Dr Therina Theron is passionate about serving and supporting the academics, postdoctoral fellows, and postgraduate students at Stellenbosch University (SU) to conduct effective and responsible research. And her position as senior director (research and innovation) in the Division for Research Development (DRD) is the ideal platform to do just that.
As part of SU’s Women’s Month celebrations, Therina tells us more about her role and the leadership qualities it requires.
Tell us more about your role at Stellenbosch University.
Together with the DRD team, I am responsible for the promotion, facilitation and support of research across SU’s ten faculties and two schools. As the University’s centralised ‘research office’, we manage a multitude of processes meant to enable our researchers to perform their research effectively and responsibly.
This includes helping researchers apply for research funding, build research partnerships, and comply with research integrity and ethics requirements, as well as a number of other research-related institutional, national and international policies, standards and legislations. We also handle research contracts to ensure that SU’s intellectual property is protected for future innovation. In addition, we support early-career academics with mentorship and funding, serve as custodians of SU’s research-related information and data, publish the annual Research at Stellenbosch University report to illustrate the impact of our research, and report SU’s publication outputs to government for subsidy purposes. In short, we support everything relating to research at SU.
I feel incredibly privileged to manage a fantastic and dedicated team of individuals in the DRD, all of whom are specialists in their respective fields. As a team, we happily spend our days promoting SU’s vision of being Africa’s leading research-intensive university.
What do you enjoy most about this role?
I ended up in the research management and administration field by chance around 18 years ago, having initially followed an academic/research career path. And I have never looked back. I absolutely love this job and feel that it’s perfectly suited to my professional interests and talents.
The Ancient Greek poet Archilochus wrote a parable with the following moral: “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” This resonates with me. For our researchers to focus on the “one big thing” they do best (their research), we, as research managers, need to be the foxes who juggle many different things and connect all the dots to provide support and solutions. We do this to create an enabling environment for responsible research with a positive impact to thrive.
My favourite part of this role is the exposure to the varied and impactful research projects of our staff, postdocs and postgraduate students – and the chance to promote that research across disciplinary, institutional and international boundaries. Yes, sometimes we have difficult matters to deal with, but on the whole, I find it extremely rewarding to be a small cog in the big SU machine that produces research and innovation to tackle some of the world’s biggest societal challenges.
What do you think are the key leadership qualities required to fulfil your role?
I have no doubt that the leadership style best suited for this role is that of servant leadership. Even if we, as research managers, are specialists in our own fields, we are here to serve and support our research community. This requires us to listen, build trust, communicate well, and provide our researchers with professional and firm yet always supportive advice and solutions. It requires teamwork internally as well as with our researchers.
We need to have empathy with individual researchers and understand the complexities and demands of academic research. At the same time, though, we must also have sufficient insight to apply our professional knowledge to protect the University’s research endeavour. I try to promote an environment in the DRD that is focused on providing an excellent service, but is also open, supportive, and conducive to personal and professional growth. I am very proud of the DRD team, and to see their success and development is one of the most satisfying aspects of leading them.
Leadership roles are demanding. What keeps you motivated?
I wake up every morning appreciating that I am blessed with a career that brings me great joy and satisfaction, and where I can do something significant, promoting something that I believe is pivotal in making the world a better place. So, it’s not hard to stay motivated! I am also privileged to work with an inspirational group of dedicated and goal-driven people – both the DRD staff and the researcher community we serve and support. In addition, I try to stay physically and mentally fit by exercising regularly and trying to learn something completely new every now and then. In recent years, I’ve expanded my involvement in international scholarly work focused on research management. This is something I really enjoy, and which has helped me immensely in leading my division.
What would your message be to the next generation of aspiring female leaders?
I can only share what I myself have learned to date. Don’t be afraid to follow your heart and gut to identify the kind of career that suits your personality and fills you with joy and inspiration. I can’t imagine doing a job or developing as a leader in a field that I don’t enjoy and feel passionate about. It is up to each of us to find that thing that is worth getting up for in the morning, and to make the decision (however difficult) to pursue it. This creates fertile soil for your growth and development as a leader.
Don’t let people tell you what leadership should look like, and don’t necessarily try to emulate the typical high-powered leaders in society. A leader can be naturally quiet, unassuming, humble and even somewhat shy, as long as they can communicate well and make their voice heard when it matters.
Never miss an opportunity to learn from those you encounter. Whether positive or negative, everyone can teach you something!
Build networks and be generous and kind to your colleagues. Then you will have much-needed allies in the hard times, and someone to celebrate with in the good times.
- Photo by Stefan Els.
