Fast Track Impact

This week, Mark discusses how to transcend the labels we often hide behind as academics, so we can embrace failure and mistakes as a necessary part of who we are, sitting with discomfort and being able to feel the full range of human emotions. By accepting and living with the less comfortable emotions that failures bring up, we unlock the capacity to feel more of every feeling, including joy, peace and inspiration. What is your failure trying to teach you?The episode finishes with an audio chapter of Mark's new book, Impact Culture, which is available, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

Anxiety is baked into many academic cultures, but for some that fear can be debilitating. In this episode Mark talks about his own struggle with anxiety after a failed attempt to return to face-to-face work post-COVID, and brings a message of hope and healing for anyone struggling to give themselves the self-compassion they need to move through difficult times. Trigger warning: this episode includes references to sexual and spiritual abuse.Impact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

Most researchers suffer from imposter syndrome at some point in their careers, but few talk about it, so it can feel like you are alone in feeling the way you do. In this episode Mark shares his own experience of imposter syndrome and introduces another audio chapter of his book, Impact Culture, which provides practical advice to prevent and overcome imposter syndrome. The book is available as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

Why do we say "yes" to things we later regret, or struggle to share early drafts of our work with collaborators? Why we get upset when colleagues ask for help and then don't follow our advice? Are you really driven by a desire to help others, or are you seeking external validation? Why do we need to make sure we've got everything right - can you have a healthy level of perfectionism or are you expressing a deeper need to "be right"? This week, Mark explores some of the common ways in which researchers experience people-pleasing and perfectionism, and how you can harness these challenges to learn more about yourself and the decisions you make. In so doing, Mark argues, it is possible to regain control of your work-life balance and start making decisions that make time for the most important things in your career and life. The episode ends with an excerpt from his new book, Impact Culture, available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.Next episodesChapters on imposter syndrome etcAnxiety with Petra BoyntonInterview with Andrew ScottEvaluation episodes:Intro from meRachel BlancheEric JensenTobias, Laura and SarahMichael Parker from The Conversation re: the Media Impact ToolkitIoan

In this episode, Mark considers the difference between influential versus manipulative impact, and shares insights and practical tips that can help you identify early warning signs that you might be about to cross a line and say or do something you might later regret. He builds on previous episodes about leadership for impact and his chapter on empathic leadership in his new book, Impact Culture.Read the blog version of today's episode hereImpact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

This week, Mark interviews Dr Katerina Cidlinska from the Institute of Psychology at the Czech Academy of Sciences about research she conducted with Early Career Researchers (ECRs) who left academia. Her work identifies four trajectories and impact could be part of the problem as well as part of the solution. There were unique challenges for women and researchers in STEM subjects, and Katerina now runs workshops to help ECRs think about how they can balance the competing demands of their roles, or whether they need to start thinking of an exit strategy.Download her full paper here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fs7jdbzawoyzet4/Cidlinska_et_al-2022-Higher_Education.pdf?dl=0Impact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

In this episode, Mark is joined by Dr Joyce Reed, health coach and CEO of Fast Track Impact, to talk about the transformative power of coaching for academics, and how it can increase both productivity and resilience. They talk about individual and group coaching, and the benefits of upgrading from a mentoring to a coaching programme in schools and departments, and how coaching can tackle burn-out before it happens, rather than picking up the pieces after everything has gone wrong.  Get group coaching from Fast Track Impact: Read Mark's blog for Times Higher Education on "Why every researcher needs a coach"  Get your copy of "What works in executive coaching" by Erik de Haan  Find out more about health coaching via the NHS (UK only)

Mark interviews Saskia Gent (Insights for Impact) and Jennifer Locket and Dawn Ashby (Plymouth Marine Laboratory) to learn from research that reviewed over 70 impact strategies from around the world. The research suggested there are just two types of impact strategy to choose from - enabling impact and achieving impact strategies. Mark discusses the paper with Saskia before interviewing Jen and Dawn about how they developed their strategy, which features as an example of good practice in the paper. Read the pre-print of the paper: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactstrategiesMark, Saskia, Jen and Dawn are running a free training workshop based on the paper and the PML case study on 27th June - book your place here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-write-an-impact-strategy-tickets-233733472107Impact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

Mark interviews Professor Gemma Derrick from University of Bristol about her work to understand the characteristics and drivers of negative unintended consequences from research, what she calls "grimpact". Read the paper Gemma led on her work here: https://ressh2019.webs.upv.es/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/ressh_2019_paper_9.pdfYou can get in touch with Gemma to share your grimpact case studies at [email protected] Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.

This week, Mark concludes his series on empathic leadership for impact by considering evidence from studies of expert negotiators that suggests empathic leaders can be significantly more influential. As he revises the empathic leadership model to move beyond service, he suggests that the third and final pillar of empathic leadership is about our ability to both influence and serve others by understanding their positions and needs more deeply.Impact Culture is available now, as a hardback, e-book and audio book: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/books. Find out more about the book and join free training and discussion groups at: https://www.fasttrackimpact.com/impactculture.