Supporting Learners in Distress
Student Life and Student Health and Counseling Services are hosting a webinar on Supporting Learners in Distress. In this session, you will learn strategies for supporting learners’ mental health, how to identify a learner in distress and ways to navigate that difficult situation, and resources available to support learners, as well as faculty and staff. Faculty are encouraged to attend this session, even if you’ve come in the past. The benefits are tangible: Promoting student and postdoc mental health and learning how to work with a student in distress can improve learner performance and prevent many concerns from escalating into crises. Assistant Dean Chequeta Allen will also be there to respond to questions relating to postdoctoral scholars. 

Assess Yourself: How ready are you to manage your mentee/employee’s productivity?
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. 

Effectively supervising people who aren't you: Managing different workstyles
In this module, participants consider how individual differences in values, approaches and relationship to work can impact productivity, morale and retention of team members. We also discuss tangible steps that managers can take to intentionally cultivate inclusive environments. 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, as well as 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 inclusively manage multiple work style differences and reap the benefits of working in diverse teams.

How to transparently set (performance and conduct) expectations
Gallup’s national State of the American Worker poll notes that half of all workers do not know what is expected of them. We discuss the challenges – the impossibility, actually – of setting all performance and behavioral expectations at the beginning of someone’s tenure, and the strategies that successful research mentors/managers use to set and manage those expectations over time. Participants will 1) identify which key expectations need to be set immediately to preserve their own productivity, 2) define and articulate expectations to team members, 3) overcome common challenges in setting expectations, including when mentoring/supervising individuals who are more experienced than themselves or have a strongly held ‘operating system’/way of doing things, and 4) consider criteria to determine if they’ve set an expectation effectively.

Teach/train and delegate: Using best practices to train your diverse team
Using effective training practices is important in any organization, but it is particularly important in research organizations. In biotechnology companies, the constant evolution of knowledge requires a solid training process to stay up to speed on innovative technology and knowledge. In this module, we discuss common training issues that can result in loss of productivity for individuals and their teams, and can put team members from some underrepresented groups at a disadvantage. We propose evidence-based approaches to avoid, detect and correct these training issues.

Communicating inclusively: 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? Not sure 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 both gain buy-in/determine how the recipient can best hear and act on that feedback, and how to engage when the recipient has a strong reaction to feedback.

When someone isn't meeting your expectations: Strategies and resources to manage performance equitably
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.

How to inclusively hire: Which strategies will you use?
In this workshop, participants will learn evidence-based strategies to assess and select candidates using tactics from four inclusive strategy clusters: 1) adding intentional respect, 2) adding diverse voices, 3) adding accountability) and 4) leveling the playing field. 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.

Fundamentals of Equity in Graduate Admissions Workshop
USC Graduate School Associate Dean Julie Posselt, whose research examines institutionalized inequalities in higher education and organizational efforts aimed at reducing inequities and encouraging diversity, will give a talk about equity in graduate admissions. Participants will learn how common admissions mindsets and practices tend to inhibit access for underrepresented groups, and they will be introduced to tools like rubrics that may improve diversity and equity as part of holistic review processes. She will also cover reviewing letters of recommendation through an equity lens. This session presents data and research about the role of typical admissions practices in maintaining racial/ethnic inequalities in graduate education, as well as strategies for more equitable processes and outcomes.