Leading in a
Virtual Environment Explore
the skills and tactics needed to
successfully lead virtually. Discuss
employee development and evaluation in a
virtual environment. Examine
organizational practices to support
virtual work, virtual teams and customer
service.
Practice modeling and communicating
best practices for on-camera conduct.
Ensure
Accountability Employ
an accountability model of expectations,
coaching, trust and ownership. Apply
strategies that assign responsibility and
generate ownership.
Creating the
Team Dynamic
Identify your leadership style
using the Blake Mouton Tool. Formulate
a development plan that allows you to
respond to the organization’s need rather
than be limited by your own style. Examine
the natural tension that occurs when
leadership approaches of Concern for
People and Concern for Production are
viewed in opposition, and the impact that
has on the culture.
Leading
Change Design change
initiatives to achieve goals while
minimizing the wear and tear on staff and
colleagues. Analyze how you can help
others with change through the use of
tools (willing and able matrix).
Construct an evolved approach to change
that inspires confidence in others and
facilitates goal attainment.
Science of
Habits
Examine the
neurological way habits are formed. Explore
how they can be changed. Identify
a habit to change and create a plan to
execute.
Customer First
Part One Analyze
the basis for decisions to treat people
respectfully.
Prepare to draw from personal
experience.
Practice prioritizing the customer. Evaluate
the cycle of choice and impact.
Customer
First Part Two
Examine outcome-focused behavior. Prepare
to operate from an objective perspective. Practice
focused mindfulness. Integrate
professional behavior and representation.
Root Cause
Analysis
Practice utilizing analysis tools
and reasoning processes. Identify root
cause from presumptive, contributing and
causal factors. Construct recommendations
that align with causal factors.
Managing
Difficult Employee Situations
Recognize
difficult behaviors and their
impacts. Apply guiding boundaries
for difficult employees. Recognize
your role in the process.
Goal Setting Compose aligned
goals that consistently support your
stated mission. Design
a plan to translate organizational goals
into team initiatives. Propose
methods to achieve goals.
Diplomacy Compose
communication initiatives and processes to
leverage successful outcomes. Employ
face saving techniques for all parties. Demonstrate
skills and knowledge to gain buy-in from
colleagues and members.
Priorities
and Action Explore managing
actions relative to priorities. Discuss
methods, systems or processes that
organize workflow as it hits your radar. Analyze
the resource of time in the context of
urgent and important. Employ tactics
that maximize productivity by channeling
time, energy and resources appropriately.
Strategic
Efficiency
Assess indicators of waste.
Identify ways to minimize waste and
improve efficiency. Explore how to
leverage your leadership skills to
contribute to a culture of strategic
efficiency.
Switching
Gears Review
the variety of tasks and roles
associated with your work. Construct a
plan to improve the fluidity of
switching from one task/role to a
different task/role. Explore the skill
of focusing on the present moment.
Making
Invisible Work Visible Identify
potential roots of work or activities that
fall off the radar and seem invisible.
Discuss the impact of low recognition.
Assess what invisible work, activities, or
initiatives need to become more apparent
and understood. Compose a plan to make
selected invisible work visible.
Invests In
Talent Assess
how to devote and commit the time needed
to invest in people and the team.
Correlate employee growth with
organizational goals. Organize
opportunities for employee growth through:
feedback, debriefing, questions,
experiential opportunities, stretch
assignments.
Confidence Discuss
how knowledge and preparedness fuel
confidence. Contrast confidence from
arrogance. Appraise how successes and
mistakes have developed you. Exhibit
confidence in a manner that provides
reassurance, invites connection,
promotes empowerment, and exudes
appreciation.
Marathon
Leadership Discuss
the concept of marathon leadership.
Appraise the time, energy and stamina to
accomplish a worthy objective. Discuss the
discipline required in not sacrificing
long- term gains for short-term wins, and
instead to take steps that set the stage
for long-term success
Mindfulness Review
your psychological immune system.
Discuss the benefits of mindfulness.
Identify tools that help build the
practice of mindfulness.
Building
Effective Teams Establish
common objectives. Demonstrate behaviors
and activities that build trust and foster
communication. Recognize the strengths and
styles that each person brings to the
team.
Self-awareness Identify
the benefits of self-awareness. Explore
the seven building blocks of self-
awareness. Examine practice tools for
developing more self-awareness. Identify
and overcome blind spots.
