Events
Level Up
22-26 March 2023 | Washington, DC
Discover your personal and professional skills of leadership
Are you leading a team for the first time? Are you feeling like an imposter in your current role? Do you know how to handle conflicts between colleagues? Register to attend Level Up Leadership to explore these questions and gain the communication and leadership skills necessary to advance your career to the next level. Sessions will cover an extensive array of topics that impact, influence and shape what it means to be a leader. From tackling conflict resolution, imposter syndrome or personal branding. Level Up is here to provide you with a unique approach to better address mentorship, volunteering and networking within the photonics industry.
Quick Links
Program
Wednesday, 22 March
07:00 - 16:30 Check-in at Generator Hotel Washington DC
16:30 - 18:30 Happy Hour and Dinner at Optica
Thursday, 23 March
08:00 – 09:00 Breakfast, Optica
09:00 – 09:30 Welcome Remarks
- Chad Stark, Optica Foundation Executive Director, USA
- Jennifer Mehltretter, Optica Senior Manager, Outreach Programs, USA
09:30 – 10:30 Defining Leadership
A leader draws people towards a vision but it does not mean that a leader is always in front. Discover the difference between a manager and a leader and your own authentic leadership qualities.
- Recognize and define the personal qualities that are important for your leadership to be authentic.
- Begin to articulate your greater vision and how you can be of greatest service in the world.
10:30 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:30 Intentional Careers™
Working longer and harder than everyone else is not the route to fulfillment and can backfire as a strategy to kickstart your career. It’s time to make the shift from careers that unconsciously unfold in front of you to a conscious career with intentional strategy.
- Be guided through the 6-step Career Pivots® Compass methodology to find balance, confidence and fulfillment. Each step of the compass will elevate your career to give you clarity on 'what's next?' and make it happen.
- Uncover which stage of the Intentional Career™ journey you are at and what needs to shift to move you up through to fulfilled and valued.
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch, Optica
13:30 – 15:30 The Psychology of Selves: Beyond Imposter Syndrome
Many people are torn – afraid to speak up, be seen, or minimize their achievements and at the same time, are frustrated that they are getting in their own way. Feeling like you will be exposed to not knowing enough and being your own worst critic is a toxic combination. It can result in procrastination, individualism and ruminating thoughts.
- Learn the three layers of imposter syndrome, where these thoughts and beliefs originate from and three tools to overcome your imposter and fulfill your true potential.
- Discover your unique stress team of ‘selves’ and how to move beyond imposter syndrome by separating from their agendas and regaining real choice in your behaviors and actions.
- Leave with three gold standard tools to break the cycle of pre-empting, overthinking and ruminating and unlock your true potential.
15:30 - 16:00 Break
16:00 - 17:30 Leader as a Weaver: Networking Primer Exercise
17:30 - 19:00 Dinner, Optica
Friday, 24 March
08:00 - 09:00 Breakfast, Optica
09:00 – 10:30 Difficult Conversations
Labelling types of conversation or relationship dynamics as difficult can lead to procrastination, avoidance or inauthenticity in our approaches.
- Understand how our ‘primary selves’ create bonding patterns and the dynamics that cause communication breakdowns.
- Learn how to take responsibility for your actions and how to find a new approach so that these situations do not replay.
10:30 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:30 Communication as a Leader
There are a series of repeatable conversations that every leader must master; saying no gracefully, effective delegation and boundary setting.
- Discover systems for conflict resolution, with nonconfrontational conversation templates to overcome obstacles to communication.
- Learn how to ask for what you need, uncover your current boundary lines and how to make changes by setting new boundaries.
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch, Optica
13:30 – 15:30 The Art of Failing Gracefully
The physics of vulnerability. It’s pretty simple: If we are brave enough often enough, we will fall. Daring is not saying, I’m willing to risk failure. Daring is saying, I know I will eventually fail, and I’m still all in. Brené Brown.
Take 3–steps towards failing gracefully and increase your resilience exponentially: the reckoning, the rumble and the revolution.
- Discover the pivotal successes and failures throughout your life and what you can learn from the nature of your failures over time.
- Use an alternative CV of failures to become more resilient in your approach, separating success and failure from your self–worth.
- Leave with the leadership tools to address failure positively, give and receive candid feedback without taking it personally and use failure to drive innovation. You will become a beacon for authentic leadership and an inspiration to others.
15:30 – 16:00 Break
16:00 – 17:30 Moon Landing Exercise & The Chair Game
17:30 – 18:00 Grab and Go Dinner, Optica
Saturday, 25 March
08:00 – 09:00 Breakfast, Optica
09:00 – 10:30 Leadership Pathways
Ever wondered why certain tasks and roles drain you of energy, while others excite and energize you? Discover your natural talents and strengths and how to develop these into a leadership pathway.
- Uncover the nature and role of flow and where you can add the most value by staying in the flow.
- Explore your talents further by distilling them into 3 ‘superpowers’. Learn how to articulate your superpowers and know when you can add the most value.
