Leadership by Default
Researchers are promoted for their science, then expected to lead a group without ever having been shown how.
RESEARCH LEADERSHIP &
CULTURE
Supporting the people who set the conditions everyone else works in.
THE CHALLENGE
Research groups rarely struggle for lack of good scientists. They struggle because nobody was ever shown how to lead one — and because the way a group works together is left to chance.
Team Communication
Groups form quickly and across cultures and career stages, and small misunderstandings quietly become long-running friction.
Writing Culture
Publishing habits rest on a few reliable individuals, so output and quality shift whenever those people move on.
Retaining Researchers
People rarely leave a subject, they leave a working atmosphere — and that atmosphere is set by whoever leads the group.
OUR APPROACH
We don’t teach leadership as a theory. We work from the situations your group leaders are already in — the hiring decision, the stalled paper, the conversation they’ve been putting off — and give them something they can use.
01
We start with the real job
Research leadership is hiring, funding, feedback and difficult conversations — not an abstract model. We work from what your group leaders actually deal with.
02
Practised, not just discussed
People try things out on their own cases and leave with words they can use on Monday — because leadership changes through practice, not through insight alone.
03
Alongside, not above
We are researchers ourselves. Nobody is told how leadership ought to be done — we work with the constraints of your institute as they are.
04
Culture that outlasts the workshop
The aim is habits a group keeps — shared expectations, honest feedback and a way of working together that survives the next change of staff.
SUPPORT AT EVERY STAGE
Support for the individual leader, for the group around them, and for the institution that wants this to be more than one good workshop.
01
Group leaders & PIs
Practical leadership skills for researchers who now carry responsibility for other people.
02
Teams & research groups
Work on how a group actually communicates and collaborates — with the whole group in the room.
03
Institutes & organisations
Leadership development across many groups at once, rather than one workshop at a time.
PACKAGES BUILT AROUND YOUR GOAL
Most institutions don’t need one leadership workshop — they need something that reaches every group leader and then holds. These are combinations that have worked; yours can look different.
Example packages
For institutes & faculties
New Group Leader Development
Give first-time group leaders a foundation before habits set, so their first team doesn't have to absorb the learning curve.
Can include
- Leading a Team workshop
- Leadership Coaching
- Expert Talks
For research groups & departments
Research Team Development
Work with the leader and the group together, so agreements about how you communicate are made by the people who have to keep them.
Can include
- Team-Building and Communication
- Leading a Team workshop
- Leadership Coaching for the group leader
For institutes & research organisations
Leadership Culture Programme
Bring every group leader through the same programme, so leadership stops being a matter of personal style and becomes a shared standard.
Can include
- Leading a Team, run for successive cohorts
- Team-Building and Communication
- Selected Leadership Coaching
- Expert Talks and advisory
Build your own package
These are starting points, not a fixed menu. Mix any of our leadership and team programmes — from a single expert talk to a multi-year pathway for every group leader in your institute — into something that fits your organisation, your timeline and your budget. Tell us your goal and we'll shape it with you.
WAYS TO WORK WITH US
The same programmes can reach one group leader or every group in your institute. How we deliver them is up to you.
Exclusive live delivery
Workshops run only for your institution — online or in person. Leadership and team work in particular belong in a closed room, with your own cases, your own people and your own constraints.
Coaching engagements
Confidential one-to-one coaching for individual group leaders, bought as a block of sessions. Often the format institutions choose when a workshop alone would not be enough.
Open live-online seats
Send individual group leaders to our scheduled open live-online courses when you have one or two people to support rather than a whole cohort.
Also available
Expert talks & keynotes
Focused talks for institute days, leadership retreats and staff assemblies.
Advisory
Guidance on building leadership development into how your institute runs.
Digital seats & licences
Online programmes in writing, publishing and doctoral support for the same groups.
Wondering what this would look like for your group leaders?
Contact usWHAT INSTITUTIONS GAIN
When a group leader gets better at leading, the effect doesn’t stop with them. It shows up in how their group works, and eventually in what your institution is like to work at.
Research leaders
Group leaders who can hire, delegate, give feedback and handle conflict — and who spend less of their week on problems that come back.
Teams & groups
Groups that know what is expected of them, say difficult things earlier, and get their work published without depending on one reliable person.
The institution
Fewer escalations, steadier output, and a place that early-career researchers recommend to each other — which is what makes recruitment easy.
WHAT INSTITUTIONS SAY
We work with universities and research institutes around the world. Here’s what that support looks like in practice.
We require not only a perfect curriculum that guarantees training success, but also a willingness and ability to deal with heterogeneous groups, strong individual characters, institutional constraints and the very special atmosphere every research institution has. We experienced all of this with TRESS ACADEMIC on many occasions, and have never been disappointed. […] After ten years of co-operation, we consider the courses offered by TRESS ACADEMIC as one of the cornerstones of the training program offered by the POLMAR Graduate School. In fact, while we never imposed mandatory courses on our doctoral candidates, more than 750 participants (i.e. more than 80%) have voluntarily taken part in the courses offered by TRESS ACADEMIC.
Dr. Claudia Hanfland
LET’S TALK
ABOUT YOUR RESEARCH LEADERS
Every institution has different priorities. We’d be glad to discuss how TRESS ACADEMIC could support your group leaders and their teams — and which format fits best.
Let's build the leadership your researchers deserve.