The Interactive Approach Posted on February 28, 2008 Teamwork is generative, explains Peter Salovey (bio).

I also think if there's a single skill that researchers who also are teaching and doing administration need to develop, it's the ability to lead a team of other people. And I think you can't do it alone. My publications are almost entirely collaborative, either with other senior psychologists like my friend Jack Mayer or with post docs and research scientists in my lab or with graduate students. And at a place like Yale, I'm very lucky; I have college students who are able to write publishable journal articles with some guidance from me. And much of what I do is a team effort.

Now I like that way of working because I think we develop better ideas as a team than I would ever think up on my own. But also, it's generative. I'm training graduate students and college students while they work with us as part of a team. I'm learning from them. I'm training them, and they go off and have good careers because they haven't just been told what to do, but they're generating the ideas and they're taking the lead on running studies and they're taking the lead on articles.

I actually like the model that's used in the biological sciences where the senior investigator is coaching and overseeing and thinking and prompting and leading, and then when the publication comes out, often it's the post doc or the graduate student who's the senior author. The team is listed and then the senior, the post doc or graduate student is the first author, and then often the senior person in the lab’s name is last. And I actually like that model of publication. But that's the way I like to work, and I think I could not get multiple things done at the same time if I wasn't leading a team. I could not do this sitting in a ivory tower or in a garret by myself working alone.

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