Course Type: Online-Workshop

Target Group: Postdoctoral researchers

Communication is a key competence for success in an academic setting. This is particularly true for postdoctoral researchers, as they have to navigate through a variety of challenging situations in a highly complex work environment, shaped by formal and informal hierarchies, nuanced academic cultures as well as micro-politics. Postdocs face a lot of communicative situations that are informal negotiations at their core.

This workshop supports participants to develop constructive and effective forms of communication and to understand the basic principles of negotiation. Participants will learn how to “stand their ground” in challenging situations, whether these might be negotiations about priorities with their PIs, authorship disputes, difficult group dynamics in committee meetings or negotiations about cooperation and collaboration. We will work closely with situations and examples from the participants' own professional experience.

The workshop will address the following themes:

- Basics of professional communication (concepts, approaches, methods)
- “Typical” communicative situations in the postdoc phase
- Dealing with hierarchies, dependencies and (e.g. gender-specific) attributions

Counting towards the Certificate "Leadership, Management, Science Communication and Knowledge Transfer" (Module IV, 8 AE).

Biologist; coach, mediator and trainer for scientists of different qualification levels, for teams, as well as for managers and non-scientific employees of universities and research institutions. Many years of experience as a scientist in various European research institutions. Focus areas: Career development, leadership skills, team leadership, diversity and conflict management.