| Title | Time | Room | Teacher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lateral Leadership | 11.11.2025 09:00 - 17:00 (Tue) | TUM Graduate School: Boltzmannstraße 17, 85748 Garching bei München, Room E003 | Judith Bergner |
| Lateral Leadership | 12.11.2025 09:00 - 17:00 (Wed) | TUM Graduate School: Boltzmannstraße 17, 85748 Garching bei München, Room E003 | Judith Bergner |
Leading without formal authority? Welcome to the reality of many doctoral researchers and postdocs! Those who co-manage projects, coordinate collaborations or work in interdisciplinary teams are often responsible for outcomes – without having any official power to issue directives. This is where lateral leadership comes into play: How can you provide direction, exert influence and foster commitment – even when others are not obliged to follow?
In this hands-on seminar, you will learn how to create clarity, build trust, and deal constructively with critical incidents – such as missed deadlines, broken agreements or shifting priorities. We will prepare you for typical challenges: difficult negotiations, conflicting interests, power dynamics or unclear roles.
You will reflect on your own leadership role, strengthen your communication skills, and develop strategies to remain effective in complex settings. Learn to rethink leadership!
- Build trust and foster a collaborative team environment
- Navigate complexity and uncertainty with confidence and clarity
- Inspire and persuade others without relying on formal authority
- Delegate tasks effectively to empower team members
- Facilitate consensus in the face of conflicting interests
- Provide constructive and impactful feedback
- Transform conflicts into opportunities for innovation
- Support and sustain motivation and job satisfaction
- Strengthen self-confidence in your leadership role
1. Case Studies & Critical Incidents: Real-world examples or "critical incidents" that reflect typical challenges (e.g. broken agreements, silent resistance, role confusion).
2. Role Plays & Simulations: Scenarios involving lateral leadership dilemmas—negotiating priorities, giving feedback, dealing with unreliable partners. Role plays help internalise strategies and improve communication skills.
3. Peer Consultation (Intervision): Participants are encouraged to bring their own current leadership challenges. In structured small groups, they act as consultants to each other—boosting reflection and collective intelligence.
4. Short Inputs with Immediate Application: Introduce core concepts (e.g. trust-building, feedback models, power dynamics) in compact chunks, followed by exercises or discussions that link theory to their context.
5. Reflective Exercises: Guided reflection help participants explore their personal leadership style and development goals.
During the doctorate | at the end of the doctorate
None.
Participants need to bring their laptop.
None.
None.
- It gave very helpful and interesting informations for my future career
- Balanced combination of theory and apply the theory in excercises
- Fantastic coach with Judith. All the different exercises we did together in the group allowed us to see and experience ourselves the challenges one might face within the context of lateral leadership. This was certainly valuable since it proved certain assumptions.
As a consultant Judith Bergner had to learn how to engage and motivate staff members of the client to cooperate and participate in a project voluntarily. Since she did not have power over the project team, she learnt how to lead without using power. That is basically what lateral leadership is all about. The people involved will say in the end: „We did it completely on our own initiative!“