Sense Making Understand
how the organization and business world
works around you. Investigate how you can
learn more about the interconnectivity of
your role to the bigger picture. Assess
how strategic thinking has generated your
deliverables.
Too Slow,
Too Fast, Decision Making Examine
the pain points related to taking too
long to make a decision. Review the
negative impacts for when a decision was
made in haste. Analyze the factor of
timing in decision-making. Identify how
to develop judiciousness around “just
right” timing when making decisions.
Flow of
Information Evaluate
how well information flows in a specified
area. Describe negative impacts of poor
information flow. Identify obstacles that
impede the flow of information to parties
that need it. Explore ways to fix the flow
of information, including the timeliness
of it.
Adaptability Assess
the ability to adjust to changes in the
work environment. Determine if shifts in
priorities cause different expectations.
Adapt to improvements that may mean
changing the way you operate. Plan to
keep up with changing priorities,
projects, customer needs and technology.
Determine what is in your control and
what is not.
Drives Vision
and Purpose Use
developed communication skills that direct
and clarify the activities of a specific
population toward a desired outcome.
Demonstrate ability to articulate
objectives and expectations. Differentiate
between verbal and behavior demonstration.
Relate strategy as a motivating force.
Authenticity Explore
introspection to understand what
motivates oneself. Define and employ the
actions that are congruent with your
manner of living and values, despite
external pressures. Recognize authentic
traits versus disingenuous traits in
regard to navigating complex
interpersonal relationships. Determine
the role authenticity plays in your
professional performance and success.
Before the
Conflict Explore
signs and symptoms of conditions that have
a tendency to result in conflict. Discuss
awareness tactics to proactively assess
degrees of likelihood. Propose
preventative tactics to mitigate, prevent
or prepare for conflict.
Optimizes
Work Processes Evaluate
existing processes to determine which ones
prove efficient and warrant disciplined
execution versus those that warrant
improvement. Discuss optimal inclusion of
cross functional teams when planning
improvements in order to prevent delays
incurred by overlooking key factors.
Well-Rounded
Communication Delivering
multi-mode communications that supports
effectiveness. Assess the need to tailor
the format, amount of information, or
style for communication depending on the
audience.
Relating
Through the Generations Recognize
characteristics that pertain to
generational differences. Propose methods
to bridge gaps when relating to different
generations.
High
Performing Teams Employ
specified roles, defined skills and
accountability. Connect expertise,
knowledge and innovation with deliverables
while fostering an environment of
collaboration and camaraderie. Define
proper focus and prioritization. Produce
consistent superior results.
Don’t Let
Perfect Get in the Way of Good Recognize
areas where you seek perfection. Identify
a plan to accept good when perfection is
unneeded or unrealistic.
The Long Game Discuss
which parts of your work align with a long
game approach. Differentiate between long
term initiatives and short term
initiatives. Plan for your team to be
successful far into the future, by
identifying the achievable steps necessary
to yield success in the long term.
Communication:
Clarity and Listening Employ
strategies to achieve clarity. Practice
aligning the message received with the
message intended. Employ heightened skills
to maximize the accuracy, comprehension
and retention of auditory information.
Synthesis and
Agility Evaluate
opportunities to employ lessons learned
from a previous experience to a wholly
different situation. Reconstruct
activities and approaches to meet a new
need or demand. Discuss how to manage
disruption, adapt and deliver.
Point of View
Amid Conflict Recognize
when a conflict has emerged. Assess the
issue in contention and draft a problem
statement. Appraise the appropriate
position to present (point of view), based
on role or position, amid a working
conflict. Evaluate the skill involved in
determining if the point of view is to be
maintained or adjusted.
Closing the
Knowledge -- Action Gap Develop
the skill of identifying what successful
outcomes are. Generate next steps and time
lines that move discussion, email,
meetings and planning to results. Apply
the concept of working smarter, not
harder. Interpret the best application of
knowledge toward achieving intended
outcomes.
What to
Take, What to Leave Discuss
the pros and cons of experience.
Investigate how to leverage experience to
enhance knowledge, skills and abilities.
Determine what parts of experience inhibit
development. Formulate your personalized
lessons learned, lessons applied reference
catalog.
Presentation
Skills Explore
tactics to minimize fear and/or low
confidence around public speaking. Prepare
individualized strategies to improve voice
and breath control. Practice presentation
skills.
