The Helmholtz Leadership Academy

Top-level research needs leadership: The Helmholtz Academy supports you in realizing your full leadership potential.

The program is aimed at both prospective and experienced executives forms science, administration and infrastructure. In courses and training sessions, they learn how to work strategically, organize efficiently and lead successfully. The program is open to Helmholtz managers, but also to members of partner organizations and universities.

The courses offered are extremely varied and are geared to the respective career stage of the participants. For example, they can try out management tools in a small group using authentic cases from scientific practice. Individual stocktaking and career counseling also take place. In addition, the current course participants network with the academy's alumni - an important cornerstone for future scientific cooperation.

The courses are run by the Helmholtz Association together with the consortium of HRpepper and Heitger Consulting.

Our camps are an important learning element. In these courses, participants learn methods of effective leadership and then put them into practice. The experience gained in this way is then the subject of intensive debate. In this way, we also ensure a lively transfer of knowledge among our managers.

For us, leadership is a systemic function, meaning that it serves to ensure the viability of an organization by providing vital developmental impulses.

This is necessary because an organization's environment (shaped by political, customer, market and/or industry requirements) is constantly and increasingly in flux.

Every organization has to find its own way to respond effectively to its rapidly changing environment. To do so, it is necessary to be aware of behavioral patterns within the organization, particularly with regard to how specific issues are addressed. To systematically examine and challenge organizational patterns and ways of operating is therefore a continuous leadership task (Wimmer/Schumacher, 2009).

At the core, leadership means shaping social interactions within the overall framework of the organization. How this is achieved is highly context-dependent.
For us, learning is an innovation process and our programs are designed accordingly.

Within the overall program framework, participants have the freedom to self-organize their learning journey and may choose from among various options to set priorities according to their individual needs. We see ourselves as learning guides and input providers. Our goal is to ensure practice orientation and a perceptible value-add for participants. To achieve this goal, we integrate the in-class learning experience with the transfer into professional practice.

Our learning formats are:

Kick-off/Retrospective: Programs start with a virtual kick-off. Participants get to know each other and their trainers and gain a deeper insight into the curriculum. At the end of the program, they review their learning experience in the so-called "retrospective".

Preparation: Already during the preparation for the camps, participants independently start working on the topics that will be addressed during in-class sessions. For this purpose, we will provide them with learning materials of different formats, e.g., texts, videos, podcasts, etc. Participants might also be expected to reflect on individual leadership challenges or work jointly with classmates to prepare cases.

Camp: Participants are free to set individual priorities for each camp. They are provided with a broad range of leadership tools and models and are given the opportunity to directly apply them to pressing leadership challenges they face at that moment. Thus they leave the camp with concrete solutions to try out at their place of work.

Testing: Between camps, participants have the opportunity to put to practice the strategies they developed to address their leadership challenges, to share their experiences and to network. During the next camp, participants jointly discuss their experiences in trying out these new strategies.

Leadership Insights: During Camp 4 (“Camp on Demand”), all participants will have the opportunity to delve deeper into some of the topics discussed during Camps 1 to 3 as well as to work on Leadership Insights. Topics and formats will be decided jointly.

Deep Dive: Optional “Deep Dives” offer participants the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of specific topics. During the camps, participants jointly decide which topics to pursue further. “Deep Dives” are offered only as part of the program "Leading with impact" and typically take place virtually.
Management training with a focus on science: Working with authentic materials and real-life cases, the Helmholtz Leadership Academy ensures that general management techniques are applied in a way which is relevant to science management. The methodology focuses on activity-oriented learning. Each course has at most 15 participants and is taught by two trainers. This guarantees that participants receive training directly relevant to their working lives.

Personalized training on the core tasks of a participant's career stage: the courses are tailored to the needs of various target groups and structured according to the challenges of different levels of managerial responsibility from preparing for leadership to managing large organizational units.

Individual career development: Helmholtz Leadership Academy courses provide participants with the opportunity to take stock of their career path.

Networking opportunities: Courses, evenings around the fireplace with special guests, and services for alumni of the academy provide a wide range of networking opportunities.

The Helmholtz Association’s partners are HRpepper and Heitger Consulting.
The Helmholtz Leadership Academy holds its courses at Schloss und Gut Liebenberg.

Programs

Our leadership programs combine a number of different learning formats, among them in-class courses (camps) as well as virtual formats at the beginning and end of the program (kick-off and retrospective).

Programs