Leadership Seminars

Leadership in the New Workplace
Managing Change
Executive Coaching
Situational Leadership

Leadership in the New Workplace

GOAL TO BE MET BY THE PRESENTATION
This seminar will set participants on a path to developing their leadership capabilities to the fullest. Participants will leave the seminar with an understanding of their leadership style, a set of tools for assessing the impact their leadership is having on their situation, and practical strategies for solving some of the most common challenges that leaders of today's organizations face.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SEMINAR
In today's technological firms, managers are often promoted to leadership positions because of their technical expertise, while leadership skills are taken for granted. Similarly, in many small and/or family-owned firms, areas such as management and leadership are "assumed" to be adequate. This seminar will deal with the development of leadership skills to take the company to the next level of success.

Leadership is an interaction between an individual and their situation. Managers must understand the impact they have on their situation in order to be effective leaders. When a leader is out of sync with their employees, morale, productivity and the business' problem solving ability can suffer. When leadership and the rest of the company are in tune, productivity can soar.

TOPICS TO INVESTIGATE
To develop leadership capabilities, we'll look at:

• Your personal leadership style - How you view yourself and how others see your leadership
• Situation analysis: Tools for understanding your situation that can guide you to more effective leadership
• Common Leadership challenges: Navigating difficult situations, such as making a leadership change, knowing when to involve subordinates in decision-making, increasing motivation, setting up teams, implementing organizational changes, ..and others.

Once you have tools for understanding your leadership and your situation, we'll discuss how these two skills can enhance your firm and increase the bottom-line. Through coaching and discussion of examples, you will be able to approach common leadership challenges with greater confidence and effectiveness. We'll work on the assumption that leaders are made, not born.

OTHER SEMINARS IN LEADERSHIP can be tailored to your specific needs. Choose any of the following topics in any sequence to address the issues most pressing in your organization. Each topic lasts between 1 and 3 hours.

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Managing Change

Overview

Organizational change efforts require more than smart business planning to be successful. This workshop addresses the human issues that must be understood by those responsible for leading a change effort. These issues are discussed in the context of the very real business needs of organizations, emphasizing that attention to the personal side is key to creating success for the organization, its customers, and the individuals impacted.

Format

The structure of the workshop is highly interactive and includes exercises of the concepts being discussed. The workshop is modular and can readily be tailored to meet specific needs. Parts of the workshop can be delivered as a half day workshop.

Workshop Outline

• Change Concepts
  - Dual nature of change
  - Cycle of change
• Personal Change Approach
  - The phases of transition
  - Importance of community
• Communication during Change
  - Establishing trust
  - Paradoxes
• Leadership styles
  - Shifting styles
  - Personal power & responsibility

Outcomes

• Understand key change concepts and models
• Have a model for personal change
• Understanding the importance of communication in the change process
• A foundation for working with ongoing change
• Creation of a common language to use throughout the change process

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Executive Coaching

Coaching is the process of supporting an individual through a process of change. This change may be required to meet a leadership challenge, implement a new business initiative, or for personal growth. Our approach to coaching focuses on creating the self awareness necessary set clear goals for oneself, followed by ongoing feedback, education and support necessary to develop new skills and behaviors. Coaching provides the dual advantage of dramatically improving an organization's ability to meet its business goals while enhancing an individual's ability to meet the challenge of ongoing change.

Three key coaching needs that we address are:

Leadership Development

Expanding a person's ability to be an effective leader. The focus is on both personal growth and enhancing the capacity to lead a team, a department or an entire organization. The goal may be on improving overall leadership effectiveness or on leading a group through a specific new venture or change initiative.

Individual Contributor Development

Expanding a person's ability to contribute individual skills to meeting the goals of the organization. The emphasis is assisting the individual to achieve personal success within the context of his or her job.

Personal Development

Assisting in personal development that is not specifically job related. The emphasis is on helping an individual discover their strengths, challenges, and desire for personal growth and achievement.

The coaching process can be of any duration, but is generally defined in 6 month periods. The overall process includes the following:

• Determine need - Clarifying the overall objective of the coaching
• Assessment - May include diagnostic instruments, 360-feedback, interviews, self- assessment, observation
• Goal setting - Developing short and long range goals; determining specific measures
• Education - May include training, interactive workshops, courses, readings
• Practice - Putting new knowledge to work in day to day organizational or personal life
• Feedback and support - One-on-one dialog, providing ongoing information, observations and encouragement
• Midcourse corrections - Adjusting goals or development plan as needed
• Reassessment - Assessment of progress toward goals after 6 months; planning next steps

The specific process is always customized to the needs of the individual and the organization.

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Situational Leadership

Overview

This workshop presents a highly effective approach to managing and motivating people. Situational Leadership is a model for developing people so they can reach their highest level of performance on a specific task or goal. Participants will learn the approach to developing the "best" style of leadership based on the amount of direction, support, motivation and confidence of the individual that he or she leads. They will discover insights into their own preferred style, and how to apply and modify it when needed. The principles of Situational Leadership are valuable for anyone who needs to work with and through others - managers, team leaders and individual contributors - and for promoting self-development, group development and organizational change.

Format

The workshop is very interactive and includes a video, workbook exercises, and a self-assessment instrument. Concepts are presented and participants then have an opportunity to work through case examples individually and in groups, and to apply the learnings to their specific work situations. The workshop is designed for one day.

Workshop Outline

• The four leadership styles
  
• Self assessment
• The three skills of a situational leader
• Flexibility
• Diagnosis
• Contracting
• Putting it all together - Action Planning

Outcomes

• Understanding of the different leadership styles and how to apply them most effectively
• Appreciation of one's own preferred leadership style and development needs
• Know how to determine an individual's development level in a particular area, and how to balance direction and support to achieve goals.