Leadership and Innovation Characteristics - Transforming Your STEM Career Through Leadership and Innovation - page 83

When given the opportunity, to the degree possible build your own team.
Selection of team members should be a process that identifies individuals with
skills, talent, relationships, and functions necessary to accomplish the vision
and mission of the organization at the highest level. As you construct your team,
include your innovation soundboard and core teammates. Having a personal
accountability partner to support you along with a team to keep you accountable
for your deadlines and goals, keep you on your feet, and help you where you
lack the skill or expertise, will be essential for you. Most of us already have a
team without realizing it. You probably have someone you talk to about taking
care of your children, or a spouse you talk to about money. Maybe you keep in
touch with an old college friend who likes to talk about career goals with you.
Understand you need a team, build a team, identify people currently part of your
world that are on your team, and go out to see/incorporate others - a mentor, for
instance - who will be a positive addition to your team.
Determination and Optimism
A woman who is convinced that she deserves to accept only the best challenges herself to
give the best. Then she is living phenomenally. - Maya Angelou
There has never been a leader who has not been plagued by some degree of
doubts and uncertainty. Accept that nothing in life is guaranteed and that a small
dose of uncertainty is a consistent part of life and necessary as we embark upon
new challenges. The reason I bring this up is that so many of us begin undertak-
ings with the attitude “I can do it if…” That “if” is one of the biggest pitfalls for
a leader. If you're a leader, you have to be determined to succeed with no ifs,
ands, or buts! There can be no conditional determination to succeed. There will
be uncertainties, dangers, and the unexpected. Your success as a leader lies in
how determined you are to carry on in the face of these. Remember they are all
watching the leader. If your determination is in doubt, it will not be long before
the determination of your team wanes.
Judy Miller in the topic Great Failures of the Extremely Successful [26] talks
about her battle for the custody of her children, and having to cope with a new
and difficult job at the same time. If you find yourself having to manage signifi-
cant personal and career challenges simultaneously, you may feel overwhelmed,
but don't feel defeated. You can get through this situation. I promise. In the
topic, Miller's words hold true for all of us - “I found that we can be whatever
we want to be whenever we want. You have to just go inside, get rid of all the
voices that aren't yours, the 'should' and 'shouldn'ts' and hear yourself. That's
when you hear the truth. That's what we have to listen to.” [26] The point is you
can get through it - the alternative is to fail and we simply cannot accept failure.
At these times, we must force ourselves to see beyond the moment into our
vision so that we can renew our determination and reach out to the resources,
relationships, and the hope so that we can make it through the difficulty.