Navigating Successfully in Academia
Career Program for Experienced Postdocs, Research Group Leaders and W1-Professors
Researchers qualify for a lifetime professorship through their research achievements, but rarely have the opportunity to receive qualified support for this career path. The program wishes to close this gap and offers workshops on essential themes such as successful appointment negotiations, micropolitics in the university or advanced communication skills. The program is designed as peer mentoring and enables the selected participants to network intensively with others, who are on the same career path, across disciplines and universities. It will provide participants with a strong network of other researchers on their way to lifetime professorship.
Conditions of Participation and Application Details
Outstanding postdocs (at least two years after completing their doctorate), research group leaders and W1 professors from all HRA member institutions can take part in the career program. The workshops are exclusive for the program, run by highly experienced trainers. The number of participants is therefore limited to 14 people. We expect that participants attend all workshops and, in addition, meet and exchange with their program peers. A certificate of participation will be issued upon successful completion of the program to participants who have attended all events regularly and without unexcused absence. Participation in the program is free of charge.
Workshop 1: Kick off Workshop (10 and 11 April 2024)
My Goals, My Status, My Peers
This two-day workshop sets the tone and the pace for the journey ahead: You will reflect on your goals, you will meet interesting persons, and you will find ways to mutually support each other- Also, you will acquire communication skills that help you in all these areas.
During these two days in April, …
- you will meet your peers in person and find ways to mutually support each other (think peer coaching!)
- you will learn about communication basics and strategies that help you deal with typical challenges
- you will work on concrete cases so that you feel safe in challenging situations.
Cases: At the beginning of the workshop, Sylvia will collect topics that you would like to deal with. Maybe you want to learn how to say No. Or maybe you want to work on your visibility. Or maybe you feel that a colleague does not like you. No matter what: We will start working on situations that really concern you.
Trainer: Dr. Sylvia Löhken is an expert in introverted and extroverted communication. With her experience as a scientist and as a manager in a large international organisation, Sylvia Löhken knows important working environments of her clients from her own experience: politics and administration, business and research, management and consulting as well as Japanese, American and German communication. As a communications expert, she regularly supports scientists preparing for the final rounds of ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants for German research funding institutions, among others.
Date: Wednesday, 10 April 2024 and Thursday, 11 April 2024
Workshop 2: Appointment Procedures in Germany: How to Apply for Professorships (6 and 7 May 2024)
Appointment Procedures in Germany: How to Apply for Professorships
The seminar prepares you in a structured way for your applications for (junior) professorships. You will receive comprehensive and profound information on the various elements of appointment procedure:
- Preparation for the application
- Drafting the application documents
- “Das Vorsingen”: Self-presentation in front of the appointment committee
- Appointment negotiations after the nomination for a professorship
In particular, you will practice the interview with the appointment committee in mock interviews in order to be well prepared for the actual interview situation. Unwritten rules and possible micropolitical processes will also be addressed.
Trainer: Franziska Jantzen is a lawyer, organizational consultant and coach with very extensive knowledge of application and appointment processes in academia. Since 2001, she has been supporting academics in their attempts to gain a professorship.
Date: Monday, 6 May 2024 and Tuesday, 7 May 2024
Workshop 3: Leadership Competencies in Academia: How to Foster Motivation, Performance and Satisfaction (3 and 4 June 2024)
Leadership Competencies in Academia: How to Foster Motivation, Performance and Satisfaction
The goal of this course is to help early-career researchers such as post-docs to become better leaders. What works and what does not work towards this end can be studied scientifically. Thus, the ideas and recommendations provided in this course are based on research.
In this course, you will learn evidence-based ways to more effectively lead individuals and teams of different sizes. The instructor will present scientific theories and findings and show via concrete examples and practical exercises how you can benefit from adopting a science-based approach to leading.
The course is specifically designed to address the specific challenges that leaders in academia face. You will learn:
- How best to motivate yourself and others;
- What habits and traits leaders should develop;
- What specific leadership behaviors (such as visionary, empowering, and directive leadership) should be in your behavioral repertoire;
- How to get the most out of teams, including diverse teams
This course will prepare you for a successful career in helping others to unlock their full potential.
