Leading Your Lab - Course Content

Session 1: Leading people in scientific organisations 

Leading and managing your lab / team

• Introductions – confidentiality, research base of the programme

• Understanding what effective management means

• Core behaviours, skills and mindsets for effective people leadership

• Flexing your style to meet the needs of individuals, teams and tasks

• Using action-centred leadership to guide priorities and balance demands

• Balancing what we deliver with how we work together

Boosting motivation and emotional intelligence

• Engagement science - what really drives engagement in teams

• The top 12 factors that support motivation and performance

• Building emotional intelligence in yourself and others

• Giving and receiving feedback – across, down, and up

Shaping team culture and psychological safety

• Defining the team culture you’d like to create

• Building psychological safety in your team or lab 

• Understanding the impact of blame-free, learning-led cultures

• Bringing your organisation’s values to life 

• Strengthening collaboration within and across other teams

Building inclusive and diverse teams

• Exploring what diversity means – beyond metrics

• Understanding the effects of unconscious bias

• Considering generational differences and leadership expectations

• Harnessing cognitive diversity through constructive disagreement

Personal reflection and action planning

< Back to Leading Your Lab

Session 2: Coaching and developing your team for high performance

Practical tools to help your team grow, take ownership and deliver great work.

What have you been using since last time?

• Reflect on what you’ve tried out and what’s made a difference.

Building competence and confidence in your team 

• Understanding how people grow skills and self-belief

• Using the Lead / Manage / Do model to prioritise and improve performance 

• Delegating to develop, not dumping through despair

• Holding effective 1:1s and supervisions — including with PhD students 

Setting goals that work

• Setting clear, measurable, time-bound goals and objectives 

• Discussing the challenge of goal setting in research-focussed teams and how to make it clearer

• Reviewing progress against goals to ensure accountability

Coaching as a leadership skill

• Asking better questions to helping others to think and solve problems

• Distinguishing between ‘telling’ and supporting others to think for themselves

• Learning the power of listening — and how not to rush in

• Understanding what “Managing the Kitten” really means and how it can develop your team and give you more time 

The GROW Coaching Model

• Learning a simple, structured 4-step model: GROW

• Using it to help others take ownership and find their own answers

• Watching a live demonstration and applying it to your own situation

Skills Practice

• Practising coaching skills using real work challenges 

• Getting feedback, building confidence and refining your approach

Personal reflection and action planning

• Leave with a clear plan to use your new skills in the team

Session 3: Having challenging conversations and increasing Influence 

Confident conversations and greater influence – even in the tough moments

What have you been using since last time?

• Reflect on what you’ve tried out and what’s made a difference.

Challenging conversations in practice

• Common types of tricky conversations and how to manage them

• Setting expectations clearly — including when to say ‘no’

• Giving feedback that’s clear, objective and grounded in evidence

• Choosing the right approach and structure to fit the situation

• Revisiting tools from earlier modules that support difficult conversations

Staying steady under pressure

• Gaining attention and buy-in from others

• Managing strong emotions and unhelpful behaviours

• Recognising and managing your own triggers

• Using tone, body language and language to de-escalate

• Strengthening emotional intelligence under pressure

Preparing for your own challenging conversation

• Questions to clarify your message and approach

• Anticipating the other person’s reaction and ways to respond

Extended skills practice on challenging conversations

• Using scenarios written for technical teams / organisations

• Getting feedback, building confidence and refining your approach

Influencing styles

• Identifying your natural influencing style (online questionnaire completed before the course)

• Understanding what others are motivated by and using that to increase impact (WIIFM)
  Adapting your approach to influence with more clarity and confidence

• Working effectively with senior colleagues and managers — in the team, or at organisational level

Personal reflection and action planning

< Back to Leading Your Lab

Session 4: Leading for the future

Strengthen your strategic thinking, widen your network, and create a resilient, responsive team ready for what’s next

What have you been using since last time?

• Reflect on what you’ve tried out and what’s made a difference.

Strategic thinking for you and your team

• Where do you want to go – and how will you get there?

• Taking a strategic view of your career and development

• Planning purposefully for yourself and your team / lab

• Working on your team, not just in it

• Seeing the bigger picture and aligning your actions

Supporting your dev team through change 

• Using the change curve and other models to understand the process of change

• Identifying what is required of a leader during change and/or organisational growth

• Understanding different people’s responses to change

• Taking your team with you

• Avoiding common pitfalls

• Applying a range of approaches to your own change situation

Widening your influence and network

• Raising the visibility of your work, team and ideas

• Navigating the political landscape and influencing effectively

• Building supportive networks and collaborations

• Making the most of conferences and other opportunities

Supporting wellbeing in yourself and your team

• Spotting signs of poor wellbeing – in yourself and others

• Everyday actions that support team wellbeingBuilding confidence to have wellbeing conversations with your team and colleagues

• Using case studies to apply your skills

Action planning 

• Review of personal programme objectives and next steps