The Faculty Development Initiative is proud to support the People Manager Skills for Research Mentors, a structured program designed to strengthen the supervisory and mentoring skills of scientists, including trainees, faculty and clinicians in academic research.
Led by Naledi Saul, Director of OCPD, this evidence-based program provides frameworks, strategies, and tools to help research mentors set expectations, provide effective feedback, manage performance, and create supportive and productive lab environments. The program consists of eight interactive modules, each focusing on a core people management responsibility within the academic research setting.
Participants will learn:
- Core people manager skills.
- How to implement inclusivity skillfully in your managerial role.
- Strategies to navigate role conflict with integrity.
Module 1: The 7 people manager (supervisory) tasks to manage some one else's productivity, morale and well-being
- In this workshop, participants identify the skills they have and those they need to develop to effectively manage the productivity of their mentee/employee. First, you will self-evaluate your strengths and growth areas in executing the 7 fundamental people management responsibilities: (setting expectations, teaching/training and delegating, the three types of feedback, rewarding achievement, addressing performance issues, managing the inevitable conflict inherent in even the most functional teams, and providing appropriate protection and support).
- Second, we'll dissect the specific strategies individuals with research mentoring and/or managing responsibilities can use to equitably balance decisions in fulfilling their roles as a scientific mentor and/or a manager. Finally, participants consider ways to receive support and further develop their skills and abilities in these areas.
Module 2: How to transparently set (performance and conduct) expectations
- Have you ever been surprised or frustrated that someone in your lab isn't meeting performance or conduct expectations? Are you wondering about organizational management benchmarks, strategies, and best practices for setting expectations transparently? Then this is the session for you! In this workshop, we'll discuss challenges and tactics to share the wide range of expectations that need to be set - from promptness to productivity and problem-solving.
- Participants will also learn organizational management best practices for articulating, refining, reinforcing, and/or updating expectations. Next, we'll cover how skillful leaders avoid common pitfalls (e.g., articulating only the "what" but not the "how" of expectations, failing to include tacit expectations, setting boundaries around key expectations such as problems, etc.) Finally, we'll point out links and materials to institutional resources for further support.
Module 3: Teach/train and delegate: Using best practices to get your people up to speed
- Effective training practices are essential in any organization but particularly important in research and clinical organizations. The constant evolution of knowledge requires a solid training process to stay up to speed on innovative technology, best practices, and expertise, and the consequences of errors can be high.
- In this module, we discuss common training issues that can result in a loss of productivity for individuals and their teams. We propose evidence-based approaches to avoid, detect, and correct these training issues.
Module 4: Communicating effectively: developing your own feedback strategy and style
- Do you feel most comfortable offering positive (or kudos) feedback? Do you tend to avoid or sugarcoat corrective feedback? Are you unsure what 'evaluative' feedback is? Then this is the session for you. In this module, we begin by dissecting the three types of feedback that everyone (including you) needs to be productive: kudos, corrective, and evaluative feedback.
- Participants will practice giving feedback using a protocol that works for both kudos and corrective feedback. Next, participants will modify the protocol as they consider their style (including their personal values, approach, and language). We'll discuss strategies to gain buy-in and determine how the recipient can best hear and act on that feedback, as well as how to engage when the recipient has a strong reaction to feedback.
Module 5: When someone isn't meeting your expectations: Strategies and resources to manage performance effectively
- When someone repeatedly fails to meet performance or conduct expectations, many research mentors/managers frequently under or over-correct and mistakenly attempt to handle the situation alone (rather than reaching out for support).
- In this session, participants will learn tactics to determine how their particular organization expects them to manage performance or conduct issues, how to access organizational resources to help them navigate the situation (including HR, Learning, and Development, etc.), and common mistakes and approaches (including building a circle of support/self-care) to manage one of the most challenging responsibilities for any mentor/manager.
Module 6: How to effectively hire the best people for your team: Which strategies will you use?
- In this workshop, participants will learn evidence-based strategies to assess and select the best candidate for their team.
- Participants will learn how to transparently structure the overall hiring process, begin to develop their own questions/rubrics to assess for their priority qualifications, consider steps to prepare and manage a hiring committee, and discover tactics to mitigate others - and their own - unconscious biases to ensure that the best candidate isn't overlooked.
Module 7: Skillfully supervising people who aren't you: Managing different work style preferences
- In this module, participants consider how individual differences in values, approaches, and relationships to work can impact productivity, morale, and team member retention. We also discuss tangible steps mentors/managers can take to cultivate inclusive environments intentionally. We consider several factors that may make up our individual' operating systems' when we engage in work, including how we prefer to communicate, make decisions, feel organized, and manage change/conflict.
- Participants will also have the opportunity to assess some facets of their own work style preferences and develop the vocabulary to discuss others' preferences without pathologizing their approach to work. Finally, we discuss and brainstorm tactics that team leaders can use to manage multiple work style differences inclusively and reap the benefits of working in diverse teams.
Module 8: The 5 strategies to create a sense of belonging on your team and get the best work from your people
- Many scientists with mentoring/managing responsibilities have the best of intentions, but lack clarity about which specific decisions and actions result in everyone on their team feeling a sense of belonging and invested in the overall success of the lab/team. In this session, you will learn a framework to benchmark which decisions, behaviors and actions support an effective workplace ecosystem.
- Secondly, we will outline 5 overarching strategies that can improve the productivity, morale and well-being of everyone on your team.
- Finally, you will practice applying these strategies to your own work life, by intentionally building them into a common work responsibility (a 1:1 or lab meeting).
Fall 2025 trainings are scheduled for every Monday and Wednesday in October, from 12-2 pm [October 6th, 8th, 13th, 15th, 20th, 22nd, 27th, and 29th]. Participants may enroll in one training module or choose multiple sessions. For more details and registration information, please visit OCPD.