Empathetic
Listening Practice
empathy and listening in order to
understand. Develop the skill of
entertaining other optics and outlooks,
without any threat to your own values.
Imagine the impact of your own words and
actions.
Results
versus Effort Differentiate
between results and effort. Assess how
well accountability connects with aligned
expectations. Discuss how to move from an
effort-focused mindset to a results-
oriented mindsets.
Collaborative
Communication Identify
what situations warrant collaborative
communication. Discriminate
collaboration from controlling,
appeasing or indifference. Develop the
willingness to collaborate through
retrained focus on endgame, priorities,
goals or mission. Determine how both to
be heard and listen.
Behaviors that
Position You for Success Discuss
your definition of success. Determine your
detractors and detours to achieving success.
Identify behaviors that position you for
success. Construct a plan to position
yourself for success.
Problem
Solving Apply
constructive communication skills that
synthesize multiple and varying
perspectives and interests. Apply
expansive thinking techniques to increase
the options under consideration for
problem solving. Appraise the best
solution to choose while staying focused
on the overall objective.
Active
Communication
Apply
practiced-to-reflexive
communication skills that deliver a clear,
consistent and productive message.
Create positive talk statements relating
to work environment. Identify and
interpret non-verbal cues.
Building
Respect
Formulate an
approach to people and processes, using
verbal and behavior skills that garner
respect from others. Apply
techniques that foster trust. Employ
strategies that build credibility and
consistency.
Motivation Recognize
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and design a
strategy to motivate self, based on
understanding of needs. Design
a strategy to foster motivation in others
and create an environment where motivation
and people can thrive. Employ
effective rewards and recognition for
performance and behavior.
Resiliency
Explore
the impact of resiliency. Analyze
components of a resilient approach. Formulate
ways to build resiliency.
Strategy, Goals and Objectives
Develop
communication skills that direct and
clarify the activities of a specific
population toward a desired outcome. Demonstrate
ability to articulate objectives and
expectations.
Attitude is
a Choice Discuss how attitude
manifests into behavior. Examine
ways to choose your attitude. Select
ways to rejuvenate your attitude. Use
positive talk to achieve the outcome you
want.
Compelling and Vital
Conversations
Define what constitutes a crucial
conversation. Identify
your objective for entering the
conversation. Explore
unproductive approaches and responses to
elevated conversations where stakes are
high.
Apply the tools that contribute to
your ability to respond productively.
Productive Thinking
Identify
distracting thoughts among responses to a
call to action. Compose
selective responses to manage reactions,
both internally and externally. Practice
productive thinking techniques that
improve achievement of desired results.
Emotional
Intelligence Discuss what
constitutes emotional intelligence. Recognize
the impact of emotional intelligence on
our success.
Construct specific steps to improve
our ability to self-manage our emotions
and ultimately our impact on people.
Dealing
With Negativity Prepare for how
to navigate another person’s negativity. Distinguish
your reactions, responsibilities, and role
from perception and feelings. Evaluate
when to manage a conversation versus
participate in one. Establish
boundaries.
Objectivity Discuss how
objectivity plays a role in the workplace. Appraise
the benefits of facts, logic and evidence
over impressions, opinion and personal
judgment.
Practice being prepared, realistic,
aware and thorough, as a means to maintain
objectivity.
Retaining
Talent
Distinguish
characteristics of top performers. Employ
creative strategies of motivation. Assess
allocation of attention and time spent
with employees. Develop
ownership, belonging, appreciation and
challenge for high potential employees.
Outcome Focused Communication
Select goals for
specific communication. Construct
a succinct summation of a message for
leveraged retention. Appraise
if the message delivered aligns with the
message intended.
Managing
Conflict Explore sources
and symptoms of conflict. Discuss
when a leader should intervene. Examine
your specific conflict management style. Evaluate
the efficacy and appropriateness of each
style.
Apply a five-step approach to
managing conflict.
Words
Matter Evaluate
deliberate word selection in a variety of
scenarios.
Explore tactics to instill
confidence through a diplomatic approach. Practice
refining approach in communication in
order to achieve desired outcome.
Decision
Making Essentials Discuss the process
of making a decision. Identify
decision-making styles. Recognize
steps to confident decision-making. Assess
criteria that warrant the escalation of a
decision.
Decision
Quality
Explore discernment’s role in good
and timely decisions. Discuss
judgment calls in the context of decision
stages.
