Developing individuals
An optimal research environment encourages and empowers researchers.
- Developing individual researchers
- Supporting researcher career development
- Appraisals for researchers
- Mentoring and coaching for PIs
Developing individuals
Every researcher has their own talents and abilities – learn how you can develop their potential as a research leader.
This page covers how you can support researcher career development, outlines the appraisal process as a key opportunity for supporting researchers, and looks at how mentoring and coaching skills can help you support researcher development more effectively.
Developing individual researchers
It is important to recognise that different people need to be treated differently, and that the same person needs to be treated differently in different situations.
Three things will help you to navigate this:
- Authenticity – people want to be led by a real person. Try to lead like someone else and you will fail. It is essential that you retain your authenticity, that you are yourself. This can be really hard when different people ask different things from you
- Strategic clarity – this is about knowing where you want to take your work or your team. If you have a clear sense of this it will be much easier for you to respond to individuals with the necessary decisions
- Emotional intelligence – understand your own feelings and the feelings of those around you and use this understanding to promote the achievement of the task, the operation of the team, and the development of the individual.
Supporting researcher career development
In the UK, all funding councils expect researchers to actively engage in professional training and development and the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) has been produced to support this process.
Development should not be seen as something distinct from the research project as it can often immediately complement and impact upon your researchers’ work on the project.
The principal investigator is central to enabling and encouraging each researcher to undertake professional development.
This is because PIs:
- Understand the demands of their researchers’ roles
- Have an insight into their strengths and weaknesses
- Can offer support and advice to their researchers when they consider their development goals
- Are in an excellent position to shape researchers’ professional development by ensuring they have access to appropriate opportunities to develop their skills and experience
- Will often be viewed by researchers as a role model
- Can provide opportunities for researchers to try out their newly-acquired skills, etc.
- Can encourage researchers to reflect on new experiences to ensure they learnt the most important lessons from them.
Top tips for supporting career development
- Identify the researchers’ development needs at the start of a contract
- Strike the right balance between the needs of the project and the needs of the researcher
- Help the researcher identify their areas for development – the Vitae Researcher Development Framework can help with this
- Keep a record of skills attained, those in progress, and those for future
- Ensure the researcher takes the lead in their own professional development plan
- Career development is most effective when it is started early and continuously acted upon.
- Principal investigators can help researchers to develop their careers by combining career development with their work, and being a person to go to for guidance.
- Aim to combine the researcher’s career development with their day-to-day work, as both areas will have overlapping skills and will enhance each other.
- Encourage researchers to explore careers outside of academia as well as within.
Appraisals for researchers
Appraisal is the formal process that requires each staff member to review their performance and discuss their development needs with an appropriate colleague or manager on a regular (usually annual) basis.
- Appraisals can sometimes be referred to as a ‘Performance and Development Review’ or ‘Staff Review’
- The purpose is to review past performance and future goals in a supportive setting
- For both appraiser and appraisee the preparation before the meeting and actions afterwards are equally as important in ensuring that appraisal is a worthwhile activity.
- Appraisal is nearly always an institutional requirement. Your institution is likely to have clear regulations and procedures as to how and when your researchers will need to be appraised.
- Who takes the role of appraiser or how they are chosen will vary between institutions. The appraiser should usually be someone who the appraisee (the researcher) is comfortable with. This could most likely be the Principal Investigator (PI).
Before the appraisal:
- Review the previous year’s appraisal notes (if applicable)
- Reflect on the researcher’s performance to date
- Identify challenges that have arisen over the previous year
- Identify areas of achievement you will want to highlight
- Identify areas of potential that can be encouraged
- Anticipate challenges or changes that may occur in the coming year
- Consider ideas and avenues for professional or career development.
During the appraisal:
- Encourage the appraisee to play a major role in setting the agenda at the start of the meeting
- Ensure they have ample opportunity to comment on all issues that are raised
- Take brief notes rather than trying to complete the paperwork so you can give the conversation your full attention
- Remain constructive in your comments throughout
- Give praise where appropriate
- Focus on how to move forward and develop
- Ask what you can do to help
- Make absolutely sure that any conclusions reached or targets set have the full agreement of the appraisee.
