There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes not from the work itself, but from the uncertainty that surrounds it.
If you’re a senior or mid-career scientist today, especially in academia or government-funded research, you’re likely feeling it. Funding cuts. Recruitment freezes. Restructures. Redundancies. The news rolls in like waves, and you keep paddling because you have a team to lead, and a work-life balance to protect.
But beneath the surface, there’s a question rising: Is this sustainable?
This is the dilemma facing many in science leadership roles right now. You’ve made the leap from technical expert to people leader. Often with little guidance, and now find yourself managing complex systems of people, politics, and pressure. The promise of work-life balance feels distant, even laughable. And yet, it has never been more urgent.
Leading Through a Climate of Cutbacks
Universities across the UK and beyond are making sweeping cuts. Departments are shrinking, projects are paused, and promising early-career researchers are being shown the door.
One of many examples is the University of Portsmouth, which is proposing a significant restructuring programme that will put 400 members of staff at risk, including making 50 full-time academic roles redundant. Elsewhere in the UK, the Universities of Exeter, Kent, Cardiff, Aberdeen and Plymouth, amongst many others are going through similar waves of redundancy.
Meanwhile, public science bodies like the Environment Agency and Natural England have faced long-term budget squeezes and hiring freezes, even as climate change makes their work more critical than ever.
As a science leader, you’re often caught in the middle. You may not be making the budget decisions, but you’re tasked with holding your team together through them.
This is leadership under strain. And it calls for a skillset that goes far beyond your research training.
What Leadership Really Looks Like in Science
At its core, science leadership today is about working through ambiguity while protecting people. That means making space for emotional realities, not just data.
Research in organisational psychology points to the importance of psychological safety, the sense that people can speak openly, admit mistakes, and ask for help without fear of retribution. In uncertain times, this safety becomes foundational. It reduces stress, supports innovation, and helps teams stay resilient even when the environment around them is unstable (Harvard Business Review).
But there’s an important reality to acknowledge: you can’t create psychological safety or lead with clarity if you’re stretched too thin yourself. Sustaining others starts with sustaining yourself.
This is where leadership coaching in science becomes a vital support, not because something is broken, but because you’re navigating complexity, and reflection helps you stay grounded.
Coaching creates space for reflection, a rare commodity when inboxes are overflowing. It helps leaders step back, ask better questions, and realign with their values, so they can lead not from burnout, but from clarity.
A Public Example: Dame Jane Francis and Resilient Leadership
A powerful example of this kind of grounded, values-led leadership can be seen in Dame Jane Francis, Director of the British Antarctic Survey. Her leadership has involved balancing scientific excellence with the complex realities of institutional change, including the need to diversify science, reduce carbon footprints, and maintain staff morale amid shifting political and funding priorities in UK research.
In interviews and public talks, Francis has spoken about the personal side of leadership: the stress, the trade-offs, and the importance of listening deeply. In media coverage and profiles on polar science leadership, she reflected on how essential it is to support early-career scientists and model work-life sustainability at senior levels.
Her example shows us that strong science leadership isn’t just about results, it’s about relationships and the environments we create for others.
Rethinking Work-Life Balance
Too often, work-life balance is treated as a problem of time management. But for science leaders, the deeper issue is one of boundaries and bandwidth.
You may have become used to carrying the weight of your team, responding to after-hours emails, or stepping in to ‘save’ projects when others are overwhelmed. But that approach is finite. And it often reflects the culture of science more than your personal values.
Behavioural science reminds us that our environments shape our behaviour. Without conscious reflection, we absorb the norms around us, urgency, overwork and self-sacrifice. It’s not enough to tell yourself to switch off if the system around you rewards being constantly available.
That’s why even small pauses, like taking one hour for structured reflection, can become powerful acts of leadership. In a previous blog, we explored how setting aside protected time isn’t a withdrawal from responsibility, but a re-investment in your ability to lead with clarity and intention.
Our approach is rooted in the belief that sustainable leadership comes not from doing more, but from thinking differently.
A Compassionate Shift Forward
Science leaders are not immune to burnout. In fact, they’re often closer to it than they realise, especially now. But there is strength, not weakness, in pausing to reflect.
Leadership coaching is not about achieving some mythical state of perfect work-life balance. It’s about building capacity to lead with intention, even in uncertainty. It’s about reconnecting with why you stepped into leadership in the first place, and rediscovering the clarity and courage that may have gotten buried beneath spreadsheets, policies, and crisis meetings.
If any of this resonates, consider starting a conversation with us. You don’t need to figure it out alone. Let’s talk…
