Graduate Professional Development:
Interpersonal Development

Graduate school prepares students for a great many careers, all of which entail interacting effectively with others. Stanford offers abundant opportunities and resources to you better understand your own work style and to learn to work effectively with others. These skills and knowledge are essential for your development as an effective and inspiring leader and manager.

Enhancing Interpersonal Skills
Many positions will require you to manage others, including bosses (�managing up�). Mastering the interpersonal skills for effective management and leadership is a formula for success, and also for reducing stress.

Working in Teams
Regardless of your work setting, the ability to work effectively with others is one of the most important skills to acquire.

All links below will open in a separate browser window.

Workshops and Events

Management Matters
Focus on the interpersonal skills necessary in all work relationships in this three-part winter quarter workshop; part of the “Matters” workshop series designed specifically for graduate students.

Negotiation Matters
Develop skills around reaching agreement between two parties with differing perspectives and goals in this three-part workshop; part of the “Matters” workshop series designed specifically for graduate students.

Setting Expectations and Working Effectively with your Advisor
Learn the interest-based approach to working effectively with your advisor in this two-hour workshop offered every quarter.

Leadership Dinners
Be inspired by recognized leaders from a broad spectrum of career paths in government, industry and the non-profit arena in these small group dinners.

Leadership Labs
Experience the same leadership curriculum as MBA students in these condensed workshops.

Quick Bytes
Learn new strategies and skills to help you thrive as a graduate student in these hour-long, interactive lunchtime workshops. Interpersonal skills topics have included networking, negotiation and persuasion.

Negotiation and Influence
Explore the theory, research, and practice of negotiation across a variety of settings, with opportunities to develop negotiation skills through role-plays, exercises, and useful analytical frameworks.

Using Emotional Intelligence to Enhance Productivity
Explore the intersection between emotional intelligence and success, including guided practice in stress management, personal and professional assessments and the creation of an individual development plan, in this 4-part class.

WISE and WISSH Groups for Women
Discuss a variety of topics with colleagues in Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) and Women in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (WISSH); professionally facilitated 90-minute sessions.

Stanford Courses

GSBGEN 374: Interpersonal Influence and Leadership
Open to graduate students outside of the Graduate School of Business, this course combines two popular GSB courses, teaching students to build productive, effective and rewarding relationships at work. Students develop self-awareness, learn to identify and work through difficult issues, give and receive feedback, and work effectively in groups. See the registration page for non-GSB students.

Gould Negotiation and Mediation Program, Stanford Law School
Provides a variety of courses related to negotiation and mediation. A limited number of slots are open to graduate students from outside the Law School.

Explore Courses
Find other Stanford courses related to interpersonal development..

Stanford Offices and Services

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Vaden Health Center
Offers a broad range of counseling services to help with interpersonal interactions, including couples counseling and individual appointments.

Stanford Office of the Ombuds
Serves as an impartial and confidential dispute resolver and problem solver for students, staff and faculty.

Additional Resources

Difficult conversations: How to discuss what matters most, by D. Stone, B. Patton, & S. Heen, 1999

Influence: The psychology of persuasion, by R. B. Cialdini, 2006

Getting to yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in, by R. Fisher, W. Ury, & B. Patton, 1991

The power of a positive no: Save the deal, save the relationship, and still say no, by W. Ury, 2007

How to win friends and influence people, by Dale Carnegie (1936)

Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientific Management for Postdocs and New Faculty
A freely available book published by Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

• Chapter 5 - Mentoring and Being Mentored, focused on these key interpersonal skills in any work situation.

Staffing the Lab
A team is only as good as its members and this guide from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund helps explain the process of choosing a great team.

Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientific Management for Postdocs and New Faculty
A freely available book published by Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

• Chapter 3 - Lab Leadership, provides practical advice on leading a team in a research environment
• Chapter 4 - Staffing a Lab, provides advice on choosing the best people to form a team
• Chapter 12 - Collaborations, provides advice on forming and sustaining collaborations between groups of investigators to create synergistic teams