Develop your leadership skills, empower your team, and get great research done.
If you are ready to develop your skills as a leader of a team or research group, then this course is for you. Your training and experience so far have given you excellent technical and research skills, including careful observation, data collection, hypothesis development, planning, experimentation, and critical thinking. This course will build on those skills and teach you how to use those ‘research tools’ to work effectively with your people. The course will also enhance your leadership with practical tools from psychology, social science, human behavioural science, and the business world. You will learn how to lead with empathy to empower your people to get innovative, reproducible research done.
The course is a conversation between you, the other participants, and the trainers, to explore and cultivate your leadership skills. The course relies on your critical thinking, intelligence, and personal experience to work with the tools and models offered to develop your own leadership approach. To facilitate the spirit of discussion and exploration, the trainers deliver the content with contributions from participants captured directly and integrated into the course. The course involves learning about models and tools from psychology, human behavioural science, and business, and a lot of small group work to explore ideas and practice with each other. The emphasis on discussion and interaction also makes the course a great opportunity to network with peers and share the joys and frustrations of being a leader in research.
To extend this support and ensure the successful application of the tools you learn, the EMBO Lab Leadership Training Hub provides guided assistance during the training, offering:
Extensive resources that dive deeper into the topics covered during the training
Access to the “Leadership in Action” sequence to guide the effective implementation of learned tools
You retain access to this support for 12 months after the end of the course.
Activity: Giving participants time “to arrive” at the workshop and introduce the topics for the course. Open the “Parking Lot” for their questions and issues.
Purpose: Some participants attend the workshop with a specific question or challenge in mind. In addition to helping everyone get to know one another and feel comfortable, the trainers collect the questions and challenges that participants want to address so that they can refer back to them throughout the course. This ensures that every participant gets the support and insight that they need.
Activity: Participants are invited to reflect on good leaders that they have known and to develop a definition of good leadership. determine for themselves how much of their work is about managing and how much is about leading, and whether they need to develop in some way to achieve the appropriate mix. 4
Purpose: Scientists tend to develop management skills: the ability to set goals and plan and execute work to achieve those goals. During the postdoctoral career phase, and especially once they are PIs, scientists need to take on more and more duties relating to leadership: creating a vision, influencing others to work towards it, and helping nurture and develop people along the way. This module ensures that everyone has an understanding of how much of their current role is leadership focused and, therefore, how much development they need to do.
Activity: Participants are introduced to J.L. Moreno’s ‘Role Theory’ and the ‘Role Atom’ tool. Participants then help one another use the Role Atom to analyse the different roles they play on a daily basis, identify which are important for their success and which are comfortable and uncomfortable. Participants then work on a plan to develop themselves in those roles that are important but uncomfortable.
Purpose: The course aims to build on the existing strengths of participants and help them begin to address some of their weaknesses. The Role Atom is one tool to identify which of the things you do are important to your success in your job, and which are less important. It also helps you work out which roles you avoid or do less well because they feel uncomfortable. This leads into a development plan. For example: “I know I have to write grants, but I feel uncomfortable doing so because I don’t have very much experience. How could I improve?”
Activity: Participants are introduced to B. Tuckman’s model of team development. They are then invited to consider the practical steps they could take as a PI at each stage of their group’s development.
Purpose: Leaders need to be aware of the dynamics in their team and to respond appropriately at different stages in your team’s development. Participants also see how to deal with the high fluctuation rates in research teams to ensure that work remains on track and published, even when people leave.
Activity: Participants are encouraged to reflect on the values present in their work environment, and then to select and discuss 4 or 5 values that they would like to inculcate in their laboratories to ensure productive, fulfilling work. They are introduced to a strategy for implementing these values in their group.
Purpose: Working to a small set of shared values can improve the efficiency of teams, improve the effectiveness of decision-making, and reduce conflict. An awareness of the intrinsic values that operate in your workplace can help you to operate more effectively with your colleagues, and developing and nurturing a positive set of values for your own laboratory can help your people to work more efficiently and effectively.
Activity: Participants are introduced to the concept of Emotional Intelligence and how to use its framework to be more self-aware and to self-manage their own behaviour and emotional responses, as well as how to be more empathetic and strategic with their people.
Purpose: The relationships we develop with the people we lead have a huge impact on their and our success and well-being. It is particularly beholden upon leaders to manage their behaviour in response to their emotions, be aware of the emotions and this insight and knowledge to develop trusting, healthy relationships with those around them. This has a significant impact on the commitment and motivation of people and teams and ultimately the productivity of the research group.
Activity: Participants are introduced to E. Berne’s Transactional Analysis model of communication. They are encouraged to consider emotion a normal part of communicating and working with others, and to understand that the emotional content of a conversation needs to be handled skilfully. Participants then work in small groups to practice difficult conversations using the model with the support of the trainers.
Purpose: All successful leaders are effective communicators. Often a challenge to effective communication is being aware of your own emotional state and that of your conversation partner and preparing a strategy for difficult conversations. This module aims to help participants understand and manage their own emotions and needs during a conversation, to be more aware of the emotions and needs of their partner, and to think more strategically about achieving their goals.
Activity: Participants are introduced to a tool for giving feedback on positive and negative behaviour. They are encouraged to develop a culture of giving and receiving feedback within their groups. They then practise in groups using this tool.
