As part of the Leadership Excellence Award in Research #LExA, we have asked several experts, why they think leadership in academia is important. It became quite evident, that successful leadership builds on various pillars.

We asked Univ.-Prof. Dr. Barbara Stelzl-Marx on how to advance good leadership. Professor Stelzl-Marx is a tenured full professor of Contemporary European History at the University of Graz, Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War, Graz – Vienna – Raabs, and “Scientist of the Year” in 2020. In Addition, she has been honored with the LBG internal Boltzmann Leadership Award in 2021.

Leading a research institute as successfully as Barbara Stelzl-Marx does, is not a one-man/woman-show but strongly depends on an outstanding team, excellent communication and professional training and development in her eyes:

Research, Science to Public and Citizen Science – these are the three pillars of our institute. The cornerstone of this is built on an outstanding team that delivers above-average performance with high motivation in all three spheres.

The services offered by LBG’s Career Center play a key role in ensuring that this foundation remains strong and sustainable: through individual coaching, targeted training and workshops that enable our team with the support of experts to address key topics such as science communication, project management and value-oriented leadership.

One of my favorite quotes is by Paul Watzlawick and simply says: ‚It’s all a matter of communication!‘

The Career Center’s range of support encourages us in this sense and provides practical assistance with a broad range of services on how good communication supports teams to work even better together and how excellent performance in research can be promoted by strengthening leadership competencies.

Nominations are open until June 30, 2023.

Further information on our website: https://cc.lbg.ac.at/lexa/