Dr Merryn McKinnon
Lecturer, Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science
@MezMcK
There’s nothing quite like being appraised by a penguin.
One bright little amber eye, regarding you almost quizzically. You can almost hear the internal question “what are you and what are you doing here?"
Fair question to raise. I’d asked it of myself several times during the Homeward Bound experience.
Homeward Bound is a leadership and strategy program for women in science, and December 2016 was its first of ten voyages over the coming years.
I was on a ship for 20 days with 75 other female scientists from a vast array of disciplines—a truly formidable, accomplished, impressive, wonderful group of people.
We were there to become the most effective leaders we could be.
There were many important ‘take home’ messages from Homeward Bound but here are three of most relevance to EMCRs.
Our perceptions of ourselves influence how we act, consciously or unconsciously, and this perception greatly shapes the kind of leader we are or will become.
If we lack confidence in ourselves then we may seek approval from others, or hide our insecurity behind antagonistic or competitive behaviours—not traits necessarily conducive to effectively leading, or let’s face it, enjoying our careers as much as we could.
Honestly appraise your strengths, weaknesses and how you perceive your skills and abilities. Are you standing in your own way?
To lead—at any level—you need to be seen. Communicate your work with passion and purpose. This was reiterated endlessly in interviews filmed especially for the Homeward Bound participants with eminent scientists and strategists such as Jane Goodall, Silvia Earle, Christiana Figueres and Bob Kaplan. This is not just about doing media interviews or writing papers. Network, connect with people, because we all need to…
You cannot succeed alone. Interdisciplinary approaches in research are becoming more common as the nature of the questions and problems become more complex. Having a network to draw on for resources, inspiration and support is essential to surviving and thriving in any career, and science is no exception.
So what are you? What are you doing here? Where do you want to go?
I don’t think I have all the answers yet, but Homeward Bound certainly gave me some useful paths to explore on the way to finding them.
[Ed. ABC also did a write up about the trip]
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