The Imperial Leadership Development and Peer Mentoring programme for Fellows and new Lecturers facilitates valuable connections and provides you with unique opportunities to develop as a leader.
The six-month programme was conceived by fellows within the Imperial Fellows Leadership Network and designed by an experienced academic leadership coach, Dr Steve Hutchinson. Please find all dates listed in the accordion below.
The next cohort will start with an in-person Foundational Workshop on 1 November 2024, 9.30 – 15.30. The day includes a lunch with members from previous groups. Please note: Attendance at the Foundational Workshop on 1 November 2024 is mandatory.
Key areas of the programme:
1. Develop as a leader of people
- Explore your leadership style, team dynamics, and ways of getting the best out of yourself and others.
2. Learn the theory and practice of coaching and mentoring
- Introduction to a coaching and mentoring approach to support your group.
- Four online lunchtime workshops (over four months) focusing on key coaching and mentoring skills.
3. Build valuable connections with peers to share ideas, collaborate, and support each other in various aspects of academic life
- Four self-organised peer mentoring sessions over six months in groups of 3-4 peers to encourage sharing of ideas and to foster collaboration, and to support each other with more general enabling elements of academic life, such as relationship building, strategic thinking, prioritisation, and workload management and balance.
- The peer mentoring groups will receive support materials and ongoing mentoring support, ensuring that the groups keep working effectively over time.
4. Develop capability around the four themes of the ‘Narrative CV for Researchers’.
The peer mentoring groups will be provided with a coaching-style framework to guide conversations around the four elements of academic practice – namely those contained within the ‘Narrative CV for Researchers’ format:
- Academic Knowledge Contribution
- Developing Individuals
- Citizenship – Building a Better Academic Community
- Societal Contributions
Building on a pragmatic structure for individual reflection and peer discussion, participants are enabled to create a draft narrative CV that can be used for future fellowship, promotion applications and other academic gateways.
Key dates and attendance
Foundational workshop: Develop as a leader of people
Introduction to coaching and mentoring (9.30-12.30)
Facilitated by Dr Steve Hutchinson. Participants will be placed into peer mentoring groups, introduced to the scheme’s principles, and given essential guidance on peer-support and coaching and mentorship behaviours.
Lunch with fellows and new lecturers from the previous cohorts (12.30-13.30)
Develop as a leader of people (13.30-15.30)
Facilitated by Stefanie Edler-Wollstein, PFDC Consultant and Leadership Coach. Participants will explore their own leadership style and the effects on team dynamics. They will learn how to better ‘read’ others and to adapt the way they communicate to get the best out of others.
Date: 1 November 2024, 9.30-15.30 (includes lunch with the fellows from the previous cohort)
Venue: Sherfield Building, South Kensington Campus, room TBC
Peer mentoring meetings
During the following six months, the peer mentor groups will schedule to meet approximately every six weeks (four meetings in total) to engage in structured mentoring conversations.
Online lunchtime workshops: Develop your coaching and mentoring skills
Four facilitated one-hour lunchtime workshops:
- 25 November, 12.30-13.30 (online)
- 13 January, 12.30-13.30 (online)
- 3 March, 12.30-13.30 (online)
- 7 April, 12.30-13.30 (online)
Celebration meeting and lunch
Facilitated by Dr Steve Hutchinson and Stefanie Edler-Wollstein, PFDC Consultant and Leadership Coach. This event will mark the completion of the programme for the first cohort and the launch of the second cohort. Peer mentors will actively participate in the onboarding process for the next mentoring group, sharing their insights and good practice.
Date: 1 May 2025
Venue: TBC, South Kensington Campus
Ongoing mentoring support
Over the six-months duration of the facilitated programme, we will provide the following ongoing support to aid the peer mentoring conversations:
- Content and Proformas: Timely reminders and proformas with relevant questions and ideas to guide your mentoring conversations effectively.
- Drop-In Mentoring Surgeries: Access to online drop-in surgeries to address any concerns or queries you may have with your mentoring.
Masterclass: Recharge, Refocus, and Thrive: A Health and Wellbeing Cafe
This interactive Masterclass session is designed specifically for the unique challenges faced by lecturers and research fellows. We will address the unique challenges of your demanding roles and provide practical tools to navigate them effectively. The session will explore practical strategies to manage stress and prevent burnout, all while promoting your overall wellbeing.
In this supportive space, you’ll have the opportunity to:
- Reflect on what fuels your energy and motivation within the demanding academic environment.
- Discover tools and resources specifically tailored to manage the workload of your multifaceted roles.
- Learn evidence-based techniques to overcome stress and prevent burnout, common challenges in academia.
- Find out about the support and resources available at Imperial to support your wellbeing.
By prioritizing your wellbeing, you can boost your resilience and creativity, but most importantly, you take active steps to take care of yourself.
The session will be delivered by Dr Andrea-Giraldez-Hayes and Daniela Bultoc who work in People and Organisational Development and lead the staff wellbeing provision at Imperial.
Date: TBC
Format: online via Zoom
Masterclass: Funding Strategy: looking backwards and forwards
Prof. Hanyaloglu started her independent research group as a Lecturer at Imperial more than 16 years ago and now leads the MDR Departmental Research Committee. In this short masterclass, she will discuss her experience with funding strategy starting as a new Lecturer to now, from the perspective of a researcher and in her role on the Research Committee, including advice she received that has helped her (whether funding was successful or not), to lessons learned including adapting to a changing funding environment.
This session will also highlight current support available in the College and a group discussion on challenges encountered or current concerns from the attendees.
Date: TBC
Format: online via MS Teams
Masterclass: Reflections on resilience: Tools and strategies for failing better
Drawing on 15 years of the academic rollercoaster Prof John Tregoning will discuss approaches to improve resilience to failure in academia and how to apply that to grant (rejections). This masterclass session is aimed at fellowship applicants, fellows and early-stage academics and will comprise a talk, exercises, and a questions and answers section.
Learning objectives:
- Discover resilience tools that can help with scientific rejection
- Apply resilience tools to grant applications
Date: TBC
Format: online via MS Teams