You’ve written about the skills laboratorians need to develop beyond technical expertise. Why do you think communication, decision-making, emotional intelligence, and other non-technical skills are so important for laboratory professionals who want to advance their careers?

Technical expertise establishes credibility in the laboratory, but advancing into leadership requires professionals to operate in situations where the answers are not always clear. Leaders must communicate effectively, make decisions with incomplete information at times, work across different areas, and understand how their approach affects the people around them.

A leader may clearly understand the technical solution to a problem but still be unable to implement it successfully without trust, clear communication, and an understanding of the people involved. Emotional intelligence is especially important because leaders must recognize how their own behavior and communication style affect the team and the working environment.

I prefer to call these “non-technical skills” rather than “soft skills” because there is nothing soft about them. These are skills leaders use every day to strengthen their teams, improve laboratory operations, and lead effectively.

What are some of the most common leadership challenges you see among laboratory professionals moving into management for the first time?

One of the most important adjustments for first-time laboratory leaders is moving from being responsible primarily for their own work to becoming responsible for the performance and coordination of an entire area.

New leaders must learn to delegate, establish priorities, communicate expectations, manage resources, coordinate workflows, and look beyond the technical tasks immediately in front of them. They must also begin to understand how decisions made in the laboratory affect other departments, the needs of the organization, and the patient-care process.

Another important adjustment is learning to balance daily operational demands with responsibilities such as staff development, quality improvement, workforce planning, and initiatives. Because technical work is familiar, new leaders may naturally gravitate toward solving problems themselves. Leadership, however, requires them to begin looking beyond the immediate technical problem and create the structure and support that allow the entire team to perform successfully.

Moving into management is not simply the next level of bench work. It is a different professional role that requires a deliberate shift in perspective and continued development.

As you look toward the next chapter of your career, what impact do you hope to have on the laboratory profession?

As I look toward the next chapter of my career, I want to make the transition from bench scientist to laboratory leader more visible and intentional. Many excellent laboratorians are interested in advancement but may not be aware of the preparation and training needed to step into leadership successfully.

Understanding which skills are needed is only the beginning. It can take time for new leaders to trust their judgment, develop confidence, and fully see themselves as leaders. Those abilities develop through practice, feedback, reflection, and support.

Through my Bench to Leader coaching program, mentoring, professional writing, LinkedIn content, and training, I share the lessons and tools I benefitted from throughout my own career. My goal is to help laboratorians assess their readiness, identify areas for development, understand what the role truly requires, and prepare intentionally for the transition.

Ultimately, I hope to help excellent scientists become effective leaders who can develop people, improve laboratory operations, and help laboratories contribute even more to patient care.

You work with laboratories on quality, compliance, and performance improvement. What is one thing you see laboratories spending too much time or energy on—and one thing you wish they would prioritize more?

I think laboratories can sometimes spend too much time demonstrating that quality work is being done and not enough time asking whether that work is actually improving quality. Compliance and documentation are absolutely necessary, but they can become very task-focused—completing forms, reviewing reports, responding to findings—without always stepping back to evaluate whether the underlying process is working as well as it should. I would like to see laboratories place even more emphasis on meaningful improvement: using data to identify the problems that matter most, understanding root causes, improving systems rather than repeatedly addressing individual events, and measuring whether our interventions actually made a difference. Ultimately, quality should not just be about meeting a requirement. It should translate into safer, more reliable laboratory operations and better service and outcomes for the patients and providers who depend on us.

Laboratories are being asked to do more with limited resources while facing workforce shortages, increasing regulatory demands, and rapid technological change. From a leadership perspective, what do you think successful laboratory leaders will need to do differently to navigate that environment?

I think the definition of a successful laboratory leader is evolving. Historically, many of us moved into leadership because we were strong technically, and technical expertise remains important. But the challenges laboratories face today require leaders to think much more broadly. Laboratory leaders have to become developers of people, leaders of change, and strategic thinkers. We need to understand operations, quality, technology, workforce development, as well as the financial and organizational realities of healthcare. We also have to be able to collaborate beyond the laboratory and communicate the value of laboratory medicine to the broader organization. The future will require leaders who can build collective excellence while continuing to adapt to an environment that is changing very quickly.

Everyone knows laboratorians are some of the most interesting people around. Please tell us about the Latin dance school you had co-founded in 2012!

I have always found laboratorians to be incredibly multidimensional people. Over the years, I have worked with wonderful musicians, artists, woodworkers, dancers, and people with all kinds of creative interests. I sometimes think the discipline and focus we develop in the laboratory carries over into whatever else we become passionate about. There is also something interesting about how many people drawn to science seem to have a very creative side as well.

For me, Latin dance is very connected to my culture. Co-founding a dance school gave me another way to stay connected to that part of myself while also building community outside of my professional world. The laboratory can be a very serious environment because the work we do directly affects patient care, so dance offers a completely different kind of space. It is social, artistic, joyful, and fun. I think having both worlds brings a sense of balance to my life.