MyFuturePlan

MyFuturePlan

MyFuturePlan was originally designed for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers to help them consider their career path and has evolved into an approach for early career professionals helping them to accelerate their career. The approach forms the basis of the Resilience Centre of Excellence Leadership Accelerator.

The fundamentals underpinning the group coaching sessions are to help understand each person’s behavioural approach and build self awareness. This highlights approaches to deal with current issues in their role, think through a career plan, prioritise learning and development areas. In addition, it provides the opportunity to explore, in more depth, emotional intelligence and personal resilience.

This approach puts participants in a stronger position to navigate their careers, make the most of current roles and be an effective team member.

A comprehensive analysis of the sector suggests that the below behavioural traits predominate in the sector and inform the content in both MFP1 & 2.

The first session (MFP1) introduces personality profiling to build self awareness, and combine this their technical skills and experience to develop a unique approach that makes the most of their opportunities from career choices and their current role.

  • Participants complete an online psychometric assessment which generates a report about their behavioural preferences

  • A 90 minute group online session, with up to 5 participants, explores what that can mean in terms of their attention to detail, focus, communication and leadership style

  • The outcome is that all participants get a picture of their unique attributes and how they can apply them in a collaborative and innovative team

  • This session sets the participants up for a half day session (MFP2) building more depth into their learning needs and how to perform effectively in a team

The second session (MFP2) helps define a personal approach to building collaborative skills and accelerating their leadership potential.

  • Following MFP1 participants join a face to face 1/2 day group coaching workshop with 6-10 participants

  • The focus of the workshop is on:

    • Holding effective meetings

    • Building Trust

    • Responding rather than reacting

    • Performing at your best

    • Prioritising and addressing concerns

    • Giving and receiving feedback

    • Your communication and leadership style

Some delegates will want have a 1:1 session to ask very specific questions or build more depth in emotional intelligence and personal resilience - they will be offered this after session two and it is usually scheduled within 2-4 weeks. You can learn more at MFP Individual.

Often a cohort is funded by the student or PDRs host institution or employer. Clients have included:

  • Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA)

  • University of Oxford

  • Resilience Centre of Excellence and previously the ATSTN network

  • BEST - formerly the BioProNET STARS programme

 Testimonials

“Thanks very much for taking the time to go over our profiles in more detail today. It was really helpful for me to be in a smaller group so we could dive in deeper to the results. Learned a lot and looking forward to sharing this with the rest of my team!”

“I thought the career coaching was an interesting course and I liked the links to our personalities. I felt that it has helped me realise that some of the things I do (or not do, e.g. speaking out a lot in meetings) at work are strongly related to my personality and I started noticing some of the traits we discussed about in the others around me. It also increased my awareness on what I should look for in a new job/career and helped me realise that I am actually quite happy with my chosen career path. Thank you for organising it!”

“I hope you are well. I really appreciated the two sessions with you about profiling and career planning for the SULSA Forging Futures programme. It has given me a lot of food for thought”

“Just wanted to say thank you so much for these sessions, they have been so valuable and have got me thinking so much even from the last session to this one. I think it was a welcome change after feeling like the odd one out in my work environment for a while”

“Thank you so much for your presentation and discussions at the BEST meeting. As always, the feedback shows that it has made the participants really think about where they are going and how to plan their route”