The current plan is to run this course on the MIT campus during the summer of 2021. In the event that in-person participation is affected by restrictions due to COVID-19 or other events at the local, national, or global levels, or a change needs to be made based on guidance received at the Institute level, we will notify you by March 15, 2021 of a rescheduled date and time for the course or of a cancellation. Learn more about MIT’s response to Covid-19 here.

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Lead Instructor(s)
Date(s)
Jul 12 - 13, 2021
Registration Deadline
Location
On Campus
Course Length
2 Days
Course Fee
$2,000
CEUs
1.6 CEUs
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Master a repertoire of techniques for addressing challenges that commonly arise within engineering research groups, teaching staff, and other technical academic environments. In this two-day, in-person course, designed for senior and junior faculty, department heads, and higher education administrators involved in engineering and the sciences, you will acquire proven leadership strategies and techniques aimed at boosting your team’s effectiveness and productivity. 

Course Overview

This course focuses on human-centered strategies for leading effective teams in technical academic environments. Through a series of interactive role-playing activities, self-assessment instruments, and group discussions, you will develop a repertoire of techniques for addressing issues that commonly arise within engineering research groups and teaching staff.

The workshop promotes awareness of the participants’ own styles of leadership and offers them new approaches to explore. Since leadership styles are highly individual and situational, the instructors do not judge styles as “good” or “bad,” but provide a nonjudgmental yet structured environment in which you can discover what works for you. No dogma.

Participant Takeaways

  • Recognizing and describe your own brain-dominance profile and how it affects personal leadership style and effectiveness
  • Applying the skills of visioning and mentoring to create opportunities for yourself and others
  • Applying situational-leadership concepts to the various challenges encountered when developing students in an academic environment
  • Defining and use techniques and approaches for conflict management and for handling interpersonal dynamics more creatively
  • Understanding and articulating how leadership styles affect research, education, and the learning process

Who Should Attend

This course is designed for those who wish to enhance their leadership potential by learning more about themselves. As we grow and gain experience in our work and life, it's valuable to pause when possible and take a look at who we are becoming. In addition, a brave assessment of the skills and attributes we have accumulated may assist us in striking out to build new personal options.

This course is designed for faculty at institutions of higher education. Nonacademics and students may not attend.

Government Grantees: The cost of tuition for this workshop may be eligible for direct charging to a sponsored research project, because workshop activities can be identified specifically with the participant’s particular project and benefit the project directly. Please check with your university’s office of sponsored programs.

Requirements

Please note that a self-assessment questionnaire will be due approximately 10 days before the course starts. Laptops or tablets with word processing software are required for this course.

Program Outline

Class runs 8:30 am - 5:45 pm each day.  This program is highly experiential, discovery based, and full of mutual "air time" for all to share ideas and insights. We use short videos, case examples, role-plays, group work, short lectures, and lots of dialog to investigate the topics below. The idea is to keep participants engaged and interacting throughout the entire course. Discussion topics will include:

  • Group culture
  • Team leadership
  • Conflict resolution
  • Student advising and mentoring
  • Motivation
  • Emotions
  • Diversity
  • Balancing work and family
  • Reputation and tenure

Using an array of behavioral models, along with a set of easy-to-use assessment inventories, we investigate key aspects of the self knowledge that makes leaders successful, including:

  • The techniques and substance behind creating driving visions and missions for our lives and work
  • Ways to further understand what motivates us (and others), and successful ways to leverage motivational energy for success
  • How our individual and highly unique brain works and how we are similar and different because of our thinking preferences
  • Various ways we communicate and solve problems
  • Specific styles of leadership we most like and most frequently display
  • The several behavioral options we have available to us when dealing with conflict and other emotional aspects of relating to others

Links & Resources

News/Articles:

Testimonials

“Your course was transformative. I only wish I had taken it much earlier in my career. Awesome. All faculty should take this class."
PROFESSOR BEVIN ENGELWARD, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
"Very thought-provoking workshop. As a junior faculty member, I am certain that the material will prove useful in the future."
PROFESSOR ADAM WILLARD, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
"This program gives great exposure to real life situations in a faculty job and provides tools on how to manage them. As a young faculty [member], I found the two days with Chuck and Charles very informative and useful.”
PROFESSOR ALESSANDRO ALIAKBARGOLKAR, SKOLKOVO INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
“An excellent workshop for STEM faculty, but helpful to anyone in any discipline. This workshop has been a great investment on my professional career and in my personal life.”
PROFESSOR JAVIER MACOSSAY, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS-PAN AMERICAN
"16 hours well spent! Best workshop I’ve attended!"
PROFESSOR DAVID PATTERSON, UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
"As a PhD student, I learned how to do research and teach classes. Unfortunately for my early graduate students, I had learned very little about how to guide students in their graduate studies. Only through experience have I learned how to adapt to the wide range of learning styles and motivations of different students. It's great to have Chuck and Charles be able to present this kind of understanding to our faculty in a practical and relevant form."
PROFESSOR RANDAL BRYANT, DEAN, SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
"Excellent. Passionate, well organized, analytical, competent, down-to-earth -- they play very well against each other. They practice what they preach--covered all 4 quadrants."
NAEL ABU-GHAZALEH, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BINGHAMTON
Content

The type of content you will learn in this course, whether it's a foundational understanding of the subject, the hottest trends and developments in the field, or suggested practical applications for industry.

Fundamentals: Core concepts, understandings, and tools - 50%|Academic Applications: Linking theory and real-world - 50%
50|50
Delivery Methods

How the course is taught, from traditional classroom lectures and riveting discussions to group projects to engaging and interactive simulations and exercises with your peers.

Discussion or Groupwork: Participatory learning - 50%|Labs: Demonstrations, experiments, simulations - 50%
50|50
Levels

What level of expertise and familiarity the material in this course assumes you have. The greater the amount of introductory material taught in the course, the less you will need to be familiar with when you attend.

Other: Participants should be teachers or researchers at an institution of higher education in engineering, science, or other technical field - 100%
100