early career researchers ready to take the next step toward independence. I'm Sarah Dobson, Grant Consultant and Academic Career Coach, and on this show I help you navigate the transition from mentored K Awards to your first R01 without losing your mind, your focus, or your sense of purpose. If you're ready to move from I hope I'm ready to I know I'm ready, join the wait list for the next cohort of K2R Essentials at Sarahdobson.co slash K2R. That's S-A-R-A-H-D-O-B-S-O-N.co slash K number two R. Now let's get to the episode. This is part three of Uncharted Academia, a series about navigating research careers in a time of transformation. In part one, we talked about where we are now and what's coming. In part two, we talked about the most important skills you need to navigate this current moment. And in this part of the series, I want to talk about how you can protect those important skills that are essential for this moment. So in part two, we talked about those essential career skills as general career skills and research skills. And the general career skill that is most valuable right now is resilience, which is a combination of your sense of purpose and your self-belief or self-efficacy. And your most important research skill in these times, and arguably at all times, is communication. So communicating the value of your research. So how do you protect those skills and leverage them? And the reason we're talking about protecting and leveraging those skills is because in moments of uncertainty, in moments of chaos like the one we're in now, the demands on you are flooding in. There are more meetings, there's more paperwork, there's more demands on your time to fix or address what is happening. And so when there is that panic in the system, it always asks you to do more. But what really needs to happen is for you to protect your capacity. And by capacity, I mean your time, your energy, and your emotional capacity, right? And remember, as we talked about in part one, your number one job is the survival of your lab. And so your job and your top priority is keeping the lights on. And it might seem like the way to do that is to say yes to everything that your institution demands of you, but actually that is probably the worst thing that you can do. In part one, we talked about your interests sometimes being at odds with the interests of your institution, right? They're focused on their own survival and you're focused on your survival, and sometimes those things don't line up. And so this is probably one of those moments where those things aren't lining up. And so you've got to look after yourself first. So we need to protect your ability to exercise resilience and communicate the value of your research. So, how do we do that? We do that by creating focus and we do that by creating structure. And once again, these are not going to be unfamiliar components of what you need to do in quote-unquote normal times, right? Like these are skills that we've talked about certainly on this show before and definitely inside K-R Essentials. But when the pressure increases, as it is in this moment, the focus and the structure needs to become stronger, not more fragile or loose. So that's why we're looking at this in a slightly different way. But again, one way you can think about this, although we've talked about this previously in again, quote unquote normal times, one of the ways you can think about focus right now is that you are in survival mode. And so we are only doing mission critical activities right now, okay? We are only doing the things that are gonna keep our labs going. If it's not mission critical, it's off the table. And of course, it might feel like your focus is already scattered, which is all the more reason to keep your eyes on the prize. And remember from part two of the series that we talked about your North Star as a way to help navigate decision making in your career and also as a communication tool. But let's take it back now to navigating decision making. This is where you really need to lean on your North Star and what you have identified as your mission for your career and your current mission for your lab, right? That's where the focus needs to be right now. And what you want to be doing is making sure that all of the decisions you make are aligned with that. And remember, too, that the existence of your lab is in service to your North Star. So your job of making sure that your lab survives is a direct contribution to ultimately being able to pursue your North Star, right? I mean, f for now. We will talk about this in another part of the series. If you're feeling a little bit ambivalent about continuing on this path or thinking about your work in this way, right? Nobody wants to just exist in survival mode all the time, right? So we will we will talk about that in in a future episode. But for now, let's assume that you are committed to your North Star in the context of your faculty position, and that this is a moment where you do need to focus on keeping the lights on. And so, in that sense, you know, focusing on the survival of your lab is part of what needs to happen for you to continue pursuing your North Star. And I just want to clarify that not all of the demands that your institution places on you in this moment, not all of them are going to be at odds with your own goals and priorities, right? For example, I know a few institutions mounted lawsuits that required submissions from faculty whose grants were rescinded. And that, I mean, that administrative work is fully in alignment with your North Star, right? You know, reinstating your grants and being able to continue your research. And the the so doing paperwork associated with that is a worthwhile activity, as demoralizing and annoying as it is to have to do all of that paperwork for dumb reasons. I mean, there are obviously going to be instances where you are working collaboratively with your institution. But what I really want to make clear here is the distinction between acceding to all of these institutional requests to the detriment of your own research, right? That's how I want you to conceptualize the survival of your own lab. It's not, I don't want you to think about it necessarily as feeling a high level of precarity. Certainly, if that's not actually how you're feeling, that's fantastic news. But I'm framing survival mode in the sense of these mission critical activities, right? And helping you focus in on those mission critical activities. And those mission-critical activities, as we've been talking about, are the ones associated with the survival of your lab. Eventually, we'll get to the thriving part, and we will talk about that later in the series. But we are talking about mission critical activities to help you reorient your priorities. Because if you're saying yes to all of these requests from your institution, or even, you know, seemingly generous requests from your colleagues to say, hey, do you want to come onto this project or do you want to come onto this grant? Those are all potential things that are going to or have already come across your desk. But what I want you to do still, even now, is the same thing I've been asking you to do all along, which is to look at that request through the lens of your North Star and say, is this aligned or is it not? Because if it's not, it's just going to spread you really thin. And that is going to make it more difficult for you to pursue the work that only you can do, that is within your research wheelhouse and is playing to your strengths, right? If you are just taking anything that comes along just to be able to stay afloat, and it is distracting you from the other work that you could be doing that is more aligned with where you want to go, you need to consider those trade-offs really carefully. And that's what I mean by focus. It's focus in the sense of alignment and cohesion rather than being scattered and spread thin, right? And I also want to highlight the difference between staying afloat from a perspective of panic and precarity, right? That's where you're just taking anything that comes your way, versus staying afloat in alignment with your North Star, with your strengths and abilities and vision. Those are very different. And I am suggesting and recommending that you do not abandon your vision and your strengths and your unique skill set because of a sense of scarcity or precarity. Remember that your North Star establishes your mission and your purpose. And from there, it helps you define your goals and priorities, and that in turn helps you to create a structure that will allow you to achieve those priorities and ultimately your mission. So let's talk now about that structure. I want you to think about the structure you create for yourself as the conditions that need to exist for you to thrive. If you're rolling your eyes at me right now thinking, how can I possibly even imagine thriving in these circumstances? That is exactly why I'm asking you to do this thought exercise. Because if you can't even go there, if you can't even imagine what it would look like, you're not going to be able to create it. I'm not asking you to figure out how to create the conditions that allow you to thrive, but that is something we do inside K to R Essentials. I'm just asking you to identify what they are. Remember, too, that some of them aren't even necessarily professional conditions. It might be getting enough sleep or moving your body an extra 30 minutes per week or going back to a therapist. Remember, these are the conditions that allow you to thrive, which will allow you to become more resilient. So don't think right now about how. And even if the how is obvious and you can implement it, don't expect big changes immediately. This structure that you create for yourself is meant to be long-term and sustainable. And as a listener of the show and a successful academic, I already know that you're a high achiever and a perfectionist. So you're going to create a fantasy in your brain about becoming an entirely different person. But the way to make this structure sustainable is to embrace the process and not the outcome. And so maintaining your focus and building a structure around that focus is what will allow you to navigate this period and really any period of uncertainty successfully. And having that scaffolding in place, the focus and the structure can keep you steady. Because as we talked about at the beginning of this episode, there's gonna be a lot of things coming at you, a lot of requests, a lot of expectations, a lot of demands. And saying no can feel really hard. Because in academia, the system is designed to make you feel like you're lucky to be there, right? Like you're lucky to have this job, especially if you're not a cis white, able-bodied man. You are lucky to be invited into the infrastructure and brand reputation of this institution. And because of that culture, the last thing you want to do is rock the boat. The last thing you want to do is say no and be a problem or be perceived as a problem. Right? And of course, for women, this is exacerbated because you are socialized to please everybody else and put everybody else's needs before your own. So saying no can be really fraught. Saying yes to everything often feels easier because it allows you to avoid the discomfort of disappointing people.

