Live in hope

In a talk I enjoyed at the 74th Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting in early July, Akira Yoshino said that he feels he has a duty as a Nobel prize winner to inspire hope in future generations of scientists. To do so, every year he makes a video to highlight the potential of lithium ion batteries (his work on which led him to share the 2019 Nobel prize in chemistry) and to show young researchers that their work can help to reduce the extent of climate change.

Providing hope is an important part of leadership. Whether you’re managing a single person or acting as a role model for people across the world, enabling the people who look up to you to feel that their work has value and purpose is vital to motivating them to do their best work. But it can be tough to offer up that optimism if you’re also uncertain about the future.

Swathes of scientific leaders are currently in that position. In the UK, several university chemistry departments have closed or have reduced their courses, and there is still the worry that cost-cutting measures might hit chemistry at other universities as well. In the US, grant terminations are ending research projects – and academic careers – with a further 34% cut to federal funding for basic research proposed. And outside of academia, several major chemical firms have announced large-scale redundancies over the past couple of years. That’s despite research by the Royal Society of Chemistry predicting that demand for chemistry-related jobs will far exceed growth in the UK’s wider labour market over the next decade.

How can you inspire hope when your own career is under threat?

The first step is to be as upfront about upcoming difficulties as you can. A realistic view of current circumstances makes it easier for your team to work out what they can feel hopeful about. Corporate rules might restrict how much you can tell them about imminent redundancies or pay cuts but you can at least avoid making statements that place an unrealistically positive light on the situation. False hope and empty promises can backfire, leaving employees more demoralised (and less trusting of you) than they would otherwise have been when they discover the truth.

But the most important part of inspiring hope in others is to find hope yourself – to lead by example. It’s unusual to be in a situation where no hope at all remains. Perhaps among wider chaos, a project you’re working on is making a tangible difference to a few people. Or a recent professional achievement will look great on your CV. Even if you can’t find something to be hopeful about personally, perhaps you can take heart from your team members having qualities that suggest they’ll thrive despite the career challenges coming their way.

Most of us don’t have the influence of a Nobel prize winner. But hopefully we can still inspire the people around us to keep going, even in hard times.