Well, excellence is a word that I love. I consider it (along with loyalty and honesty) to be a pillar of professional and personal development and I suggest to "myself" and my colleagues to their best to attain it. Our school is going through its revolution, we are in the process through a fusion process to merge with another school and as a consequence we will double the students and the faculty. The word excellence is placed in all contexts as motivation, however it seems that the interpretation is quite different depending on whom you talk.
When I was fresh researcher/junior faculty, I had the impression that excellence was just a matter of financial resources, intellectual capacity and hard work. However, this is a very simplistic hypothesis that I do realize doesn't correspond that much to the reality. Sure, resources are one of the pillars (even though in some of the fields this is not necessary), and in particular in experimental domains the lack of institutional/public support could be a major drawback. Such conditions heavily depend on the investigator/manager/team and therefore in general could be attained relatively reasonably well independently on the employer context.
However that is not enough. Structural support from the institution/employer is critical. Resources cannot build in the short run the foundations of a pyramid, which are necessary to reach excellence. Success is a team building/work effort and the lack of basic and reasonable support diminishes the impact and the quality of the work done. Successful leaders could definitely deal with minor issues and find solutions to them. However, when it happens all the time, then this is a considerable waste of time, highly demotivating and in the long run a incredible factor of dissatisfaction which might lead on giving up.
Then, the most important is long term ambition of your employer/upper management, and visionary people making/taking decisions. Of course, you can operate on your own, of course you can do your best to attain your objectives, of course you can try to build your pyramid but what happens when your vision is not the one of your employer? What happens when there is discrepancy between the ambition declared from your institution and the support/calls made? Resources are important, but I think visionary leaders are twice more important compared to resources. It is most likely that you will achieve your objectives with less resources but a well rounded structural support and leading management having a long term vision compared to the situation where resources are available but the management is not there. This is going to happen simply because visionary people will make the calls when necessary and even in the lack of sufficient resources they will prioritize their distribution appropriately.
Of course, the ideal will be to be part of a structure with exceptional structural support, and unlimited resources and top level management :-).
If it doesn't happen, then the most important thing is not to give up. Do all your possible efforts to remain at the top, make abstraction of the things that you don't like, do not waste time fighting with the the established way of doing things, avoid conflicts with your upper management and your institution unless really necessary, but not give up neither to your ambition, neither to your principles. You should be respected for what you are, your top quality work and not for how well you please your colleagues/management. Either excellence is part of the vision and culture of your institution (and not just a verbal expression who can be used from anyone) or not. In the latter case you will have to face the "inertia" of all actors/parts of the chain and the support you will get from your colleagues (unfortunately) will be very limited. The statistics are not on your side.
In general (and unfortunately) maturity comes with age, as well better understanding of our environment and its limits. Hoping that you will be able to change things on your own, because your are doing your job (or at least you believe so) and you are able to support your ambition/initiatives is not enough. Hoping that you will be able to overcome the limitations of your ecosystem on your own is feasible to some extent but there is a price to pay; assume your job and deliver, making reasonable compromises, being creative, and have a great sense abstraction. The most important thing is that at the end of the day you have always a choice since no one is irreplaceable. If things do not work out, you can still always go to an equivalent or a better place!
Ps1. The above are thoughts reflect my state of mind after two decades of experience in excellent places both in academia and industry as well as in Europe and United States.
Ps2. If you encounter the same situation again and again then it might be possible that indeed the problem is yourself and you have a fully distorted image of the reality and yourself (which most likely is my case)
When I was fresh researcher/junior faculty, I had the impression that excellence was just a matter of financial resources, intellectual capacity and hard work. However, this is a very simplistic hypothesis that I do realize doesn't correspond that much to the reality. Sure, resources are one of the pillars (even though in some of the fields this is not necessary), and in particular in experimental domains the lack of institutional/public support could be a major drawback. Such conditions heavily depend on the investigator/manager/team and therefore in general could be attained relatively reasonably well independently on the employer context.
However that is not enough. Structural support from the institution/employer is critical. Resources cannot build in the short run the foundations of a pyramid, which are necessary to reach excellence. Success is a team building/work effort and the lack of basic and reasonable support diminishes the impact and the quality of the work done. Successful leaders could definitely deal with minor issues and find solutions to them. However, when it happens all the time, then this is a considerable waste of time, highly demotivating and in the long run a incredible factor of dissatisfaction which might lead on giving up.
Then, the most important is long term ambition of your employer/upper management, and visionary people making/taking decisions. Of course, you can operate on your own, of course you can do your best to attain your objectives, of course you can try to build your pyramid but what happens when your vision is not the one of your employer? What happens when there is discrepancy between the ambition declared from your institution and the support/calls made? Resources are important, but I think visionary leaders are twice more important compared to resources. It is most likely that you will achieve your objectives with less resources but a well rounded structural support and leading management having a long term vision compared to the situation where resources are available but the management is not there. This is going to happen simply because visionary people will make the calls when necessary and even in the lack of sufficient resources they will prioritize their distribution appropriately.
Of course, the ideal will be to be part of a structure with exceptional structural support, and unlimited resources and top level management :-).
If it doesn't happen, then the most important thing is not to give up. Do all your possible efforts to remain at the top, make abstraction of the things that you don't like, do not waste time fighting with the the established way of doing things, avoid conflicts with your upper management and your institution unless really necessary, but not give up neither to your ambition, neither to your principles. You should be respected for what you are, your top quality work and not for how well you please your colleagues/management. Either excellence is part of the vision and culture of your institution (and not just a verbal expression who can be used from anyone) or not. In the latter case you will have to face the "inertia" of all actors/parts of the chain and the support you will get from your colleagues (unfortunately) will be very limited. The statistics are not on your side.
In general (and unfortunately) maturity comes with age, as well better understanding of our environment and its limits. Hoping that you will be able to change things on your own, because your are doing your job (or at least you believe so) and you are able to support your ambition/initiatives is not enough. Hoping that you will be able to overcome the limitations of your ecosystem on your own is feasible to some extent but there is a price to pay; assume your job and deliver, making reasonable compromises, being creative, and have a great sense abstraction. The most important thing is that at the end of the day you have always a choice since no one is irreplaceable. If things do not work out, you can still always go to an equivalent or a better place!
Ps1. The above are thoughts reflect my state of mind after two decades of experience in excellent places both in academia and industry as well as in Europe and United States.
Ps2. If you encounter the same situation again and again then it might be possible that indeed the problem is yourself and you have a fully distorted image of the reality and yourself (which most likely is my case)
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