Why Being Right Isn't Enough: The Crucial Role of Influencing Skills in Science

The magic of the ‘squiggly career’ is that it allows you to move to a job where you don’t have the traditional experience on paper but can bring new skills and ideas to the role.  Assuming the hiring managers have enough vision to see your worth of course!

But moving into a new field comes at a cost…

Once you join and bring your new ideas to the table, you then need to be far more persuasive for these ideas to be taken on board.  A task made all the more difficult if you are at the more junior end of the company hierarchy.

This is what I found when first joining a food research company, with seemingly ‘only experience with engineering ceramics’ to my name.  I had been used to developing new composites for aerospace applications and was now being asked to develop ice creams.  Where to start?

This is also what I also found when first joining a big pharma company, with seemingly ‘only experience with ice cream’ to my name (this raised some eyebrows!).  I had been used to developing ice creams and was now being asked to help develop new oral solid dose formulations.  Again, where to start?

In both cases I found, frustratingly, that influencing skills trumped the science in terms of being able to deliver.

The takeaway?...

It’s not enough to be right with the science.  It's equally important, if not more, about being able to influence by communicating your ideas compellingly, building relationships, and persuading others to see the value in a fresh perspective. 

For us to be successful scientists, we ignore this at our peril.