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Right?

SPEAKER_00: 12:55

Again, this is not new information. This is something we've talked about many times before. But here's where I want to bring it back to that idea that we've been talking about during this series about institutions really not being as supportive as we may imagine them to be. Right? What I want you to really internalize from this is that your worth, your value is independent from the institution. It is not dictated by the institution. And so chasing all of these expectations and requirements to prove yourself is not ultimately going to satisfy you. And in fact, it might steer you away from the meaningful and fulfilling work that we've already identified as your North Star, right? Sometimes these things are at odds with each other. Sometimes by keeping your head down, by keeping your eyes on your own paper, focusing on the work that matters to you, you still achieve the requirements and expectations of your institution. But that's not what's driving you. That's not what you are focused on. And I think especially right now, because those expectations are in flux because of external circumstances, you know, we still don't fully know what's going to happen with indirect funds, for example. We still don't fully know where things are going to land with all of the ongoing threats to universities. And so the goalposts were already shifting all of the time, right? And the expectations were always negotiable. You just had to be in a position where you could negotiate or you knew who to negotiate with, right? Those things are going to change. They're going to be malleable. And so you are going to lose your mind if you try to keep figuring out how to please the powers that be. Who, again, are not really the powers that be. They're not providing all of that much for you except for the space to do your work. So the best thing that you can do always is to work at the top of your skill set and do the work that only you can do. And that is really about pursuing your North Star, where your interests and your perspectives and your unique skill set come together in a way that is meaningful to you. And if your institution is not happy with your progress or not supportive, then is that where you want to set yourself up? And look, I understand that there's also one of the sort of cultural elements of academia is that sense of scarcity. And that goes hand in hand with, you know, you're lucky to be here, you're lucky to have this job. But if you are excellent at what you do, that's not an issue. And if you continue spreading yourself thin and giving other people your best, how are you going to be excellent at the things that only you can do and that you care about the most? That is what I'm saying. So in part four of this series, we are going to talk about the ways that you can build support structures into your professional life. Because Lord knows we don't do any of this by ourselves. So thanks again for listening, and I'll see you in part four. Thanks for listening to this episode of Significant Impact from K Award to your first big R0. If you want to dig deeper into what we learned today and move a significant step closer to a smooth K-2R transition, visit Sarah Dobson.co slash pod and check out all the free stuff we have to help you do just that. Don't forget to subscribe to the show to make sure you hear new episodes as soon as they're released. And if today's episode made you think of a colleague or a friend, please tell them about it. Tune in next time and thanks again for listening.