- Learn the language of your leadership profile to distinguish roles that align with your natural talents and provide a good fit.
10:30 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:30 Optica Panel - Learning from Leadership Failures
- Abbie Watnik, US Naval Research Laboratory, USA
- Amol Choudhary, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
- Jens Biegert, ICFO – Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, Spain
- Takashige Omastsu, Chiba University, Japan
- Thomas Searles, University of Illinois Chicago, USA
Moderated by: Elizabeth Nolan, Optica Deputy Executive Director & Chief Publishing Officer, USA
It is easy to believe those in leadership positions have only ever experienced a career showreel of highlights. Their bios do not represent the vast majority of efforts, missteps, or outright mistakes. Hear from senior leaders in our field about career failures, how they overcame them and what they learned from them as they moved on.
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch, Optica
13:30 – 15:30 Time Domination Experience
Session Description: Do you tell yourself, When I finish this project/ move roles, then I will reclaim balance in my life?
Managing all of the different competing areas of our lives is a huge challenge, one that comes with the weight of expectations and guilt. We need a breakthrough in effectiveness to be able to make our biggest contribution to the world without our health and relationships suffering as a consequence.
- Uncover the biggest mistake that most of us make in the interest of time management and how to avoid it.
- Master the ability to prioritize and focus your workload utilizing high-performance habits so that you can achieve more in less time.
- Discover your keel zone and harness when you are at your most productive and gain control over your workload through consistency of action.
15:30 – 16:00 Break
16:00 – 17:30 Stress Release Workshop
We build up stress and emotional tension every single day. Learn how to find freedom from these stressors using music, movement and embodiment. You will need to wear something you can move freely in and a bottle of water.
17:30 – 19:00 Dinner, Optica
Sunday, 26 March
09:00 – 10:00 Breakfast, Optica
10:00 – 11:30 Career Action Planning
Bring all of the learning together in a powerful vision planning exercise and map back your vision into a solid 5–, 3– and 1–year plan with fine-level detail for Q2 of 2023. Leave with three clear action steps and the accountability in place to kickstart your journey to an Intentional Career™.
11:30 – 13:00 Lunch, Optica
13:00 – 15:00 Level Up in Optica
- Adam J. Fleisher, National Inst of Standards & Technology, USA - 2022-2024 Board of Meetings, 2019 Optica Ambassador, 2015-2016 Executive Committee of Environmental Sensing Technical Group
- Christoph K Hitzenberger, Medizinische Universität Wien, Austria - 2023-2024 Chair of Board of Editors, 2016-2021 Editor-in-Chief of Biomedical Optics Express
- Felipe Beltrán Mejía, Padtec, Brazil – 2019-2024 OPN Editorial Advisory Committee 2019-2024, 2017 Optica Ambassador
- Linhui (Lynn) Yu, Apple, USA - 2022-2023 Optica Representative AIP DEIBA, 2021 Optica Ambassador
- Michelle Bailey, National Inst of Standards & Technology, USA - 2022-2024 Public Affairs Council, 2021-2022 CLEO subcommittee chair
Moderated by: Stephen D. Fantone, Optikos Corporation, 2020 Optica President, USA
Hear from current Optica leaders about how they use leadership skills, like the ones you’ve learned about this week, in various ways to serve the Society and the larger optics community. Hear about leadership and volunteer opportunities across Optica, how to prepare for these roles and responsibilities, and get your questions answered on making the most of your Optica journey.
In addition to a variety of other activities including serving as a traveling lecturer, organizing special outreach events, reviewing papers for journals or applications for the foundation and more, each of these volunteers has held other leadership roles within the organization.
15:00 – 16:00 A Conversation with the Optica President
- Liz Rogan, CEO Optica, USA
- Michal Lipson, Columbia University, 2023 Optica President, USA
16:00 – 16:30 Closing Remarks
16:30 – 18:00 Free Time
18:00 – 20:00 Leadership Reception, The Darcy Hotel
Facilitator
Hannah Roberts
Hannah Roberts Coaching, United Kingdom
Hannah Roberts is a career coach and professional skills trainer. During her extensive academic and industrial career, she took research from concept to start-up. Since 2018, she has been a qualified and regulated coach; trained in Talent Dynamics profiling. Specializing in team dynamics, career planning, online networking and social media skills, research planning and funding, commercialization and management tools. Hannah has a particular passion for diversity and inclusion and women's leadership development.
Speakers
Abbie Watnik
Branch Head, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, United States
Amol Choudhary
Faculty Member, Electrical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology, India
Jens Biegert
ICFO- The Institute of Photonic Sciences, Spain
Takashige Omatsu
Professor, Chiba University, Japan
Thomas Searles
University Illinois Chicago, Associate Professor, United States
Mentors
Felipe Beltrán-Mejía
Senior Optical Systems Developer at Padtec, Optica Ambassador 2017, Brazil
Linhui (Lynn) Yu
Apple, Optica Ambassador 2021, USA
