The Leadership and Management in Action Program introduces bioscience graduate students and postdocs to the interpersonal and psychological foundations of leading teams and managing people. It responds to the unique position of these trainees, who may be practicing leadership skills for the first time and who typically lack formal authority within the research environment.

This training program was developed based on real-world research on the leadership and team dynamics challenges that graduate students and postdocs regularly encounter in the scientific research environment. Using real-world scenarios and current research on leadership and team dynamics, LMAP highlights professional behaviors and communication strategies that can be used in a variety of leadership and management scenarios.

This program uses an active-learning format based on the discussion of authentic case studies drawn from the experiences of graduate students and postdocs from diverse backgrounds. Case study training facilitates learning through active problem-solving and allows participants to change attitudes, behaviors, and decisions related to conflict management, communication strategies and navigating organizational hierarchies.

Each unit builds on interpersonal and communication skills presented in previous units. Participants begin by practicing discrete skills early in the program and move toward analyzing increasingly complex leadership scenarios toward the end.

The program was designed to be easily adopted and implemented for graduate students and postdocs at a wide range of institutions and we cover the following topics: