Speak Like an Administrator

“I write as straight as I can, just as I walk as straight as I can, because that is the best way to get there.” ~ H.G. Wells

1. Get to your point, quickly

Have you ever heard the following speech?

“I have some suggestions. You might have heard me talking about this. It’s not completely related, but, it’s similar to what John said, that is, if we ever want to reach our goal, I’m not saying we aren’t on the right track, but given what we have been doing, my point is, is it even feasible to believe that, well, of course everybody may have his own way of judging our performance, but, realistically, say, if you are an outsider, and you are asked to assess our progress …”

Okay, maybe not the exact sentences, but you’ve heard something similar, most likely from lab technicians or staff, who speak with their arms and hands fumbling around to help express their opinions. This type of indirect and uncertain speeches is not uncommon in our daily life, but should be avoided for a PI, especially in formal meetings. It wastes your listeners’ time. It can easily get you redirected to other topics, and you may never have a second chance to come back and address your original point. In fact, after all the distractions, you may not even remember what you were going to say in the first place.

Often, people circle round and round before they get to the point because they don’t want to offend anybody, or to challenge an existing system. They move forward a little bit, then immediately back up, or they divert to something else. They seem to speak complete sentences, but when you examine the meaning, halfway it’s changed to something else. This kind of verbal style reflects the speaker’s lack of confidence and compromises his authority. There is cowardice inside and out.

That’s why we rarely hear such speeches from high-level administrators, like your dean. Note that this is not to say that we have to speak in an absolutely straightforward way. For example, when you criticize someone’s approach, simply saying that “Your solution will help alleviate some of the concerns, but the major issue remains.” is polite enough. There’s no need to overly elaborate, “Yes, I could see your point. I guess you are right, considering the situation, that it would have been nice if we could …”

A competent administrator knows to stick to the subject; otherwise he won’t get anything done. Sometimes they get carried away briefly, but they always know to go back to the topic and tie up loose ends. When someone can control his own thoughts and behaviors, there is a higher chance for him to control others.

2. Finish your sentences

An even worth habit than not getting to the point is not finishing sentences. They say the first half of the sentence, they spread out their hands or shrug their shoulders, and then either move on to the next sentence or add quickly, “You know what I mean?”, leaving the listeners to fill the blank. Occasionally, this might be the best strategy to handle a tough situation, but most of the time, a PI, or a higher educator, should try to talk in complete structures.

This may particularly be an issue for non-native speakers. Sometimes we have difficulty finding the right words, and we simply give up, knowing that people will figure out what we are trying to say. Still, it’s safer to be explicit. Tell your students what’s not allowed, and what’s expected. Leave no room for misinterpretations. Some people’s excuse is, “I don’t want to say something wrong. By being vague, I can make sure that nobody can use my words to accuse me later.” Well, you are a PI. It’s better to be a responsible person who makes wrong choices, than to develop a sly personality.

3. Show that you are educated

I once worked with a vet who was also a high-level admin in the medical school. Every time there was a meeting involving him, I would fly over to listen to his speech. His sentences were beautifully constructed, with sophisticated and accurate word choices. Some of us may say, “That’s too hard for non-native speakers.” It may not be as hard has you have imagined, if you consciously work on it.

They key is to think about what you want to say before you open your mouth. Even for native speakers, when they are pressured to respond fast, they are less likely to speak well. As non-native speakers, we have all suffered, when we first came to this country, the embarrassment of not being able to articulate promptly. As a negative effect, later we tend to err on the other extreme, which is to respond prematurely, before we have given the question the thought it deserves. We should learn to take our time. Don’t be afraid that the listeners may lose their patience. Taking time to plan for what we are going to say and how we say it does not waste as much their time as talking on and on without hitting the point. If we observe the conversations around us, we could find that impatience occurs more often when the speaker is unable to “shut up”.

Okay, we all agree that content matters. Why do we care about how well it is narrated? First, it affects how people judge us. For example, right after I came to this country, my Ph.D. advisor told me, “If you need to contact researchers in our field, let me look at your email first. People in this country tend to link grammatical errors to low education, which is really unfair for foreigners.” Unfair, but that’s the reality. Since then, I’ve always treated email communication as a serious thing unless I was in a rush. Second, words have power. “Language is neither innocent nor neutral. Linguistic habits condition our view of the world and hinder social change.” (Carmen Martinez Ten)

If you write well, then you have the ability to speak well, by allowing yourself time to organize your words (and your thoughts) and speak slowly.

4. Avoid rush decisions

The only thing that’s worse than a rush response is a rush decision. Having been a student and trainee for two decades, we are too eager to please others, when we should have taken more time, “off line”, to weight the pros and cons. Unfortunately, the transition from a trainee to a PI is something that can be learned but cannot be taught. We learn to think carefully before making any commitment only after multiple lessons. Last year I always said, “Sure, you can work in my lab.” This year I tended to say, “Sure, we can talk about it.”

Believe me, in the years ahead, you’ll find that the time spent pondering on your decisions always pays off.