Many of us become supervisors the same way: we were the most reliable person on the bench, the one who could troubleshoot the analyzer and train new staff, so one day we were handed the schedule, the inventory and the people. Nobody gave us a manual. Leadership in the laboratory is a different job from the one we trained for, and it is worth preparing for deliberately.
What changes when you lead
- Your output becomes other people’s output. Your success is measured by how well the section runs when you are not at the bench.
- You manage systems, not samples. Staffing, inventory, quality indicators, documentation and accreditation readiness become your daily work.
- Conflict lands on your desk, from colleagues, from wards wanting faster results, and from management wanting lower costs.
- You represent the laboratory in meetings with physicians, nursing and administration.
Five competencies to build
- Quality management. Understand your laboratory’s quality system end to end: document control, internal audits, nonconformities, corrective and preventive action, and quality indicators such as turnaround time, rejection rates and EQA performance. ISO 15189:2022, the international standard for medical laboratory quality and competence, is a useful framework even if your laboratory is not yet accredited.
- People and scheduling. Fair rosters, competency assessment, onboarding, and the hard conversations about performance. Safe staffing is a patient-safety issue.
- Finance and inventory. Know your cost per test, reagent usage and wastage, and how to justify a purchase or a new staff position with data.
- Communication. Critical result policies, complaint handling, and translating laboratory issues into language administrators and clinicians understand.
- Improvement methods. Lean tools and basic statistics help you fix bottlenecks instead of just reporting them.
How to start before you have the title
- Volunteer for the projects nobody wants: method validations, SOP revisions, internal audits, inventory counts.
- Learn the numbers. Ask to see your section’s turnaround time, rejection and EQA reports, and suggest one improvement.
- Teach. Training interns and new hires builds the patience and clarity leadership requires.
- Find a mentor, inside or outside your institution.
- Keep learning formally. CPD seminars, a master’s degree in medical technology, public health or management, and organizations such as PAMET offer structured pathways.
Credentials that help
- ASCP Diplomate in Laboratory Management (DLM) for those targeting management roles in international settings.
- Quality and improvement training such as ISO 15189 internal auditor courses or Lean Six Sigma.
- A graduate degree, which many hospitals and schools increasingly expect for chief and academic roles.
The best laboratory leaders never stop thinking like bench technologists. They just think about the whole bench at once.
A word on the hard part
New supervisors often keep doing bench work to stay comfortable, and end up doing two jobs badly. Protect time for leadership tasks, delegate, and accept that your value now shows up in your team’s performance. That shift is the real promotion.
References
- ISO 15189:2022, Medical laboratories: Requirements for quality and competence: iso.org
- ASCP BOC, Diplomate in Laboratory Management (DLM): ascp.org
- DOH Administrative Order No. 2021-0037, rules on the regulation of clinical laboratories (summary): legaldex.com
- Philippine Association of Medical Technologists (PAMET): pametinc.ph
