Principled Academic Leadership Programs

The PAL Approach

Principled Academic Leadership (PAL) is a professional development program tailored to develop the skills needed to survive and thrive while navigating the special challenges of the academic environment. Through highly interactive programs, current and emerging academic leaders consider and practice proven, relentlessly practical tools that can be put into immediate use. Program participants gain concepts and skills needed for dealing with unpleasant and costly elements of interpersonal interactions, those that too often drive people out of leadership positions or that underlie dysfunction in academic units.  

“The sessions I selected [as favorites] were not just practical for academic department head leadership, but have been very helpful to developing who I am as a leader in my research and project groups. I have found the philosophy of leading with intention: understanding the mission and keeping people focused on that.”

Our premise is that excellence is more than what work is done, it also encompasses how work is done: with rigor, reproducibility, inclusion, and integrity. An excellent culture is one in which all participants thrive. When a culture only supports excellence for a subset of scientists, it presents an incomplete view of true excellence. As labs work toward creating environments of meaningful inclusion, we believe that no matter what other measures are considered, cultures of excellence today must broaden the pool of talent, adapting to support the needs and talents of the participants, and allowing their wide range of perspectives and insights to enhance the productivity and creativity of the research. 

Participants build skills for making and implementing decisions required in leadership positions and the conversations that follow. By applying tools and skills to case studies, cohort members work together to develop solutions and approaches to many of the unique hurdles of the academic environment. The program presents strategies for building vibrant academic units and bully-proofing challenged units. Participants are encouraged to evaluate their own leadership needs and growth throughout the program and to reflect on their role and impact as an academic leader.

Over the course of an academic year, participants engage through synchronous online sessions with their cohort, limited to no more than fifteen members. Time between sessions allows for reflection which facilitates deeper learning and exploration of NCPRE’s extensive online Leadership Collection, which includes both videos with experienced academic leaders and a range of written resources from just-in-time Quick Tips to deeper dive Executive Briefings. 

“The component of this experience that will have lasting value is the relationships that I have built with a group of like-minded leaders who are developing the same skills that I am. They have become my friends and my support system.”

Leadership is not a solitary endeavor, and the networks formed within our cohorts are among the program’s strongest assets. Refined through many years of feedback from online and in-person program participants, the content and small cohort model assists participants in building personally-fitting skills and provides ongoing opportunities to practice them. 

“The [PAL] program not only gave me tools and strategies to be a better person at academic workplace but also at my home and other business endeavors that I am involved in.”