The Manage Up Series

Managing up enables you to choose opportunities wisely, and then position yourself for success in those opportunities. What does it mean to "manage up" effectively?

  1. You can reflect on your own abilities, work style preferences and needs
  2. You can assess other peoples' abilities, preferences and needs
  3. You can access resources and use strategies to close the gap between the support you have and the support you need to meet your goals

Manage Up is a series of workshops and tools that will help you develop the skills and savvy to successfully navigate professional situations.

 

Manage Up Resources

 

Quiz: Assess Your Relationship with Your Research Mentor

 

Choosing opportunities wisely

Using your rotation effectively is the best thing you can do to set yourself up for finding your dissertation lab. What does it mean to assess whether a lab is a good fit, and how do you do that when the rotation is virtual? Use our webpage and videos to learn what you can do before, during, and after your rotations to set yourself up for success.

Choosing a Thesis Lab

Choosing a thesis lab is a big decision. Come to this workshop to figure it out! You’ll brainstorm with peers about your goals, your options and important criteria to help you choose a lab that is a good fit for you.

Choosing Your Postdoc Position

Finding the right postdoc - the one where the science and the professional relationships will help you position yourself for your career - can be a challenge. Watch this excellent video series to figure it out! Part 1: Positioning Yourself for the Postdoc is out now. Part 2: Applying for the Postdoc is coming in spring 2022. This project is a collaboration with Yale Ciencia Academy and iBiology.

Using the Interview to Avoid a Bad Fit

How can you frame questions and assess a workplace, lab, clinical setting or workplace to help you determine if a job, postdoc or residency is a bad fit for you or toxic? How can you get accurate information when current staff might not be motivated to be candid with you? In this interactive workshop, we'll show you how to use your interview effectively!

 

Positioning yourself for success

Establishing Yourself in a New Position

There are 6 things that a new mentee needs to assess and understand about themselves and their mentor/manager to establish a well-functioning professional relationship in a new position. In this interactive session, we'll use real-life examples to discuss best practices and illustrate how well-intentioned mentoring relationships can take a wrong turn. We'll then talk about what factors you should be monitoring from day 1, what tangible actions you should take, and how to determine the benchmarks of success in your mentoring relationship in the first 10% of your time or the 90 days (whichever comes first) You'll never wonder if your mentorship relationship is on track again!

(Note: this session for both students and postdocs who currently have a mentor and want to learn how to strengthen the relationship, and for those who do not yet have a mentor.)

Having a Career Conversation With Your Research Mentor

A career conversation with your research mentor is essentially a negotiation. Students and postdocs are seeking support to conduct work and engage in opportunities that will position them for their future goals. For a research mentor, it's a time to clarify and confirm your career path, what types of support they are willing and able to offer, and the level of productivity they'll need to see. In this workshop, you'll use best practices from Harvard's Negotiation Project to prepare for and engage in this conversation for a successful outcome. First, you'll learn how to assess where you are in your career exploration, your research mentor's position, and what a successful outcome from this conversation looks like for you. Then we'll give you strategies for starting, having, and ending the conversation and go over common troubleshooting issues.

Finding Your Five Mentors and a Sponsor

Everyone says you need mentors, but do you know how to find them? In this interactive workshop, we'll discuss the types of mentors there are, and you'll identify which ones you currently need as a student or postdoc. We'll also discuss how students/postdocs establish a mentorship relationship, resources like ucsfconnect.com, and you'll begin to brainstorm a plan to build the community you need for success.

Managing Your Relationship With Your Research Mentor

While there is a lot of information about the importance of mentoring and finding a mentor, this workshop focuses on the skills to maintain a functional relationship with your research mentor. We'll define a mentorship relationship and the stages of a mentoring relationship, identify criteria to evaluate your mentor and the 'health' of your relationship, and discuss strategies to proactively respond when you find your relationship is off track.

 

Managing Power Differentials in Research Collaborations

Have you ever wondered how to navigate a collaboration as a junior member of the team? In this interactive workshop, we identify criteria to assess the health of your collaboration, red flags in collaborations, proactive strategies to address issues, resources to support you if you have concerns and ways to skillfully seek help from resources and mentors.