6. Dr Simona Carbone on communicating effectively as a leader
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Episode show notes
Today’s episode is a deep dive with Dr Simona Carbone on the crucial role of communication in effective leadership.
Simona is the co-director of the Integrated Neurogenic Mechanisms Lab in Drug Discovery Biology at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS). In addition to her research work, she is the host and producer of the podcast, The Lead Candidate, a show that delves into what makes a great leader in different fields of science.
In this episode, Simona shares her insights on how to align your team behind a central mission, operationalise values to ensure they have a tangible impact, and navigate the nitty-gritty aspects of running effective meetings and having productive conversations with your colleagues and team members. We also discuss how to understand and adapt to the different communication styles within your team, ensuring that everyone feels heard and valued.
If you’re a leader in research or are aspiring to be one, this episode is packed with practical tips and strategies to help you foster better communication and collaboration in your team.
Our conversation covers:
The importance of effective communication in leadership, especially in scientific and research environments.
Strategies for aligning your team behind a central mission and ensuring everyone understands the shared goals.
How to operationalise your team’s values, making sure they influence everyday actions and decisions.
Techniques for running effective meetings that are both productive and engaging for all participants.
Navigating difficult conversations and ensuring that differing opinions are heard and respected.
Understanding and adapting to the diverse communication styles within your team to foster a more inclusive and collaborative environment.
Resources mentioned:
Dare to Lead by Brené Brown —
Dare to Lead list of values —
https://brenebrown.com/resources/dare-to-lead-list-of-values
Find Dr Simona Carbone online:
Practical tips from this episode:
Building team alignment:
Align your team with a clear mission: Clearly articulate the central mission and goals of your team to ensure everyone is working towards the same objectives.
Operationalise your values: Don’t just state your team’s values — embed them into daily practices and decisions to make them a tangible part of your work culture.
Running effective meetings:
Prepare and structure your meetings: Have a clear agenda and goals for each meeting to keep discussions focused and productive.
Encourage participation: Create an environment where all team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas and opinions.
Navigating difficult conversations:
Listen actively: When dealing with conflicts or differing opinions, practice active listening to understand all perspectives before responding.
Be empathetic: Approach conversations with empathy, acknowledging the emotions and concerns of your team members.
Adapting to different communication styles:
Know your team: Take the time to understand the unique communication preferences and styles of each team member.
Be flexible: Adapt your communication approach to suit the needs of different individuals, ensuring that everyone feels heard and valued.
- Public engagement
- Storytelling
- Career development
- Team alignment
- Your pitch
- Making your work relatable
- Talks and presentations
- Strategic comms
- Communicating in different formats/mediums
- Stakeholder/audience mapping
- Listening
- Strategy
- Mentorship
- Collaborating with professional staff
- Comedy
- Failure
- Interdisciplinary collaboration
- Philanthropic funding
- Relationship management
Quotes:
"What [great leaders in science] all have in common is generally being able to speak a clear message. Often that comes from having a really strong purpose and that helps with being able to communicate a really clear message..."
"[Mission statements] work better when its not just a token statement that's set, but it's something that is actionable either for the team to work towards or for the team to contribute to on a day to day basis."
"If you break that really big bold mission statement into smaller things that you want to achIeve... That helps to communicate what that big bold idea is to your team."
"A very important part of communication as a leader is recognising that you need to say the same thing several times. But if you're not changing the way you're saying it... It's not going to get the message across."
"Trying to understand the motivations of people will get you so much further because you become less frustrated and upset with people when that happens. And also you are then able to figure out how to help them do more and achieve what it is that they want to do."
"It's been trying to shift the focus to, okay, well rather than we need to apply for funding from X, Y, and Z because that is the expectation that is put on us by the university... What is it that we want funded? What science is it that we're really excited about? And then how do we get that funded? Flip the question. How is it that we are able to fund what it is we are excited about? And then you can design projects that fit with that central point, and then you can apply for alternative sources of funding that might be a bit different than what you were after initially, but it's going to get the stuff that you're excited about."
"One of the things that we established really early on was that we wanted an environment where everyone could speak about science. So we'll have lab meetings, people present their work weekly. And, we wanted to break down this thing of why aren't people asking questions? Why are people scared to ask questions? We want to make that environment that everyone feels like they can contribute. They can get clarity on something if they haven't understood. And so that's been something we've worked really hard towards and we'll change things every so often if we feel like it's not working."
"Not that I don't care about being respectful, but I'm not scared by the leadership before me because I know I present something that's important. I have a point of view that is important and experience that is important. It will make them better leaders if I am able to share my experience and they are able to action that."
"People think of science communication as simply being communicating science to the general public as it's is simply just a nice thing that we're doing... But you've got to realise it's such a wonderful training opportunity for your staff as well. For me, I started off doing science communication because I was quite passionate about making people excited about science. But then I ended up gaining all these skills on how to speak with people who are not in my area about science. Using the same methods that I was using to speak to children at primary school, but applying it in a business setting. And suddenly I become a scientist who is able to work with industry, or can communicate with people who might see my work as being commercially viable. So suddenly that becomes an economic source of funding for people within research centres that they wouldn't have necessarily have had before."
"It also means you actually understand your work far better, um, than someone who can speak about it in a way that no one else can understand..."
