The reason you're thinking like a mentee is that you don't really trust yourself. You're still looking around, waiting for approval or permission, which again is perfectly normal as a mentee. But if you're gonna really make the leap to being a leader and a PI, you need to develop that trust in yourself and your own expertise and your own ideas. And that takes deep, intentional inner work that isn't talked about much in academia. And if you've been socialized as a woman, this is extra complicated because you've been socialized to not trust yourself or your ideas and to always defer and please others. So not only have you been socialized to not trust yourself, but everyone else has been socialized to dismiss your ideas and assume that you don't know what you're doing. And in academia, you're taught to revere people in more senior roles and respect the hierarchy. Welcome to the Significant Impact Podcast, the show dedicated to helping overstretched, overachieving women faculty convert their career development award into their first big R01 with purpose, with ease, and with joy. I'm your host, Sarah Dobson. In today's episode, I'm excited to dive into the mentee mindset and how it's holding you back from successfully transitioning into an independent researcher. Let's get started. One of the most crucial shifts you need to make to successfully navigate the K-2R transition is you need to start thinking like a PI rather than a mentee. Most of the women I work with believe that they become independent PIs once they've secured their first R0, but that's not true at all. You need to start thinking and behaving like an independent PI in order to become one. So, how do you do that? Well, first let's talk about the difference between syncing like a mentee and thinking like a PI. Let's talk about the mentee mindset first. So, the biggest indicator that you're still in a mentee mindset is that you are relying on your mentors to tell you what your next steps are. This can show up in a bunch of different ways. So it can look like waiting until they tell you that you're ready to start applying for an R01. It can look like relying on your mentors too heavily for the development or the direction of your research ideas, or worse, just kind of piggybacking on their research for too long. And yes, your mentors are crucial at this stage of your career, but remember that the entire purpose of a K award is for you to become an independent researcher. And that doesn't happen when you get an R01. You need to start making that shift during your K award so that you can become an independent PI. But the reason you're thinking like a mentee is that you don't really trust yourself. You're still looking around, waiting for approval or permission, which again is perfectly normal as a mentee. But if you're gonna really make the leap to being a leader and a PI, you need to develop that trust in yourself and your own expertise and your own ideas. And that takes deep, intentional inner work that isn't talked about much in academia. And if you've been socialized as a woman, this is extra complicated because you've been socialized to not trust yourself or your ideas and to always defer and please others. So not only have you been socialized to not trust yourself, but everyone else has been socialized to dismiss your ideas and assume that you don't know what you're doing. And in academia, you're taught to revere people in more senior roles and respect the hierarchy. So when you put all that together, it's no wonder that you have trouble trusting yourself, your ideas, and the direction that you want to take for your career. My intention is not to paint a super bleak picture here, but I want you to start noticing where you lack that trust in yourself and where you defer to other people's opinions and advice above your own. That's the first stage. Just notice that. Okay, now let's talk about where we're trying to end up, and that is the PI mindset. This is really about stepping into a leadership role, and that does require a tremendous amount of self-trust, especially in the face of uncertainty. But honestly, that's what leadership really is. It's about making the best decision you can in the moment with the information that you have and sort of managing the discomfort of uncertainty and then gathering information and evidence about the outcome of the decision that you made. You don't need to have all the answers, but you do need to make a lot of decisions, mostly in the dark. And that's why you really need to develop that sense of self-trust and self-reliance. Because if you're trying to make decisions when you're still thinking like a mentee, what's gonna happen? You're gonna second guess yourself left and right, you're gonna confuse everyone you're working with, including yourself, and you're gonna be extremely stressed out all the time. I know because I've been there. And I've also observed it in the women that I work with. When you have a dozen voices in your ear telling you how to change your research idea and you don't trust your own expertise and experience, you're gonna end up with a Frankenstein grant that really isn't yours and you don't really care about it, but you created it to please other people. So let's imagine the best case scenario, right? The best case scenario is that it gets funded and you're working on something that you don't give a shit about. But more often than not, the project ends up in endless submission cycles because there's not enough you in that grant to hold it all together. So to bring this all together for you, I want you to start noticing where you're still thinking like a mentee and start finding opportunities to think like a PI. Just doing that is a great start for that deep internal work you need to do to fully step into your leadership and really become an independent PI. Thanks for listening to this episode of Significant Impact, from K Award to your first big R01. If you want to geek out on what we learned today and move a significant step closer to getting your R01 funded, visit Sarahdobson.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. If today's episode made you think of a colleague or a friend, please tell them about it. We need more fearless, tenacious researchers out here. Tune in next time and thanks again for listening.