This paper is from Session 5E: Mentoring young statisticians in the workplace

which comes under Topic 5: Statistics education in the disciplines and the workplace

The importance of inter-personal skills on statistical teams

Presenter

• Sara Fett (Mayo Clinic, United States)

Abstract

University students are often prepared to meet the technical demand of positions in their field of study. During my 20 year tenure as a manager of Statistical Programmer Analysts, it has become very evident to me that an employee’s interpersonal skills are equally important to their success in the workplace. To help mentor these skills in our young statisticians we have developed both formal and informal mentoring strategies. These strategies are centered on skills required for effectively working in a team directed environment. Some of these skills include communication, collaboration, innovation, initiative, inquiry, networking and knowledge sharing. In addition to sharing some of these strategies, background and anecdotal evidence will be used to help demonstrate the importance of these inter-personal skills. As you are preparing our next generation of Statisticians, it is my hope that you will find additional ways to weave more of these skills into their educational experiences.