Make Your P.I. Love You

Success in science can depend just as much on managing our boss as it does on managing our project.  Aside from making the day-to-day more enjoyable, a good working relationship with our boss is the first step towards a great recommendation.  Since a reference letter can singlehandedly get an average application considered or a great application thrown out, it’s worth the effort to get one.  So where do we begin?

Staying on the bosses’ good side is a start.  Here are seven simple ways to make your PI love you.  Not in that way…

Give them what they expect

One of the most important aspects of knowing how to stay on the boss’ good side is to first understand what they want.  If you’re new to the lab, talk to other lab members about what the boss is looking for- hours, data, meetings, etc.  Once you find out, do it.  A friend of mine worked for a P.I. that was very clear about the specific hours he wanted to see people in the lab.  The hours were completely reasonable.  My friend, however, preferred the afternoon/night shift and refused to work the hours on principle.  In reality, my friend worked more than double the hours the boss wanted, but the defiance was a huge point of contention and in fact it ruined the relationship between the boss and student.  We need to pick our battles.  Research is hard enough – don’t make it harder than it needs to be.

Put in the hours when it counts

Every time someone brought up the word “deadline,” my PI would snap into the same story about a former grad student who pulled two all-nighters in a row to finish a set of experiments for a grant.  We’d heard it so many times that students sitting behind the PI would routinely lip-sync the story in perfect unison.  Working hard is one thing.  Working hard when the boss needs it is another.  Be it a grant deadline or a paper submission, burning the midnight oil to make sure the project gets completed will cement our place in the pantheon of repetitive P.I. stories.

Empathize

I know, I know – shouldn’t they empathize with us?!  Yes.  But it’s a two-way street.  It’s hard to know exactly what the boss is going through at any moment, but there are certainly times where we’ll be clued in: grant deadlines and heavy travel are usually easy to spot.  These are times of huge stress, since everything else they’re supposed to be doing generally gets put on hold and builds up. Sometimes just acknowledging their situation (“I know you’ve been out of the office quite a bit lately, so you’re plate must be incredibly full…”) before a request will set us apart from the dozens of other people aggressively demanding their time.

Have an agenda

We’re busy and so is the boss.  Nobody has time to watch us nervously flip through the notebook trying to find that gel that we know is in there (“or is it still on my desk? I thought I put it in here?”).  Meeting with the boss doesn’t necessarily require a formal Powerpoint presentation, but it does require some planning.  Even if it’s just five minutes before the meeting, put together a list of the topics we’d like to discuss and lay out the supporting materials (spectra, graphs, gels, etc.) clearly to enable smooth transitions between topics.  We’ll look organized, we’ll stay on topic and the boss will be impressed.

Take initiative

Bosses want to know that they’re paying us for a reason.  Sure, they’re paying us almost nothing, but that’s another story… Generally, as we progress through the grad school/postdoc/job trajectory, we will be granted more independence.  The sooner we get comfortable with lining up and taking the next step ourselves, the better.  If we need to borrow a piece of equipment, find someone in the department who has it.  If our project is stuck, find someone who can help us push it forward.  The boss wants to know that the project is in good hands.  Let’s take the initiative to show them it is.

Be positive

Our projects won’t always go well.  In fact, they may not go well for a long period of time.  That doesn’t mean we can’t get upset, but a consistently negative outlook is to our detriment.  If we were the boss, would we want to hear: “This stupid reaction just won’t go – I’m so tired of working on this damn thing, it’s pointless.” OR “I’ve tried the reaction several times with no luck, but I found a few other conditions that I’m going to try – I know we’ll get around the problem”?

Exactly.

Get your face time

Between conferences, talks, grants, manuscripts, meetings and classes, this can be a tough one.  It’s hard for a boss to write a good letter for us if they couldn’t pick us out of a police line-up.  This certainly doesn’t need to be a weekly event, but getting on our boss’ calendar quarterly for a one-on-one meeting is not a bad idea.  The meeting doesn’t need to be a 2-hour rehash of every experiment we’ve done.  Even dropping in to discuss an exciting result we obtained or a problem we recently overcame will do wonders.  Not only does the boss get to see that we’re still excited in the project, but hey – what boss doesn’t love a little good news?

Have any other tips for managing the relationship with the boss?