EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
- We thoughtfully manage and lead our staff, who are central to achieving our mission.
- We strive to ensure a safe working environment.
- We foster a culture of respect and collaboration for everyone in our community and an approach that invites multiple perspectives.
- We publish our research and help communicate to key stakeholders and the general public our role in the national scientific research enterprise.
Thoughtful People Management
Berkeley Lab’s model of developing managers from its talented pool of scientists and engineers is an unusual one in the DOE national lab system. Leaders in our scientific divisions and operations areas are encouraged to develop deep expertise in managing people, and the Lab has several resources available to help build these skills.
The Berkeley Lab Learning Institute offers a Supervisor Toolkit that is designed to equip scientific and operations staff transitions to new management roles.
The Lab also offers periodic leadership training for people at various levels in the organization.
Berkeley Lab is committed to recruiting and developing a diverse workforce, and has several resources to equip hiring managers and search committees with best practices.
Career Development
Berkeley Lab’s leaders take an active role in retaining our talented staff. Managers assess employees’ strengths and areas of development annually and offer training that can help their staff advance.
The Lab offers tuition assistance to employees who wish to pursue a career-related bachelors, masters, or doctorate, or an equivalent level certificate.
Leadership Competencies & Learning Programs
Leaders have a huge impact on their organizations and the development of our leaders is a crucial element in stewarding the lab into the future. We are developing easily accessible, curated learning opportunities for all employees.
Lab staff are mapping learning to a consistent set of leadership and management competencies across the lab. Building on Zenger Folkman’s statistically validated leadership competencies, lab leaders will have the opportunity to grow their skills and measure their progress with modern tools.
Mentoring
Mentoring is an important way for Lab leadership to foster early career staff development. There are a number of highly successful formal and informal mentoring programs throughout the Lab. If your division would like help in establishing a program, talk to your HR Partner.
Employee Recognition
The Lab’s Spot awards allow supervisors and other Lab staff the opportunity to acknowledge and reward outstanding individual and/or team workplace contributions that occur on a day-to-day basis. There is also a Safety Spot award category for safety-related recognition. All Lab employees are eligible. Spot awards come in the form of a certificate and a monetary award up to $1,500. See the Spot Award guidelines for more information.
The Director’s Awards program recognizes significant achievements of Lab employees. Each year, these awards are given for accomplishments, leadership, collaboration, multi-disciplinary science, cross-divisional projects, and commitment to excellence in support of the Lab’s mission and strategic goals. Go here to see a list of recent Director’s Award laureates and nomination guidelines. Director’s Awards are given out during the annual ceremony, and come with a monetary award as well.
In addition to the Lab’s employee recognition programs, each division has its own awards committee that makes recommendations and puts together nominations for submission to external scientific and technical awards. These division committees are represented at an enterprise level in the Lab’s professional awards committee, which seeks and publicizes outside recognition of Laboratory scientific and technical staff.
Finally, the Lab’s program to support scientists who apply for a DOE Early Career Research Program Award is well-established, with expert advisors in each of the scientific divisions who can provide feedback and advice throughout the annual proposal process. Find more information about the program here.
If you or one of your team members has received an external award or recognition, we encourage you to enter it into the Lab’s award database, which tracks everything from Nobel Prizes to memberships in professional societies.