Trainer: Prof. Dr. Eric Kearney is a professor of leadership, organizational behavior and human resource management at the University of Potsdam. He has taught at numerous universities and business schools in Germany and abroad, and his research on leadership and teamwork has been published in leading scientific journals. He frequently gives talks and workshops on how an evidence-based approach can help leaders become more effective in fostering motivation, performance, and satisfaction.
Date: Monday, 3 June 2024 and Tuesday, 4 June 2024
Individual Coaching Sessions (1 or 2 July 2024)
Online sessions (45-90 minutes) with Dr. Sylvia Löhken
Trainer: Dr. Sylvia Löhken is an expert in introverted and extroverted communication. With her experience as a scientist and as a manager in a large international organisation, Sylvia Löhken knows important working environments of her clients from her own experience: politics and administration, business and research, management and consulting as well as Japanese, American and German communication. As a communications expert, she regularly supports scientists preparing for the final rounds of ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants for German research funding institutions, among others.
Workshop 4: Power Games and Micropolitical Competence in Academia (15 July 2024)
Power games and micropolitical competence in academia
In Germany and elsewhere researchers are embedded in specific hierarchical constellations. Regardless of their position at the top, middle or lower levels of their organization, sometimes they meet irritating and even incomprehensible behavior and outcomes: formal regulations may be bypassed, expertise and institutionally defined responsibility may turn out to be unimportant when decisions are taken, rival camps may impede reasonable cooperation, etc.
Some processes involving power games are perceived as unproductive, frustrating or even annoying. However, experience also tells us that difficult situations can be mastered by analyzing the dynamics of key situations and of the players‘ interests involved, by skillful communication and, generally, by a power-conscious approach.
The theoretical approach of micropolitics and its conceptual enhancement provide a framework to systematically grasp manifestations of the everyday uses of power in organizations. However, micropolitics is not just about people in leadership positions or about power-abuse. In fact, self-interests are pursued at all organizational levels and may be ethically motivated. Individual or collective strategies are used to exert informal influence or to avoid control by others. Of central interest is the question of power resources, also from a diversity perspective.
The subject matter of the wokshop can enrich your (virtual) tea kitchen talks with an important shadow topic in your own organization. Above all, you can deepen your understanding of the power processes and the games played in your own environment. Moreover, you will have the opportunity to reflect on your own power resources and roles in micropolitical games - as ‚victims‘ or ‚actors‘ – supported by a systematic and unbiased approach. You can identify strategies to pursue your goals more effectively and gain perspective on how to further enhance your personal micropolitical competence pursuant to the workshop.
Trainer: Dr. Veronika Fuest is a certified consultant (systemic transactional analysis) and trainer with multidisciplinary academic qualifications, experience in collaborative research projects at various scientific institutions, academic teaching of political anthropology, various assignments in science management (project coordination, consultancy, management of ombudsman affairs, internal process moderation) and actor and institu-tional analyses in science organizations.
Date: Monday, 15 July 2024 (online)
Workshop 5: My Life, My Career, My Moves (26 and 27 November 2024)
My Life, My Career, My Moves
In the HRA Career Program, your journey comes to an end. At the same time, your real journey continues: What lies ahead in your career? What does it mean for your strategies? How do you create visibility in all the right places? How do you go on with the peers who have walked beside you in the program? This workshop provides space, time, and methods for pondering all these questions. You will have time to reflect on what you have experienced in the program. There will also be reflections on situations you would like to cope with. A special focus lies on strategies for your future success: alone and with the persons you trust. Last but not least, there will be ways to say good-bye.
Trainer: Dr. Sylvia Löhken is an expert in introverted and extroverted communication. With her experience as a scientist and as a manager in a large international organisation, Sylvia Löhken knows important working environments of her clients from her own experience: politics and administration, business and research, management and consulting as well as Japanese, American and German communication. As a communications expert, she regularly supports scientists preparing for the final rounds of ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants for German research funding institutions, among others.
Date: Tuesday, 26 November 2024 and Wednesday, 27 November 2024