Purpose: Feedback that is given well can help us and our colleagues address things we do not see ourselves (behaviour that is unhelpful to our success) and improves trust and productivity in teams. One challenge with giving feedback is that it can feel uncomfortable and can trigger strong emotions. This tool manages the emotions of the give and receiver and provides a framework to ensure the feedback is meaningful and has an impact.
Activity: Participants are introduced to F. Herzberg’s motivation model and are encouraged to reflect on how to use to help their people and themselves achieve states of high motivation.
Purpose: Low motivation is often attributable to external factors about the work or the environment, rather than a character flaw in the demotivated person. This tool helps PIs diagnose what is leading to low motivation states and then to look for effective solutions that will enable their people (or themselves) to feel more motivated.
Activity: Participants will first explore the concept of Team Candor and Trust—the degree to which people feel safe to take risks, offer ideas, make mistakes, learn, and disagree without fear of public criticism or backlash. They will then reflect on and share best practice that contributes positively to the level of trust and openness within their own teams, laying the foundations for a healthy research culture.
Purpose: This module aims to equip leaders with the understanding and skills to cultivate a work environment that drives innovation and excellence. By reducing the fear of failure and increasing transparency, you will learn how to enable individuals to be more willing to contribute their opinions, respectfully challenge the status quo, and be less likely to hide mistakes. This is essential for creating a productive research environment that enhances research integrity and facilitates the generation of reproducible results.
Activity: Participants are introduced to F. Glasl’s model of conflict, as well as other aspects of conflict theory and resolution.
Purpose: Conflict is only a problem if nothing is done about it. This module encourages participants to view conflict as normal and solvable and provides tools and ideas to help them do that. By taking action and resolving conflict, PIs can avoid the downsides (loss of productivity, bad feelings) and take advantage of the energy, ideas and change that conflict can bring once it is resolved effectively.
Activity: Participants are introduced to the GROW model of coaching and work in small groups to practice using this tool. They both learn the techniques of coaching to be able to use it themselves and receive the benefit of coaching on a specific challenge or topic they are dealing with.
Purpose: A key aspect of leadership is the ability to develop the skills, abilities, and knowledge of others. Many supervisory conversations involve a form of mentorship or advice-giving, which can be extremely valuable. However, giving advice and troubleshooting or planning for your people doesn’t effectively teach them those skills, nor does it empower them to solve their own challenges and become independent critical thinkers and experimentalists. Coaching is a tool in which the coach uses conversation structures and open-ended questions to draw from the coachee their own ideas and insight, helping the coachee to recognise their own knowledge and skills, and to refine and strategise their own ideas. This can be more empowering, meaningful and effective for the coachee than simply being told what to do and can improve performance over the long term. It is a method that encourages growth, critical thinking and independence in staff members and leaders. It is therefore a critical tool for a leader to use to help develop their people.
Activity: Participants learn about situational leadership and how to use it to adapt the way they assign work to different people and support them to succeed. Participants also learn about the Eisenhower Matrix method of prioritising work.
Purpose: All leaders need to be able to assign work, or delegate work that they don’t have time for, or that would be better done by someone else. However, each member of staff will have different levels of skill and willingness to do different tasks. Handing over tasks successfully therefore requires that the leader understands their people well enough to know how much support and encouragement they will need provide, for their people to complete a given task. The Eisenhower Matrix is a useful tool for reflecting who and what we prioritise, and taking strategic decisions about committing our time and our people’s time to tasks that move our research forward.
Activity: Participants learn a method related to coaching that helps them help their people solve their own simple problems. The work draws on the famous Harvard Business review article from W. Oncken & D. Wass (1974): Management Time: Who’s got the monkey?
Purpose: Some problems fall to the PI to solve. For many problems, staff members could solve them themselves if they thought about it. This method helps PIs work out which problems could be solved without their involvement and provides a method to help staff members think critically and learn to problem-solve themselves. This frees up some of the PI’s time to solve more complex problems and do more impactful work.
Our trainers come from many different backgrounds, and all have been working directly and extensively with leaders in the life sciences for many years. Our team includes scientists, organisational development experts, human resources professionals, MBA graduates, mathematicians, professional coaches, and others with significant and relevant experience to supporting leaders in the life sciences.
For each course, we provide two trainers to balance their expertise and diversity to ensure that you receive the widest range of expertise, experience and insight possible from your training team.
The Hub handles all necessary details to ensure a smooth training experience:
After taking this course, I am well equipped to lead my research team. I am a better supervisor, capable of delegating tasks, solving conflicts, and managing my employees.
Anna Starnawska | Assistant Professor
Aarhus University
This course provided leadership exercises directly applicable to my daily work. The in-person meetings facilitated valuable peer exchanges, making it a memorable experience.
Nicolas Huguenin | Group Leader
ETH Zürich
The course has been a game changer in my leadership journey! Empowering me with crucial aspects like team management and conflict resolution.
Isis N. O. Souza | Assistant Professor
University of Rio de Janeiro
The EMBO Lab Leadership course is essential for anyone in leadership or supervisory roles in academia and industry. After completing it, I immediately expressed more empathy towards my colleagues. I found that focusing on active listening and clearly communicating my feelings and needs helped deescalate difficult situations effectively.
Yoel A. Klug | Postdoc
University of Oxford