Like any job, we tend to prefer some aspects of our work more than others and try to use more of our time on the parts we enjoy most, when possible. If this isn’t possible, we try to adapt ourselves or our environments to make the boring parts more pleasant.
This time we are looking at descriptions of particular types of researchers. We probably tend to have a mix of two or three different sets of these characteristics. The ideas here are not intended to show distinctly different research personality classifications. Instead you might like to consider what activities you might want to cultivate more or what you definitely need to spend less time doing. The general categories I am describing here are balancer, team player, plodder, rock star and innovator.
Researcher as balancer
While you set deadlines (or have them defined for you), and generally meet them, you will also plan for unexpected situations.
As a balancer, you tend to carefully consider major decisions about the scope, methods or outputs of your research.
You develop and use networks for multiple opportunities and try to generate various outcomes from any project, so that you can extend your activities into the future.
In teaching, you thrive on the new ideas or alternative perspectives which students may come up with.
You are aware of different people’s values and preferences in your personal interactions and use this to develop your managerial style and for project task allocation.
Researcher as team player
Many of the attitudes that balancers have are also true for team players: you know how to harmonise and align with the project goals and other people’s values, abilities and preferences.
You are a clear communicator, you enjoy encouraging your colleagues and genuinely celebrate the milestones of the project.
As a team player you are generous in sharing your knowledge and similarly you do not hesitate to go to other team members when you need help.
You work collaboratively, know your role, look for feedback and recognise other people’s contributions.
Researcher as plodder
A plodder walks slowly and steadily throughout the day, is careful about details and keeps fairly quiet and neutral.
You can concentrate for long periods of time and tend to take short breaks.
You are seen as less creative and more diligent, sticking solidly to the original plan. Because of this, you might be given the boring, repetitive tasks in a project.
You do not look for attention. You are happy to keep working fairly continuously.
As a team member you are invaluable but sometimes your strengths are overlooked or forgotten.
Researcher as rock star
You know who this is… the person who stands out from a crowd, the person who is listened to rather than being a listener.
Rock stars become well known because of their good luck, strong platform for promotion and clear capacity to communicate with enthusiasm.
As a rock star, you stand on the shoulders of many others. You convert complex research ideas into smaller, bite sized pieces of information. Sometimes you ignore the more difficult stuff completely.
You enjoy being the centre of attention in a crowd and adapt your message to suit your audience (e.g., specialists, nonspecialists or schoolchildren).
You leverage the platform (or platforms) that you use to promote your ideas as far and wide as possible and take the lead in using networks very strategically.
Researcher as innovator
Sometimes an innovator is interpreted to mean an entrepreneur, e.g., someone who can commercialise a research outcome. But to be innovative can also mean to be an independent thinker who follows an unconventional path to develop a novel concept. Innovators of the second kind can be alive before the time has come for their ideas to become generally accepted.
There are many courses for researchers to enhance their innovativeness (in the first sense of the word, i.e., to make a profit). There is far less training to develop innovativeness in the second sense of the word, probably because this kind of innovation is, by definition, thinking in ways that not many people think.
Many famous entrepreneurial scientists are known to have “borrowed” other people’s ideas, promoting them as their own. Thomas Edison is an example. Other famous novel scientists have devoted their lives to exploring their research interest, without seeing it being commercialised. Marie Curie is one.
For both the first and the second kind, as an innovator, you are sure about your ideas, your commit to following them through and you may be able to convince other people to invest in supporting your research (especially for entrepreneurial innovators).
I hope this brief description of different types of research personality types has given you something to carry forward into the future. You might be perfectly satisfied with how you spend your time now. Alternatively, some ideas here could prompt you to move beyond your current spread of tasks and projects so that you become more content with the balance of your work activities.