Stepping into your first leadership role in academia can feel overwhelming. One day you’re focused mainly on your own research. The next, people start looking to you for decisions, feedback, direction, and support, often while your own workload hasn’t become any smaller. Most researchers don’t receive much preparation for this transition. Yet, you’re suddenly expected to balance multiple roles: researcher, manager, mentor, and leader, often all at the same time.

This article brings together key insights from a recent webinar with Anne Schreiter and Alexandra Wiebke. It explores five common realities of leadership in academia and offers practical ideas for navigating your first leadership role.

#1 You were hired for your research, but your success depends on leadership

The first surprise many researchers experience when taking on leadership responsibilities is that scientific excellence alone is no longer enough. Your expertise may earn you a leadership position, but helping other people do excellent work largely determines whether you succeed in it.

At first glance, leadership can feel like just another responsibility added to an already full to-do list. But done well, it can actually make research easier, more effective, and more enjoyable. Good leadership helps create more time for research, better collaboration, clearer decision-making, greater efficiency, and a more enjoyable research environment.

For researchers, leadership means balancing three areas at the same time: strategic goals, people, and the organization.

It’s important to note that leading in academia looks different from leading in many other sectors. Research organisations are expert organisations. You lead highly qualified specialists, not simply people carrying out assigned tasks. At the same time, universities combine relatively clear hierarchies with highly independent labs, departments, and research groups. That means leadership often depends less on formal authority and more on influence, collaboration, and trust.

Your future success increasingly depends on your team’s success. Your team relies on you for supervision, resources, and career opportunities. At the same time, your own work depends on their progress, reliability, and contribution.

#2 Nobody prepared you for this role

Most researchers become leaders before anyone teaches them how to lead.

Rather than trying to become the perfect leader, start by asking what kind of leader you want to be. Your values and principles help you make decisions when situations become difficult. They shape how you give feedback, how you deal with conflict, what you expect from others, and what kind of research culture you want to build.

One helpful exercise is to reflect on your own experiences. What did the best leaders or mentors you worked with do well? What would you do differently?

As a PhD candidate or postdoc, your identity often centres on being an expert. As you move into leadership, you remain an expert, but you also become a manager and a leader.

Instead of asking, ‚How can I spend more time doing research?‘, ask yourself: Which role does this situation actually require? For example, if a PhD student struggles with motivation or confidence, they probably do not need another expert explaining the science. They may need a leader who listens, asks questions, and helps them find a way forward.

Universities operate through both formal structures and informal networks. Learn who makes decisions, who influences them, and whom to approach for advice. Sometimes a coffee with an experienced colleague can save weeks of frustration.

#3 Your job is no longer to do everything yourself

Many researchers reach leadership positions because they are exceptionally capable. Ironically, continuing to do everything yourself quickly becomes one of the biggest obstacles to effective leadership.

Your job changes. Instead of doing everything yourself, your role becomes creating the conditions in which others can do their best work.

That also means accepting that you cannot do everything yourself anymore. As your responsibilities grow, so does the need to prioritise. Knowing your priorities and saying no to tasks that do not contribute to your goals becomes an essential leadership skill.

Situational leadership means adapting your support to the person in front of you. Some people need training, others guidance, coaching, or delegation. Good delegation develops people while allowing you to focus on what matters most.

#4 Many leadership problems are not technical problems

Some problems have straightforward solutions. Others involve uncertainty, changing behaviour, or resolving conflict.

Adaptive leadership helps distinguish between the two. Rather than immediately providing answers, ask questions, create space for reflection, and help others develop their own solutions. A useful rule of thumb is: solve the technical part, but keep the adaptive part with them. You can explain a method or suggest a process, but you cannot solve someone else’s lack of ownership or confidence.

Adaptive leadership also means creating the conditions in which people can succeed. One of the simplest ways to do that is by making expectations explicit.

Discuss early how often you’ll meet, how feedback will work, what ownership looks like, and how you’ll handle authorship or collaboration. Clear expectations reduce misunderstandings and create psychological safety.

#5 Leadership can be lonely

Leadership changes who you can turn to. As a leader, many challenges become confidential, making it harder to discuss them openly.

Build a support system. Seek out peers, mentors, and trusted colleagues. External coaching or leadership programmes can also provide valuable perspective. Asking for support is part of leading sustainably.

Three ideas to take with you

Leadership in academia rarely feels straightforward. There will always be uncertainty, difficult conversations, and competing demands.

Instead of striving for perfection:

•  Define your own leadership values.
•  Build a support system.
• Reconnect regularly with your why.

The sooner you see leadership as a skill you can develop, rather than simply another responsibility that comes with the job, the better equipped you will be to build a research environment in which both your team and your science can thrive.