Examine the critical thinking
skills involved in moving past perceptions
to make nuanced evaluations that lead to
proper direction of words, actions and
resources.
Courage Define
courage.
Identify your objective for
entering a crucial conversation. Apply
tools that contribute to your ability to
respond productively and address difficult
issues. Employ
tactics to increase courage and employ
face saving techniques for all parties.
Providing Feedback Employ powerful
performance feedback techniques to assist
team members in removing barriers to high
performance and goal achievement. Prepare
to give appreciative (behavior-repeated)
and constructive (behavior-changing)
feedback.
Challenge
Limiting Stories
Practice awareness of a limiting
story beginning to launch, either in your
head or as told to you. Experiment
with what questions to ask yourself that
would challenge words that diminish you. Recognize
information about yourself that you
possess that threatens the ability for you
to see your own potential.
Organizational
Structure
Explore four types of
organizational culture. Summarize
how individuals currently contribute to
the existing culture of your organization. Assess
what behaviors positively reinforce the
organization’s mission and values.
Listening
Employ heightened
skill development to maximize the
accuracy, comprehension and retention of
auditory information.
Teamwork Demonstrate
behaviors and activities that build trust
and foster communication. Identify
barriers to teamwork and methods to
overcome them. Evaluate
your impact on others and their impact on
you.
Unlocking
Potential Identify
ways to remove obstacles. Examine
being possibility-focused versus
prevention-focused. Assess
what needs to happen to capitalize on
opportunities.
Action
Oriented
Evaluate when action is warranted
and proceed with dialing up action-biased
behaviors.
Estimate right actions for right
results.
Identify when delegation is the
proper course.
Stress
Management
Identify the
causes of impeding stress. Apply
techniques to manage the impact of
stressful events.
Balancing
Stakeholders Recognize the
“stake”. Identify all stakeholders.
Develop relationships that promote
timely and candid communication.
Discriminate needs in order to manage
priorities.
Results You
Want Assess
that the results you might get are the
results you want. Discuss
the role of commitment and discipline in
achieving results. Differentiate
wishing and planning.
Free From
Gossip Examine
the experience of gossip in the workplace. Discuss
settings prone to generate gossip. Practice
individual tactics to reduce gossip.
Critical
Thinking Explore
rigorous logic and evaluative methods to
solve difficult problems. Recognize
issue complexity and personal biases. Assess
the differences between problems and
decisions.
Develop solutions and make
recommendations based on rigorous
analysis.
Building
Relationships Practice
investing in key organizational
relationships to cultivate trust, so that
communication, solution-finding and
implementation happen faster. Explore
the balance of being confident, yet still
open-minded.
Evaluate the cycle of choice and
impact of your interactions.
Communication
Challenges Identify
obstacles in communication. Construct
solutions to communication impediments.
Creating a
Positive Working Environment Manage
contributing factors and barriers to
establish a desired culture where
employees can develop and thrive. Design
an open-door policy that works.
Communication
Styles Define multiple
styles of communication. Recognize
the validity of style differences to
prevent the discard of necessary data.
Succession
Planning Identify
comprehensive set of competencies for a
specific position. Assess
skill level attainment for individuals in
the hiring pool. Develop
strategies to ensure the right people are
chosen.
Evaluate impact of skill
deficiencies for a specific position.
New Role New
Perspective
Identify differences between being
a member of a team and being the leader of
a team.
Assess the new perspective, role
and focus in leading others. Develop
strategies to effectively navigate the new
role.
Practice desired responses in
specific case studies where the new role
is challenged.
Meeting
Management Identify
essential strategies for facilitating an
effective meeting. Practice
time management techniques specifically
relevant to a meeting. Apply
professional facilitation skills. Appraise
the impact of skills, decisions and
actions on the value and content of a
meeting.
Team of
Individuals
Identify tactics
to create an environment where individuals
contribute to their team. Examine
the dangers of consensus, the Abilene
Paradox, and Group Think. Analyze
constructive management of conflict and
disagreement in a team dynamic.
Make Every
Customer Interaction Count
Identify various
profiles and optimal ways to work with
each of them. Analyze
the basis for decisions to treat people
respectfully. Evaluate
the cycle of choice and impact. Practice
making good service decisions in real life
situations.
Relating
Through the Generations Recognize
characteristics that pertain to
generational differences. Propose
methods to bridge gaps when relating to
different generations.
