In and of itself, being an academic and a research leader is challenging.  The work requires skill, tenacity, and creativity.  You are pushing boundaries and taking risks. Whilst this can be joyful, many elements of the work will drain your resilience.  From dealing with rejections and reviewers’ comments, managing performance and difficult collaborators and staying on top of the overflowing email inbox and growing list of opportunities and expectations.  Throughout this toolkit we provide you with practical approaches and advice to address and reduce many of these pressures.   
 
In this section we look at a couple of aspects of the emotional side of being a research leader and provide some insights, reframing and advice on coping with critic:  both externally (rejections and reviewers comments) and internally (the voice of the inner critic and imposter feelings).