Speaker 1: In this video, I want to talk about how to collaborate with senior scholars because I think this is really, really important to career success in academia. So if you don't know me, I am Professor Dave Maslach. I'm Associate Professor of Innovation Strategy and Entrepreneurship and I created this whole Reciprocity Project to give back as much as I possibly can. There are so many people that helped me out that I want to pay the favor for to help you out. So I'm gonna be honest at the beginning. I'm gonna be very honest. I don't know how to collaborate very well with senior scholars. It's something that I struggle with is networking and you know, reaching out to other people. But I know it's very important to do this. A lot of people that have accelerated in their careers, they normally work with somebody that is senior and that senior person, there's lots of things that actually they do. So first of all, they actually know what they're doing. A lot of the senior folks have done a lot of the same mistakes that you are going to make and they know how to write things and frame things so they'll get through the review process quicker. The second thing that ends up happening is that they do have status in the community. So then they get what is called the benefit of the doubt whenever there is a problem that's involved. So, you know if they have a article that's under review at a journal and there's something that's a little hazy that's not quite there, then maybe the reviewer or not the reviewer, maybe the editor might give them the benefit of the doubt at that moment and might sort of persuade them to go in a certain way. You know, another thing that they end up having is opportunities that are given to them that a lot of people aren't given. So, you know, there's two ways of that. Sometimes better graduate students reach out to these seniors faculty and they get to work with better graduate students. But the other thing that ends up happening is that there's a lot of opportunities to do like special issues in academia. So these are journals that sometimes do what is called a special issue on a certain topic. So something that is very topical right now. It's 2021. So there'll be lots of special issues on COVID-19, for example, that are going to be targeted at that. And often people will get asked to participate in those special issues and then they're almost like a editorial, but they're peer-reviewed, but they do tend to get through the review process a little bit quicker. You know, there's sort of advantages of doing those. So then you can actually get articles a little quicker. So, you know, there's lots of advantages with working with senior faculty. However, you know, there's lots of disadvantages too that you should be well aware of. Often those folks are very busy and they don't have a lot of one-on-one time to work with you. And the other thing is they might not have the same gumption as somebody that is before tenure to work as hard. They might not have that sort of drive. That does happen. And then, you know, there's other things that get involved too. Is that maybe sometimes that they have administrative duties or they're moving in a certain direction. So once they become well-known in a certain area, they might be sort of moving along and going and doing something else or becoming, you know, a dean at a school, for example, or, you know, going and doing something that's completely different and sort of leveraging that. And then they might not necessarily have time for you. And they might feel guilty just like everybody else of saying no to you if you ask them. So often, you know, the no's, if you haven't figured this out yet, no's are just you never hear from them ever again. Most people are just terrible about that. You send them an email and nothing's going to happen. And that's a no. But, you know, in general, in terms of collaborating with senior folks, what I've seen that people do and they work well, generally, you know, going to the institution and being part of that institution is probably the best and easiest way. And that's where you get some of the advantages of working close to somebody is because you bump into them. Sometimes you have those particular ideas that overlap or maybe you take a course with them and then you end up working with those senior scholars. That is a really normal way of navigating that process. But, you know, another important thing that you can't forget, and I think a lot of people do this, is they have to you simply just have to ask. And you can ask a number of people to to be part of what your project is, but you have to have a sense of what you're doing and where you're going in terms of what they would would do. And so so do that. But you have to be careful with too much asking. It's kind of a it's a difficult thing to sort of navigate. I mean, you can ask as many people as you can, but you yourself are going to run out of time and resources of working on all these different things. And so often you could burn bridges by doing that. And then you end up getting you know, you might get a reputation of somebody that is just taking advantage of other people by doing that. And then, you know, the reputation might not be there. People might not sort of openly talk about it, but they know that that might be going on. And so they might be they might shy away from you in terms of, you know, working on different projects. But, you know, that is probably you'd have to do it a lot and not make a tremendous amount of progress on each thing that you're doing. So but my recommendation is simply to do good work and not worry about all those sort of networking thing. It's it's going to happen naturally as you sort of move on and progress within the field and people are going to recognize you for who you are. You have to sort of do it somewhat in terms of reaching out to people. But you might try to do maybe sort of minimal activities first before you sort of jump into something that's a little bigger and build that reputation. So I've seen people do so I myself, I organize a conference every year and then I've got to meet a lot of cool people. But you might sort of do administrative duties where you sort of interact with somebody that's pretty minimal. And those minimal things allow you to sort of demonstrate that you are a decent person and you're not flighty and you're not going to sort of take off and disappear. I think that sort of non flightiness and being kind of a normal, stable individual that, you know, has as everybody's best interest in mind is going to go a long way. So recognizing that is an important thing in terms of being able to do that. It might not happen overnight in terms of collaborating with people, but maybe you don't want that anyways. So if they say yes too soon, that might be somewhat symptomatic of people wanting to take advantage of you. Because one thing that will end up happening in academia all the time, everybody wants to be a co-author, but nobody wants to put in the work. So you have to be very careful about that. You are going to be put in a situation where you're going to do a tremendous amount of work and not get any benefit from that situation. So don't get yourself into a moment where you are getting taken advantage of either, because people are going to recognize that, that this person is very, you know, that they're very energetic, but they're somewhat naive. And, you know, I'm going to take advantage of that situation and say yes to this and not do any particular work. And then you might sort of feel wedded to this particular relationship, even though it's not in your best interest. So just be careful about doing some of this networking stuff. It's not as clear cut as you think it is, but just, you know, keep and be a normal person that reaches out to people every once in a while when you're curious. But sort of think about, you know, is this in my best interest? So what I might do personally is to sort of test the waters, just send people nice notes and just say, I'm really, I really like what you're doing. It's really cool and exciting. And sometimes those will turn into relationships in the long run. That's how you actually build a relationship in the first place in any sort of setting is just, you know, send something that's nice. And then maybe in a few months, you sort of reach out to that person again or a month again, a month from now, you reach out to them again and you say, you know, I'm really interested in this project. Is there something that you can that you would like to, you know, do you know anything in this particular area? And then maybe they give you a paper to read and then you come back and you read that paper and then you reach out to them again to say, I've read this paper and this was cool because of this, this and that. And then there might be this sort of banter back and forth, and that might evolve into a real relationship that really matters. So don't force it. I just what I'm saying, know that it's a real relationship and these relationships last forever and for a long time. And really just work on those on building, not a relationship as like, I'm going to take advantage of things, sort of strategic networking, all that sort of hubbub stuff, but build real relationships that matter in your life. And those are going to go a lot longer than any of that sort of strategizing and all that kind of stuff. I think people will see through those eventually. So with that, give me a thumbs up to subscribe to the YouTube channel. Take care and have a wonderful day. Bye. Oh, I forgot. I forgot. This is for Yoda baby. Oh my gosh. I can't believe I forgot that. So this is for Yoda baby. They asked this question. And if you don't know the rules on this channel, make sure. So Yoda baby, you have to do something nice for somebody at this moment. If I answer one of your questions, go do something that's randomly nice to somebody. It doesn't matter whether it's picking up garbage or saying hi to your mom or your dad or whoever, give them a call. Just do something random, nice to somebody. That's the name of the game. That's reciprocity. You can help out with the reciprocity project, too, if you want to by passing on the word or whatnot. But just do something nice for somebody else and let us know how it goes. And if any of you get anything from this video, make sure you do the exact same thing because I'm counting on you. You better do it now. Goodbye.