On Saturday December 10th, the Academy hosting a dinner to celebrate Women in Science. As always, the Academy was able to pull together a top notch group of scientists, university presidents, captains of STEM industries, and a group of promising young scientists.
Mentoring is a central issue in career advancement and given that my research background is in gender dynamics, I expected the panel discussion to be well worn territory. What I found instead were insights into the more nuanced roles that mentors play when working with young women and I wanted to write this thank you note to one of the women who influenced me the most.
While at the American Museum of Natural History, I was lucky enough to work with Ruth Cohen. While not a leader in science, she has plenty of experience working in non-profit management and from the moment I began my working for her she was explicit that her role was to help me develop as a young leader in the field. Here are a few things she would do (and still often does) for me that got me to where I am now.
- Bring me into the highest level meetings, sometimes as a participant and sometimes as a seemingly lowly notetaker. She taught me to think carefully about every single thing that I said to make sure the few times I would have to contribute would be powerful and succinct.
- She was honest with me about my areas of weakness – specifically that my wonkish, jargon- filled comments came off as wonkish and jargon-filled – and often pointed them out before a meeting as a pitfall to avoid.
- She often prepped me for a meeting by telling me who was going to be in the room, what role each person was playing, and what role was I playing. For example, I frequently speak from the perspective of a teacher and quickly switch into the perspective of a researcher. She helped me understand which one needed in the meeting and which was most effective to reach the goals of the meeting.
- If I missed an opportunity to make a valuable comment or simply said something at the wrong time, she would tell me about it after the meeting. Collectively, she helped me switch from the grad school meeting style to the business meeting style. I frequently refer to these types of meetings as “big girl meetings” because they have a purpose and an agenda unlike rambling brainstorm-type meetings we all know and love.
- It was hard at first but she pointed out when I wasn’t dressed correctly for something. More often than not she would encourage rather than discourage, but sometimes it was hard to hear that my favorite suit was getting a little rough around the edges.
- Perhaps the most important advice was how to make conversation at receptions and meetings where I didn’t know anyone.
At our Women In Science event on Saturday, this last bullet point was my one piece of “big girl” advice to the visiting group of high school girls. I really hate receptions, especially when I don’t know anyone, but I’ve had to switch from wall flower to socially functional for work. Here are the points that get me through:
1) If you see someone standing alone, go up and talk to them. A good opening line is “What brings you here?” or “What is your connection to the Academy?”
2) If you run out of things to say the questions “do you have any travel coming up?” or “have you read any good books lately” are good ones.
3) Always always always have business cards.
4) Don’t be shy if you overhear a conversation that sounds interesting – just say “excuse me, but I couldn’t help but overhear your fascinating conversation. Mind if I join you?”
5) Be charming and smart – practice the one sentence description of your research for both a lay audience and a science audience. Giving a technical description of your work is okay but understand that people really want the “so what?” of your work.
6) Try not to leave anyone standing by alone but don’t worry too much about introducing people and then leaving them to talk.
