Road to Leadership Series  A seven-part series covering the how-to of developing leadership qualities, from Communication Styles to Owning Your Perception and New Role, New Perspective.

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. 

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.

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.

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 Thinking  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.

We are happy to customize any topic or series for your organization and offer it virtually or on-site at your location.