Becoming a successful researcher requires more than just expertise in your field and technical skills. Self-management, career planning, communication and leadership are equally important. Such transferable skills are rarely part of university or professional curricula. And yet excellent research and individual progression depend on them. My workshops provide a room to develop competencies and strategies in these domains. Approaching interpersonal and intrapersonal questions with curiosity can be both fun and effective.

Effective interpersonal communication, self-management and leadership

Science is a collaborative process. Whether you work in a small team or a large international project, you will have to work with other people and stakeholders, which can be enjoyable and at times uncomfortable. Working well with others is a source of real satisfaction and pays off in productivity, while unresolved conflict can make people miserable and unproductive. Designing meetings so that they move projects forward, giving feedback in a supportive way and handling challenging situations constructively can all be learned and are aspects of good leadership.

I have been part of many interdisciplinary academic teams, as a project leader with staff responsibility, as a co-supervisor of many students, and as chair of the communication committee of a large international academic society as well as of various interest groups, and I have seen what works and what does not. Being a good team member and leader also requires being able to manage yourself: having a structure and a plan, and knowing what you want and where your values and boundaries lie, is what allows you to communicate them and to stay motivated and clear. Self-reflection is therefore an important part of my workshops.

Performance skills

An important part of career development in academia is being able to present your science in an understandable and engaging way, whether in conference presentations, job interviews, stakeholder engagement or teaching. Some people seem more talented at this than others, but these are skills that anyone can learn and improve with practice and through well-established principles for structure, storytelling, slide design and bodily awareness. Dealing with stage fright and impostor thoughts belongs here too, since performance and personal development are highly connected. The aim is confidence that does not feel like pretending. I have been teaching and presenting in various settings, from statistics courses and conference talks to moderating improv theatre shows. In my trainings, I want to share the joy I have when continuously working on my own performance competence.

My approach

I combine my expertise on the academic system with my psychology background and applied improvisation, which provides fun and effective approaches from improv theatre used for professional purposes. Being comfortable on stage, aware of your body language and in control of your voice are important skills for scientific presentations. Beyond that, improv theatre builds on a constructive mindset (the “Yes, and …” principle), on co-creation (combining what different people bring in order to build something none of them could have built alone) and on attention and listening, so that nothing important gets missed. Training these skills can substantially improve collaboration at work. In my workshops I combine theory, for example from communication science or creativity research, with hands-on experimentation in a safe space and structured reflection.