Leadership involves effectively engaging people to work together to achieve organizational, political, or social goals. Skill in this arena is a critical factor in organizational and career success. Every postdoc, no matter what field of endeavor, will face a variety of complex leadership challenges. How these challenges are met will have a significant impact on the postdoc’s career and life.

Sponsored by the Office of Postdoctoral Studies, this highly interactive 8-module program uses lectures, discussions, simulations, and cases to introduce postdocs to key concepts and skills of leadership in today’s complex environment. It provides a practical forum to assess and develop personal leadership skills in self-knowledge, individual and group dynamics, power, the importance of organizational structure and context, and the role of communication in conflict resolution, team function, and change. This program runs from October through March.

Program goals:

• Create virtual network of postdocs—help you build social capital
• Enhance awareness of your style and impact on others
• Explore decision-making strategies, resonance with your style, and appropriateness of each style in different contexts (both cultural and organizational)
• Expand your awareness about how to create a high-functioning team
• Provide tested strategies for effective meetings
• Experience a framework to help you understand and resolve conflicts
• Heighten your awareness about conflict in work groups and ways to avoid/resolve it
• Set the stage for you to tailor your next steps in leadership development to your own style, career context and organizational level