After the appraisal:
- Record the conclusions reached and next actions
- Follow your institution’s reporting requirements
- Work with your researcher to ensure actions are followed through in the agreed timeframe
- Set additional reviews to discuss the goals and actions
- Send your researcher relevant professional development material.
To ensure confidentiality
- Ensure that the appraisee is fully aware of the entire appraisal process including what needs to be reported and to whom
- Offer them the opportunity to be able to input into and, if you feel it is appropriate, even agree the final report
- Assuring them that, aside from the formal reporting requirements, your conversations will remain private.
What are the benefits of appraisal to researchers?
- Enhance the work of your team by enabling researchers to reach their full potential
- It’s a two-way process that allows the researcher to raise any concerns
- Researchers will feel their needs and concerns are being met
- Objectives, goals and purpose are clarified for the coming year
- The researcher can give feedback to the appraiser
- Discuss the researcher’s career trajectory
Mentoring and coaching skills for PIs
As an effective mentor or coach, you need to have, and be prepared to develop, certain skills such as:
- Integrity
- Confidentiality
- Honesty
- An ability to provide feedback
- Be willing to commit your time
- Have an interest in developing others
- Effective listening and questioning
- Build rapport and show respect
Mentoring and coaching for PIs
There can be huge benefits to developing mentoring or coaching skills for researchers and for Principal investigators including:
- Increased motivation, productivity and performance
- Improved interpersonal relationships, communication and networks
- More awareness of personal impact
- Clearer idea of career path or goals
- Better understanding of what is required in their role
- Greater confidence
- Easier integration into a new role, institution, culture, or country
A mentoring or coaching relationship may boost the confidence of a researcher to write a paper, to contribute to writing a grant, or to present at a conference. A commitment to action is central, giving researchers impetus and encouragement.
Effective listening and questioning
Effective listening builds an understanding of:
- Where a person is having difficulties
- What will be of interest
- What they might need to know
- How much time is available
Coupled with listening, effective questioning promotes deep thinking, exploring contradictions, challenging commitment and offering new perspectives. Open questions are most effective as they do not pre-suppose the answer and encourage in-depth replies.
Approaches to coaching and mentoring
There are several approaches to coaching and mentoring. Two of the key approaches are directive and non-directive mentoring and coaching.
Directive mentoring and coaching
This involves a transfer of wisdom, where the mentor or coach provides advice or direction, based on their experience and expertise.
Non-directive mentoring and coaching
A non-directive approach allows the recipient to formulate their own solutions and actions as a result of skilled listening and questioning from the mentor or coach.
Directive approaches
Advantages
- Mentee benefits from shared experience
- Mentee benefits from mentors’ hindsight
- Mentee can be given a solution
- Mentor feels rewarded by sharing wisdom.
Disadvantages
- Mentee has less ownership of outcomes
- Mentee may be less committed to action
- The solution might not be ‘right’.
Non-directive approaches
Advantages
- Mentor/coach does not need to be an expert in the field
- Mentor/coach is open-minded and asks open questions
- Mentee/coachee has ownership of the solution
- Mentee/coachee has greater commitment to action
- The solution is more likely to be ‘right’.
Disadvantages
- Longer time to reach an outcome
- Missed opportunity to benefit from another’s experience
- Mentee/coachee may simply want to be given the answer.
Things to take away
- It is important to recognise that different people need to be treated differently and that the same person needs to be treated differently in different situations.
- Appraisal is the formal process that requires each staff member to review their performance and discuss their development needs with an appropriate colleague or manager on a regular (usually annual) basis.
- In the UK, all funding councils expect researchers to actively engage in professional training and development and the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) has been produced to support this process.
- A mentoring or coaching relationship may boost the confidence of a researcher to write a paper, to contribute to writing a grant, or to present at a conference. A commitment to action is central, giving researchers impetus and encouragement.