Assistant Professor Development Programme

Saying No Positively

Your time is limited. Everybody seems to want a bigger slice of your energy and attention - but these resources are already fully spent.
Saying yes to an additional request almost certainly requires you to say no so something or someone else and often you are the loser in that scenario.

The skill of saying no positively is essential if you want to manage your time and energy well.

Your ability to assert yourself positively affects everything else you do and don't do, from day to day activities right through to major life decisions.
Consequently it's important to understand what assertiveness is and what you want to do with it.

We need to be clear on why we might want to say “No” and how to do so effectively and respectfully.

During this session we will explore:

• Differences between assertive, passive and aggressive behaviours
• Ways to increase your ability to communicate effectively
• Strategies to deal with difficult situations
• Developing greater confidence in your own abilities to say "No"

Finding Focus

Finding and maintaining focus is the secret to getting meaningful work done. 

Our lives are often full of conflicting demands on our time and attention. Some can be done relatively quickly, even with ease.
Others require a deeper state of focussed attention, a commitment to "deep work" where cognitively demanding tasks get prioritised. 

If you really want to progress tasks or projects that are significant for your personal or professional life you need to learn how to manage your energy and develop your ability to focus.
We need to remove distractions, calm our minds and pay deliberate attention to our chosen activity. This very deliberate practice is what develops our skills and creates our results.

In this workshop we will explore: 

• the importance of being clear on our priorities
• simple strategies to support our decision to focus
• different ways we can foster and develop our ability to focus deeply and at will

Communicating Your Story with Steve Rawling

Explore and find effective ways to maximise and communicate the impact and understanding of your academic work/research to a non-academic audience.

Communicating Your Story with Steve Rawling

Explore and find effective ways to maximise and communicate the impact and understanding of your academic work/research to a non-academic audience.