Summary: Leadership Development

Introduction
For research students, running their laboratory in a university or a research institution is a collective dream and the beginning of their career. Recent years, some universities provide management and business courses for science students, as running a laboratory is much more than doing scientific research. A laboratory is a straightforward and relatively independent organisation with a leader and several group members. However, this kind of group is exceptional as the work in a lab is very stressful, and each member has particular goals, such as graduation and publishes papers. The head of a laboratory, which is typically known as the principal investigator (PI), usually leads from several to decades of researchers, including

In the first lecture, “leadership development” was described as these steps: choose a behaviour; set up a goal for changing this behaviour; set up a timeline; and access the progress (Chemers 2014; Wofford 1982). However, there is also some specific solution to solve each problem. First, a mission statement should consider both the history of the lab and the current challenge and how to accomplish the goal in a short time and a long time. However, the mission statement is not an operation plan. It should contain essential elements and show the difference between the lab to others lab. Once there is a c comfortable mission statement, it should frequently be mentioned in lab meeting when new staff join the lab and start their project (Maryrose & Martin 2006). Second, the leader should choose different leadership style for different lab members. The leadership style can be classified into four types according to supportive behaviour and directive behaviour (Hersey et al. 2007) (Figure 1). Directive behaviour tells people the goals, methods and time, and carefully monitoring the action. Supportive conduct involves assisting and encouraging people and listen to them. Directing style is suitable for leading staff who just start working in the lab and need to learn some techniques. Coaching style can support one’s development, but it will take more time. Thus, it is suitable to lead graduate students after they join the team. Supporting style puts a high focus on the relationship and a lower one on tasks. Thus, this style is suitable for postdocs and experienced graduate students. Delegating style puts a little concentration on both work and relationship. It is not a negative style, which is also very important because the PIs do not have much time to support and develop contact with anyone. This style is used to lead independent individuals such as postdocs who will leave the lab in