Saying no to something

Taking on a new leadership role in my department and working to balance both the work and the politics.  The work is largely me not letting the small urgent get in the way of the big important items.  I did some work over the summer evaluating what is important to my career (long term) and what gives me pleasure/satisfaction on the job.  These items were somewhat different so I rank them both in my evaluation.  Then I sorted my list of items and highlighted those that not rank highly on either list.  These are my items I need to work on saying no to (at least sometimes).  It has been helpful for me (and my need to please) to remember that these are not the things I want/need to be doing for success or happiness.  Also along with this I looked at how much time was being spent on tasks and I was astonished to realize how many papers, grants, etc. I was reviewing.  Obviously I can't avoid all of this, but when I am a regular NIH study section member, I don't need to review for every other agency/country that asks.  Also, I need to focus on only accepting reviews that are beneficial for me from a time/reward/knowledge tradeoff.  I realized I was reviewing on average at least 36 papers/year.  So now I try to accept no more than 2 per month.  I also learned that when you say no quickly, people are less mad.  Probably because they at least have more time to find someone, where as when you say no 1-2 weeks later, they are in a bad place for their timelines.  They might not be happy but at least they have more time.  Also suggesting alternates is greatly appreciated (sorry to all those colleagues who are on my suggestion list).

Also I'm resisting getting too involved in the kiddos new school.  There are lots of moms there who don't work outside the home and I don't really feel bad about them doing the lions share of room parties, field trips, etc.  I learned you can spot them very quickly on the playground at drop-off time.  They are the ones in their workout clothes who are headed to the gym after drop off.  (Sorry I'm a little envious of the time to work out.)  But, I've found the working mom's who power walk back to their homes to jump in the car and make it to work at an almost reasonable hour.

I'd love to hear about others tips/things that they are saying no to!

Looking ahead

So as I am regrouping from some of my service work for the year and glimpsing the end of the semester, my thoughts turn toward the future and a question I think about now and then.  So now what?
I received tenure a few years ago and was so thrilled to make it over the bar.  I was almost more thrilled when my spouse also joined me on the other side.  Now that the afterglow has worn off, what's next?  The big next mark for me (other than renewing my R01) was clearly promotion to full at some point.  It's not as all consuming as getting tenure, after all they can't fire me (without good cause) even if I don't make it to full ever.  But, on the other hand there are many  people who stall out at Associate and are become the permanent Associate.  Not the end of the world, but not what I want either.   So I'm thinking about what I need to do for promotion to full.

I have talked to a couple of senior faculty type that are involved in this type of promotion including my chair.  The comments include making sure to increase my international exposure.  Not sure how to do this except through international travel, but of course this is challenging with small kiddos at home.  I do have an international conference that I am giving an invited lecture at this summer, so hopefully this will help.  I'm on the board of directors or similar governing boards for 2 societies in my area of research/field (figure this should be good for visibility).  I am also joining an NIH Study section in the coming year.  I figure the timing should actually be somewhat beneficial in that I will get to see lots of grant in the new format.  My chair is really focused on publication metrics, but he did share his formula for evaluation here, so that is helpful.  Of the recent cases that were promoted to full from my department (each has a somewhat strange career path) I have already passed on or the other in many of the metrics, so I'm just about in the pack by most measures here.   The other big component was what has advanced in my research since tenure.  Actually a lot since I have had several students graduate with their PhDs since tenure, so here I'm feeling like I have a good story.

I feel that there is a lack of mentoring at my institution (and many others) after tenure.  While pre-tenure mentoring is more important, we are not completely mature the day after tenure.  So, it's been a little harder tracking down the metrics for promotion to full.  I also only was present for 1 of the 3 tenure cases that went up since I got tenure due to travel or conflicts, so even the whole department discussion is still unclear to me.

After getting to full, where to I want to go.  Leadership (chair??, research center director?), administration (probably not, given what I have seen at my institution) .  Focus more on research or mentoring??  Interesting thoughts, but now back to the details of the end of the semester.

Any newly (or not so newly tenured) folks out there with sage advice??