Having a busy home and work life, Tom has little time to spare. Outside of lab, Tom serves as the GPSC representative for his department and spends time with his wife and one-year-old daughter. In addition to working on his thesis project, Tom has a critical role in the lab: he trains an undergraduate named Lucy, performs routine maintenance on some of the common lab equipment, as well as orders food for lab meetings. Tom is a second year PhD student in Cell Biology preparing for his preliminary exam, which is in three months. Let us look at an example to illustrate how a mission statement can help one choose when to say “yes” and when to say “no.” Staying focused on your mission statement will help you determine what to say “yes” to and what to politely say “no” to. However, it is important that one does not confuse tasks that may seem important (that are actually unimportant) with those that truly are important.
Many of these requests may align with your personal mission statement and be important for growing your network, being a helpful part of your research team, and/or for your personal career development. Think about how often you respond with a “yes” to requests from peers, student committees, and others. However, we say “yes” and “no” to things constantly throughout our day.
STEPHEN COVEY MISSION STATEMENT PROFESSIONAL
This is often referred to as “mentoring up.” In Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager, the following statement is made: “When your competence is low, you need direction when your commitment is low, you need support.” By taking the time to analyze what you need when undertaking a new project, you can more effectively seek out the direction you need by viewing your dissertation, research, and professional development through the lens of your personal mission statement, you can find greater motivation to increase your commitment even when the support you receive may seem minimal.Īs graduate students and postdocs, there are often many requests from advisers, reviewers and committees that we cannot say “no” to (an additional experiment for a paper, adding an additional chapter to your dissertation, etc.). Once you have a mission statement, you can better communicate your goals and what you need as a trainee to your adviser.
STEPHEN COVEY MISSION STATEMENT HOW TO
Writing a mission statement will take time for introspection, but it will ultimately help you in determining how to best prioritize your days, weeks, and years as a graduate student or postdoc. Therefore, you can become more proactive in achieving your goals. Writing or reviewing a mission statement ensures that your actions align with your goals. In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey explains that a personal mission statement can act as a personal constitution so that you are no longer being driven by the things that happen to you. Working toward this vision is your mission.
In turn, this can help you realize what you need to focus on in order to work toward your vision. What are the three most important aspects of your life? What three things could you do that would immediately improve your work life? What three things could you do that would immediately improve your personal life?Īnswering these questions can help you in thinking about the vision you have for your life as a graduate student/postdoc, friend, family member, etc. Why did you apply? What did you hope to achieve as a graduate student? Have your professional or personal goals changed? Think back to when you were first applying to graduate school.
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