Business Leadership: Becoming Management Material

This three-day workshop is a tool for your leadership development. It is designed to help you create and accomplish your personal best, and to help you lead others to get extraordinary things done.

At its core, leadership means setting goals, lighting a path, and persuading others to follow. But the responsibility entails much more. Leaders must get their message out in a way that inspires, make the most of their limited time, and build roads to precious resources. They must negotiate alliances, improve their colleagues, and align the ambitions of the many with the needs of the organization.

What makes for a great leader? Is it something to do with inward characteristics, such as confidence and focus? Is it more about outward presence, including charm and compassion? Or is it about the ability to create a vision and get others to commit to it?

The answer is all of the above. By accepting the challenge to lead, you come to realize that the only limits are those you place on yourself.

• Define your role as a manager and identify how that role differs from other roles you have had.
• Understand the management challenge and the new functions of management.
• Discover how you can prepare for and embrace the forces of change.
• Identify ways to get you and your workspace organized and get a jump on the next crisis.
• Identify your leadership profile and explore ways to use this knowledge to improve your success as a manager
• Enhance your ability to communicate with others in meetings and through presentations.
• Create an action plan for managing your career success.

We will spend the first part of the day getting to know other participants and discussing what will take place during the workshop. Students will also have an opportunity to identify their personal learning objectives.

In the first session, participants will explore Peter Senge’s vision of a learning organization. Is your company one where all employees are committed to lifelong learning? How can it encourage continual growth and development?

Next, participants will identify some strategies for understanding what our own strengths are, as well as where we want to go.

Often, we create our own realities without even realizing that we do so. This session will give participants some ways to explore and change their own mental models.

This session will give participants some ideas for building commitment within a team using shared vision. Participants will also explore a model that will help them move their team to greater independence.

Next, participants will learn what a leader’s role is in a team, and how to lead them through a discussion to reach an agreement point.

To wrap up the morning, participants will look at some different cycles and what impact they may play in team efficiency.

In this session, participants will study Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard’s Situational Leadership II® model, which outlines four leadership profiles. Participants will also explore their own style; learn about servant leadership; and look at leadership in an organization through practices like onboarding, orientation, and performance management.

Day One will conclude with information on five essential leadership practices that experts James Kouzes and Barry Posner have identified. Participants will explore these practices through two exercises and some group discussion.

Day Two of this workshop will begin by looking at how trust and performance are related, and how a leader can build trust in team members.

Next, participants will learn ways to successfully lead a group through change. Participants will have an opportunity to work through a personal change scenario and to apply learning points to a case study.

Psychologist Claes Janssen describes the process of change like moving from one room to another in a four-room apartment. This session will look at the key aspects of that theory.

To wrap up the morning of Day Two, participants will learn some ways to organize their workspace, conquer e-mail, and manage their time more effectively.

In this session, participants will explore the differences between management and leadership.

Next, participants will learn about directional vs. consequential thinking. A brief discussion on ethics is included.

At the very core of leadership is the ability to influence people. This session will give participants some ways to persuade individuals to change. Robert Cialdini’s influence strategies will also be covered.

Day Two will conclude with a detailed look at different aspects of relationships, including the relationship cycle, leading a team through conflict, and managing stress.

Day Three will begin with an introduction to a simple, systematic problem solving process that participants can apply in any situation. Participants will also have an opportunity to apply the steps to a personal problem.

In this session, participants will learn about the SWOT technique, which helps to identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of any person, organization, product, service, or process.

This session will give participants an opportunity to practice delegation through a group exercise and a role play. Participants will also learn about the different levels of delegation.

To wrap up the morning, participants will receive some tips for giving good feedback.

Next, participants will delve deeper into the art of feedback and learn some specific techniques. Constructive criticism will also be discussed.

We are always sending signals to others, whether we like it or not. Body language combined with vocal tone can override or even cancel the meaning of the words we say! In this session, participants will learn how to master the art of body language and subtle signals.

Did you know that the average manager wastes seven to ten hours per week in meetings? In this session, participants will learn how to make the most of meetings.

Next, participants will learn seven steps to pump up a presentation.

To wrap up the workshop, participants will review their pre-assignment and identify next steps.

At the end of the workshop, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and fill out an action plan.