Learning & Leading Workshops increase the effectiveness and productivity of your leader/managers and associates.  These Workshops can be customized to meet your timeframe and budget.

The Leadership Challenge states that leadership is about relationships and “followers”.  It describes 5 exemplary practices that leaders cultivate with followers.  It articulates multiple sources of research that documents the person and organization results that emanate from embodying these practices.  This workshop dives deeply into these practices through group and pair discussions and personal, reflective exercises.

The Masterful Executive Coaching Workshop provides a set of excellent tools that leaders can use to effectively help their coaches or direct reports achieve higher performance.  Yes, coaching is skilled based! Masterful Executive Coaching integrates the latest neuroscience on how the brain takes in information because coaching within this context is significantly more effective.  The workshop provides numerous role playing opportunities for practicing these skills, and immediate feedback as to how well the coach is using them.

Making Effective Decisions builds and expands on the work of Professor Michael Roberto, a leading consultant on how organizations make effective strategic decisions.  The Workshop focuses on “how the decision is made” as much as on making the right decision that is the best course of action given all plausible alternative. Discussions center around how leaders can effectively manage the tension between bringing forth cognitive conflict and generating consensus so that decisions are understood by everyone, who then commit to implementation of the decision, whether they agree with it or not.

Managing Difficult Conversations provides background on why most people have difficult conversations and then provides a set of tools that participants can use to manage even the most thorny conversations.  The Workshop bases its work on multiple thought leaders including several from the Harvard Negotiation Project.  The Workshop consists of whole group discussions, paired exercises, and personal reflection and exercises.

Creating A Personal Strategic Communication Plan: When managers act intentionally they are more likely to achieve the results they seek while being clearly understood.  We help participants identify all the various audiences or relationships they must have and then provide a format where they can identify how, when, and what to communicate with them. The Workshop includes group discussions, paired exercises and personal reflection and exercises including creating a 1 year communication plan.

Best Practices for First Time Leaders describes the kind of management skills, and work these managers must value, and how first time leaders need to spend their time to be effective.  It describes the challenges new leaders have as they move from being individual contributors to managers.  The Workshop builds and expands on the work of Ram Charon, specifically his book, “The Leadership Pipeline.”

Best Practices in Leading Leaders: Leaders of leaders need different skill sets than leaders of individual contributors.  They need to spend their time differently as well as value different kinds of work.  As you move up the “ladder” each new level of management requires different skills, work values and time application.  Best Practices in Leading Leaders introduces participants to the Leadership Pipeline (Using Concepts described in “The Leadership Pipeline” by Ram Charon and “Leading Leaders” by Jeswald Salacuse). Understanding The Leadership Pipeline within organizations gives clear direction for how to succeed and be promoted within an organization.

Championing & Driving Initiatives for Personal and Organizational Performance:  Some people are naturally good at initiating and driving performance.  For those who may not, this workshop provides a systems perspective of the skills that these people understand and use intuitively.  It starts with the premise, which many people have, that their boss or organization only wants them to do what they are told. And then provides a tool box for making things happen even in the largest of hierarchical organizations.

Understanding Corporate Lifecycles:  Much work has been done to understand how and why companies grow, die, or have a re-birth that defeats their premature demise. Understanding Corporate Lifecycles describes the stages that all companies go through–whether they are just an idea that flames out, a once very large company that has gone out of business, or a company that has been able to consistently re-invent itself. Having an understanding of the basic kinds of problems that companies have at each stage and the kinds of solutions that managers can drive provides managers with a paradigm for growing their businesses.  This Workshop draws heavily on the work of Ichak Adizes, “The Pursuit of Prime” and “Managing Corporate Lifecycles” and “Growing Pains”, the work of Eric Flamholtz and Yvonne Randle.

Implementing Company Values Best Practices: Dynamic businesses are aligned around a sense of purpose and guiding principles that drive decisions and relationships. When managers and employees believe in and act in accordance with these guiding principles (values) they are personally more engaged and productive in their work. And, their aligned actions nourish stronger relationships with their stakeholders.  Research shows that when employees, customers and investors are aligned companies increase in value. This means more loyal customers who spend more, suppliers who work more effectively as partners, and investors who value the company higher.  Implementing Company Values Best Practices provides an overview of how this “virtuous cycle” is created and nourished and gives participants opportunities to discuss “values best practices” in their organization.

Creating and Delivering 360 Degree Customer Service:  When Jan Carlson took over a declining Scandinavian Airlines he realized that to the customer on the phone, the phone rep was Scandinavian Airlines.  His book, “Moment of Truth” describes the interaction between his front line people and their customers.  Creating and Delivering 360 Degree Customer Service provides evidence of the power of customer service in delivering high performance and profitability.  Participants have the opportunity to discuss how they define “quality service” and then review all their customer touch-points to connect this definition with their actual practices.

Improving Sales Force Productivity is ideal for any sales organization and can include both management and sales people. It focuses on how sales managers can coach sales people to realize their full potential using a coaching method that uncovers the anxieties and aspirations of sales people. Results prove that sales managers who know how to effectively coach their sales people significantly outperform those who do not.  Improving Sales Force Productivity also identifies the skills the salespeople must have in their particular role—including the type of sale, the type of person they call on, and what role they play in the sales cycle.

Developing Your Company Leadership Brand to Meet Customer Expectations builds and expands on the work of leadership expert, David Ulrich, The Leadership Brand Workshop discusses how a firm’s leadership must correlate with its brand promise. Leaders must have the competencies to ensure that the firm can deliver on these promises.  Developing Your Company Leadership Brand to Meet Customer Expectations discusses the firm’s brand and identifies the leadership competencies required.