EMBO Lab Leadership for Group Leaders

Develop your leadership skills, empower your team, and get great research done.

Who this Course is for

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.

 

Style of this Course

The workshop schedule varies for in-person and online participants:

  • In-person (four days):
    • Daily: 9:00 – 17:30 
    • Last day: 9:00 – 16:30 
  • Online (three days):
    • Daily: 9:00 – 17:30 (CET/CEST)
    • Last day: 9:00 – 16:30 (CET/CEST)

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.

You will learn (In Person)

Day 1 Leadership & Teams

Each course dynamically adapts its schedule to the needs and priorities of the participants. In principle, though: On the first day, we spend some time getting to know one another and building a level of awareness and trust. The course thrives on your contributions and insights, so we want you to feel welcome to share your experience and knowledge.

We spend time thinking about what it means to be a leader and how your values, experiences, and emotions impact the way you approach leadership. We look at how teams work effectively together and what sort of support they need from you, both as a collective

and as individuals within the research space.

We look at how you manage your time and attention across the many roles you play as a leader in research; from bottle-washer or debugger to visionary and everything in between.

Finally, we spend some time reflecting on the values that drive our perspectives and behaviour and explore how values can help diverse groups of people understand each other more deeply and find effective ways to share resources and work together.

Topics Covered

Leadership & Management | Role development | Team development | Values

Day 2 Emotions & Communication

On the second day, we will spend time reflecting on how we are influenced by our emotions, and what impact this has on our effectiveness as leaders.

We will also explore one perspective on the rich variety of personalities in the world and how each person’s focus, habits, needs, and motivations leads them to understand and interact with the world.

In the afternoon, we will look at a communication tool that helps us understand the impact of our emotions on our communication, as well as the way that other people’s behaviour and language causes us to respond,

We will finish the day by discussing the importance of clarity and empathy when delivering feedback to ensure that it is effective and will lead to development and change.

Topics Covered

Emotional Intelligence & Personality | Communication | Feedback

Day 3 Conflict & Coaching

On the third day, we spent time understanding the nature of conflict and looking at communication and other tools that can help us to identify and resolve conflict.

We will explore motivation and what different people need to feel motivated. We will share a diagnostic tool to support you in trouble-shooting low levels of motivation.

 

 

We will look at the importance of empowering your people to find their own solutions and develop their own strategies and how to support people in an adaptive way to ensure that when you assign work to them, they are set up for success.

We will finish with a tool that supports us to align our attitude with our strategic goals and prepares us for difficult situations.

Topics Covered

Conflict | Motivation | Coaching | Attitudinal goals

Day 4 Hiring & Empowering

On the fourth day we will begin by exploring the environment in which we work and the impact of other people’s expectations, emotions, and needs on our work together.

We will then explore how to approach hiring people in a way that allows us to collect unbiased data and make good decisions.

We will share a tool for supporting the people you are leading to help them take on work effectively; delegating to them in a way that is aware of their level of development and motivation.

Finally, we will reflect on how to move forward with the work we have done over the past days, and how to empower our people to take risks, be honest, innovate, and develop themselves as scientists.

Topics Covered

Working environment | Hiring & interviewing | Delegation | Empowering others

You will learn (online)

Day 1 Leadership & Teams

Each course dynamically adapts its schedule to the needs and priorities of the participants. In principle, though: On the first day, we spend some time getting to know one another and building a level of awareness and trust. The course thrives on your contributions and insights, so we want you to feel welcome to share your experience and knowledge.

We spend time thinking about what it means to be a leader and how your values, experiences, and emotions impact the way you approach leadership. We look at how teams work effectively together and what sort of support they need from you, both as a collective and as individuals within the research space.

We look at how you manage your time and attention across the many roles you play as a leader in research; from bottle-washer or debugger to visionary and everything in between.

Finally, we spend some time reflecting on the values that drive our perspectives and behaviour and explore how values can help diverse groups of people understand each other more deeply and find effective ways to share resources and work together.

Topics Covered

Leadership & Management | Role development | Team development | Values

Day 2 Emotions & Communication

On the second day, we will spend time reflecting on how we are influenced by our emotions, and what impact this has on our effectiveness as leaders.

We will explore a model of communication that looks at how and why people communicate in certain ways, and what impact our own communication style has on the willingness of others to work hard, be honest, develop themselves, and take ownership of their work.

In the afternoon, we will look at the importance of clarity and empathy when delivering feedback to ensure that it is effective and will lead to development and change.

We will finish the day by looking at motivation and what different people need to feel motivated. We will share a diagnostic tool to support you in trouble-shooting low levels of motivation.

Topics Covered

Emotional Intelligence & Personality | Communication | Feedback | Motivation

Day 3 Conflict & Coaching

On the third day, we spent time understanding the nature of conflict and looking at communication and other tools that can help us to identify and resolve conflict.

We will explore the environment in which we work and the impact of other people’s expectations, emotions, and needs on our work together.

We will share a tool for supporting the people you are leading to help them take on work effectively; delegating to them in a way that is aware of their level of development and motivation.

And finally we will look at supporting people in an adaptive way to ensure that when you assign work to them, they are set up for success.

Topics Covered

Conflict management | Working environment | Delegation | Empowering others

EMBO Lab Leadership for Group Leaders

In Person

Focus on your leadership skills away from the lab

€ 2,990 incl. VAT
What’s included
  • 4 full days of training
  • 4 nights of accommodation
  • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
  • Course Materials

Live Online

Explore your leadership in a dynamic digital setting

€ 1,990 excl. VAT
What’s included
  • 3 full days of training
  • Course Materials
  • Dynamic digital experience

Dates & Locations

26–28 March 2025
Live Online (09:00-17:30 CET)
1–4 April 2025
Leimen, Germany
6–9 May 2025
Leimen, Germany
3–6 June 2025
Leimen, Germany
11–13 June 2025
Kansas City, MI, USA
25–27 June 2025
Live Online (09:00-17:30 CEST)
8–11 July 2025
Leimen, Germany

Our Training Team – Specialised for Scientists

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.

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

EMBO Lab Leadership at your Institute

If you have a group of leaders that you would like to train together – maximising the benefit of the course by creating supportive, professional relationships between them in addition to building their leadership skills – then we’re happy to come to you! Find out how…

Got Questions?

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