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Hi all — question for those who’ve moved from technical IC → lead/manager in chemical engineering / materials science / lab R&D.
I’ve been looking for good “engineer → manager” advice, but most of what I find is tailored to software teams (sprints/Jira/code reviews, etc.).
Some of it transfers, but a lot doesn’t map cleanly onto lab/R&D/hardware realities: experiments, technicians, safety/regulatory constraints, longer feedback loops, and often very PhD-heavy teams.
The hardest part for me wasn’t “learning a new process/tool.” It was things like giving feedback to senior scientists, handling a brilliant-but-toxic colleague, delegating ownership of lab systems/tools, and keeping people aligned when results take weeks to show up. That’s the kind of transition advice I’m trying to develop specifically for chem/materials environments.
Here are two examples of the kind of “Monday-morning usable” patterns I’m developing:
Example 1 — Delegation: “Delegate to empower”
• Spot the trigger: either my plate is too full, or I see someone ready to grow through something real.
• Have the ownership conversation: “You’re already close to this—would you be up for owning it?” then actually listen.
• Design a transition phase: small changes + questions, with the explicit goal of full ownership.
• Mark the moment of true ownership: “From today, you are the owner; people come to you, not me. I’ll support, but it’s yours.”
Example 2 — 1:1s: “It’s about you, not me”
• I treat the time as theirs; if I need a status update, I schedule a separate space for it.
• I start with: “What would you like to use this time for today?” and leave a real pause.
• I’m open to topics beyond tasks when they affect work (energy, doubts, personal situations), because those rarely show up in standups/tools.
A few questions (pick any):
• What was your biggest “I didn’t expect this” moment when you first started leading chem/materials people?
• What part of software-management advice fails the most in lab/R&D teams?
Thanks in advance! I’m curious to learn what actually helped in this domain.