Leadership Training for Scientists - Cambridge and UK-wide
Lab to Leader
Training future leaders in science and technology
This transformative programme is based on our years of experience working with scientific and research-driven organisations, and provides specialist leadership training for scientists and researchers as they step into management.
Delivered as a series of classroom or virtual training modules or as one-to-one coaching, the programme builds the people skills and confidence vital to translating success in the lab into success as a leader or supervisor.
Leadership & management
Emotionally intelligent leadership is a learnable skill, and there are many tools, techniques and processes that you can use to help you get the best from those you manage.
Personal impact & comms
The importance of soft skills is often underestimated in scientific environments, but great communication is vital to maximising your influence and visibility as a leader.
Strategy, politics & resilience
Long-term vision, negotiating relationships and power, and coping with setbacks are vital skills for advancing your science and the interests of your team.
A focus on scientists' needs
For many scientists and researchers, the step into a management or supervisory role can be daunting. Brilliance in the lab doesn’t always translate into comfort and competence in positions of leadership.
Success in science requires more than individual talent. For a lab or project to be successful requires that every member of the team contributes their best. And that means PhDs need supervising, post-docs need guidance, and colleagues need to be coordinated, motivated and supported.
Through our conversations with scientists moving into leadership we know that everyone responds to the challenge differently. So we work with delegates individually to identify an authentic leadership style that plays to their strengths, whilst addressing learning needs.
With additional coaching support, we help delegates develop the all-round skills vital to the next generation of scientific leadership.
Programme content
Key learning outcomes
- Develop an authentic but flexible leadership style
- Build skills and confidence to tackle difficult issues with their manager, colleagues or team members
- Increase emotional intelligence
- Improve communication skills
- Increase presence and positive impact
- Boost ability to navigate the political landscape
- Develop ability to think more strategically
- Build and maintain wider networks and influence
- Increase resilience and capacity to cope with setbacks
Typical programme content
The Lab to Leader programme is typically delivered in two different ways, depending on whether you prefer virtual or face-to-face learning.
Virtual delivery (6 x 2-hour modules)
Virtual modules 1 and 2: Leadership and management skills
1.1 Engagement and Emotional Intelligence
- Engagement science – understanding engagement of teams and motivating individuals
- The top 12 predictors of staff engagement
- The 12 categories and 4 domains of emotional intelligence
- The link between emotional intelligence and effective leadership
- Ways to develop self-awareness and emotional intelligence in yourself and your team
1.2 Leading and managing your team
- Management – what does it mean and how do we do it day to day?
- Leadership behaviours, skills and knowledge
- Developing a flexible leadership style
- Managing up – working productively with your manager and senior colleagues
1.3 Coaching and mentoring your team
- Setting clear objectives for yourself and your team
- Giving and receiving effective feedback
- Coaching models
- Skills practice
- Carrying out an effective one-to-one
Virtual modules 3 and 4: Personal impact and communication
2.1 Personal impact and influence
- Circle of control – identifying what you can control and influence, and what you can’t do anything about.
- Discovering your natural influencing style.
- Developing a flexible influencing style to increase your impact
- Adapting your tone and body language to create the impressions you choose.
- The difference between intention and behaviour.
- Increasing your visibility
2.2 Communicating and presenting with impact
- How to present yourself confidently
- Using your voice to create impact
- How to ‘fake it till you make it’
- Delivering clear and impactful messages
2.3 Different types of challenging conversations
- Different types of tricky conversations and how to manage them
- Managing challenging attitudes and behaviour
- Communication skills during challenging conversations
2.4 Handling challenging emotions
- The role of words, tone and body language
- Identify your own trigger points and how to manage these
- How to gain the other person’s attention / buy-in
- Five communication styles and which ones are used in different situations
2.5 Preparing for your own challenging conversation
- Questions to consider before you have a challenging conversation
- Anticipating the other person’s responses and how you’ll respond
- Optional skills practice using scenarios written for your own organisation
Virtual modules 5 and 6: Strategy, power, politics and resilience
3.1 Strategy
- Where would you like to get to, and how are you going to get there?
- Thinking strategically about your career
- Planning strategically for yourself and your team
- Working ‘on the business’ as well as ‘in the business’
- Seeing the bigger picture
3.2 Widening your influence and network
- Power and politics
- Understanding the political landscape and how to influence it
- Increasing your personal profile at work
- Building networks, coalitions and support processes
- Making the most of networking opportunities at conferences etc.
3.3 Developing personal resilience
- Definition of resilience and wellbeing.
- How are you resilient? Understanding own resilience through the Cooper/Robertson Questionnaire (completed before the course)
- Managing your energy throughout the working day and week
- Responding to change and how this is linked to resilience
3.4 Building Emotional Resilience – Dealing with pressure and overcoming setbacks
- Reframing and Cognitive Restructuring – identifying thinking patterns to deal with setbacks positively:
- ABC thinking
- Multiple perspectives
- Making the most of your own time – switching off and recharging
- Mindfulness
- Developing ‘bounce-back’
In-person delivery (4 x full-day sessions)
For an outline of our alternative, 4-day face-to-face programme, please click here:
Coaching and assessment tools
As well as training, the Lab to Leader programme can also include psychometrics and one-to-one coaching sessions to provide more personalised insights as well as opportunities to develop self-awareness and collaboration skills.
We use a range of psychometrics and personality assessments to help learners understand their strengths, style and development needs in an objective way.
Gallup’s respected CliftonStrengths® tool is a popular option, as well as an Emotional Intelligence 360° assessment, but our consultants are qualified in delivering and coaching on a range of tools, including MBTI, Belbin Team Roles, DISC and Firo-B amongst others.
Evidence-led training
The Lab to Leader training programme is shaped by ongoing research that draws on hundreds of interviews and conversations with scientists, as well as the best peer-reviewed science.
We’re particularly interested in understanding and negotiating the apparent contradiction between the traits and competencies shown to be associated with success as a scientist, and those linked to success as a leader.
Through in-depth conversations with scientists and those they manage, we have been able to pinpoint the practical moments when this tension becomes most apparent, and have developed processes, tools and techniques to address these issues head-on.
The result is a course underpinned by a blend of research insight and deep practical knowledge that speaks directly and credibly to scientists’ experiences.
Delivery formats
Lab to Leader can be delivered as virtual or classroom training, and as a one-to-one coaching programme for individual learners.
For groups of three or more we can deliver the full programme as either traditional classroom or virtual training. This shared experience provides a great opportunity for building a strong support network between the delegates and enables the content to be shaped to the specific needs of your organisation.
For individual delegates the programme can be delivered as one-to-one coaching. Individual coaching provides the same content as the classroom course, but delivered over four two-hour virtual coaching sessions. The big benefit of this approach is that the sessions can be adapted to the specific learning needs of the coachee.
Our track record
The Lab to Leader programme evolved out of over twenty years working with scientific organisations in the Cambridge STEM Cluster, as well as with companies, universities, government bodies and NGOs across the UK and beyond.
Over that period, our consultants have trained thousands of people, equipping a new generation of science leaders with the skills and confidence they need to help transform the world through science.
Some of our clients are displayed below.
Get in touch
Find out more or get a quote
The Lab to Leader programme can be delivered as classroom training at your lab or office in the UK, or live online as virtual training worldwide.
For an idea of pricing or to arrange a call with one of our consultants to discuss the programme in more detail, please get in touch with some basic information:
- A rough idea of how many participants need the training
- Whether you want the training delivered at your premises or virtually
- The leadership experience levels of potential participants