Effective
Professional Writing Apply
fundamentals of accepted standards of
correctness for clarity, credibility and
effectiveness in communication. Use
a concise and effective style of
information delivery that is relevant to
the intended audience.
Continuous
Improvement Organize the
process of improvement in your work and in
your area.
Manage the impact of repeated
change in a nimble or continuous
improvement environment.
Creativity
and Innovation Practice
expansive thinking skills to promote
creativity.
Design solutions, new ideas and
initiatives using imagination.
Delegation
and Empowerment
Discuss workflows and processes
that warrant delegation. Examine
the need and impact of empowerment for an
organization and for individuals. Compare
and contrast delegation versus
empowerment.
Discuss methods of empowerment for
a variety of individuals.
Influencing
Others Employ
the use of story-telling to connect people
with ideas.
Construct a process of articulating
benefits of desired outcomes or behaviors.
Alignment Recognize
the differing components and contributions
of the overall, entire organization. Compose
aligned goals, resources, measurements,
directives, behaviors and language that
consistently support your stated mission. Identify
company silos and ways to eliminate or
mitigate them.
Building
Positive Self Image
Apply techniques of esteem-building
to improve learning, productivity and
performance.
Opportunity
Thinking Identify
barriers to change. Evaluate
personal orientation toward change. Plan
ways to incorporate opportunity thinking
into daily activities.
Professional
Image
Differentiate
professional behaviors from social
conduct.
Identify behaviors that impede or
facilitate the ability to be portrayed as
a leader, subject matter expert, or
participant in specific activities. Apply
behavioral skills of courtesy, objectivity
and integrity to demonstrate and elicit
loyalty from all work relationships
(staff, colleagues, management, members
and vendors).
Leading
Outside the Hierarchy
Define what a leader does to
achieve results. Examine
harnessing the power of others through
character, competence and connection. Discuss
where, how and why “serving the client”
needs to be on the organizational chart. Appraise
leading at the right time and the right
way.
Managing
Ambiguity Recognize
ambiguity and give examples of its
occurrence.
Develop a tolerance for operating
effectively amid uncertainty when
necessary.
Model the behavior of a change
agent that promotes and contributes to a
culture that is able to accept and perform
well amid ambiguous circumstances.
Manages
Complexity
Differentiate
between complex and simple problems, and
assess the relative importance of problems
to appropriately direct focus or
resources.
Distinguish contributing factors
and causal factors from root causes. Utilize
a pros and cons technique to aid in the
selection of a problem solving course of
action.
Synchronicity
Recognize the difference made by
particular actions. Analyze combined
efforts in a unified direction.
Assess what specific acts of reciprocity
contribute to team coordination.
Discuss tactics to attain momentum in
operational excellence.
Eat, Drink
and Be Merry Complete a
holiday self-care survey. Commit
to less stress for the holidays. Develop
a holiday wellness plan.
Persuades
Analyze
persuasion concepts and techniques. Apply
concepts and techniques in a variety of
settings.
Recognize unpalatable communication
aspects that hinder receptiveness. Employ
ethical guiding principles when tempted to
deviate for the sake of ends justifying
means.
Organize the selling features of an
idea to engender support and commitment of
others.
Art of
Asking Questions Identify
what you need to know. Examine
open-ended questions and affirmative
questions.
Assess probing approaches.
Put a Fork In
Me Define
professional burnout. Determine
contributing factors. Explore
burnout prevention and recovery. Construct
sustainable goals.
Change
Management
Identify how to reach a comfort
level with change and not be threatened by
it. Assess
the value of change.
Realizing
Growth Identify
what serves your current and projected
state, as well as what you have outgrown. Ask
and explore if leaders are doing the work
of their level versus the level below
them.
Evaluate if capacity and capability
are aligned from start to end.
Train the
Trainer Series An
eight-part series covering Adult
Instruction, Learning Styles, Training
Methods, Course Creation Parts 1 & 2,
Presentation Skills Parts 1 & 2, and
Meeting Facilitation.
Mentoring
Series A
two-part series that examines the role of
mentoring; how to measure success as a
product of what the mentee is able to do. Explore
consistency and clarity in evaluating
mentees.
Prepare to give constructive and
appreciative feedback to target desired
outcomes.
We are happy to customize
any topic or series for your organization
and offer it virtually or on-site at your
location.