Leadership 102 - Your first team: The research group

Graduating with a doctorate and conducting research as a student do not prepare the average faculty member for team leadership. At most universities that require faculty to conduct research, secure funding, and produce scholarly works, it is imperative that the faculty member have a research team, and that the team produce. To develop a team and to make that team produce requires a certain amount of skill: leadership skill. Leadership of people is an acquired skill, and differs vastly from management of things, although many feel that people can be managed. From selecting the right team members to giving them the correct assignments, it is the leader who must carefully weigh the skills of the team member and the proper position for those skills. Time management becomes an issue early on and must be watched, or time will become the enemy of the team. The leader must set priorities, and must be clearly visible in taking the team to the next level. Effective and efficient teams win, and so do their leaders. This paper will address the methods for building a team, and the way to take a new group of researchers and make them operate at high speed.