Leadership: Meeting the Needs of Employees and the Company

Course Outline

The topics covered in this 32-hour course outline and can be fine-tuned, eliminated, or expanded based on the needs of the company and the program participants. This program incorporates a variety of teaching methods and experiential opportunities. Comprehensive self-assessment tools including the Everything DiSC Management Profile and Thomas- Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument lay the foundation for exploring core leadership competencies. The program is highly interactive with group exercises, discussions, simulations, case studies, and facilitator presentations.

Day 1 – Your Role as Leader in Managing Diverse Work Styles (8 hours)

• Introductions and program objectives
• Determining a working definition of “Leadership” and the characteristics of an effective leader
• Analyzing the typical transition traps when moving from an individual contributor to the role of the leader, particularly if leading former peers
• Examining six key influencing strategies (Empowerment, Relationship Building, Bargaining, Common Vision,
• Logical Persuasion, and Coercion) and how they encourage or deter direct reports to do “Willingly” and “Well” the work that needs to get done
• Completing a trust survey and learning the five key behaviors that build trust
• Learning the value and approaches to receiving feedback about possible “blind spots” that may impact a leader’s relationship with workers
• For greater self-knowledge, examining each participant’s DiSC Management profile, the behavioral style and priorities that drive actions; strengths and limitations of each style
• Learning a method to “People Read” the DiSC styles of coworkers
• Brainstorming ways to adapt your style to others to build stronger working relationships, more effective communication and teamwork

Day 2 – Effective Communication Skills and Conflict Management (8 hours)

• Recognizing that leadership success transcends both intellectual and technical prowess but requires self-awareness, communication skills, empathy and relationship management
• Participants assess their effectiveness in key areas of communication including: setting expectations, providing direction, conveying changes, giving feedback, and giving recognition
• Defining “What is effective communication?” and the impact of verbal, nonverbal and written messages
• Examining the research that identifies “active listening” as the #1 leadership competency and learning four clusters of active listening skills:
  • Attending Skills
  • Clarifying Skills
  • Empathetic Listening
  • Confirming Skills
• A skills exercise reinforcing how to effectively send a message and ensure that the message intended was the message received
• Practicing a 5-step model to set performance expectations successfully as the first and most critical step in managing the performance of direct reports
• Examining the typical reactions in conflict situations, the impact of unresolved conflict, and the importance of being responsive versus reactive when faced with conflict
• Completing the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument to provide insights into five possible “choices”
  in conflict situations (avoid, accommodate, compete, compromise, collaborate); examining both the appropriate and inappropriate use of each in a conflict situation.
• Simulating a conflict situation (using a case study) in small group to recognize individual tendencies when faced with conflict
• Via a video called “When Conflict Happens…”, learning and practicing a 4-step model called the CALM model to successfully have a conversation which encourages cooperation and collaboration and results in effective conflict resolution

Day 3 – Understanding Situational Leadership, Delegation and Employee Engagement (8 hours)

• Learning that Situational Leadership, a concept developed by Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey, provides a road map to assist with the growth and retention of direct reports by consideration of the following:
  • Identifying your ‘go to’ style when giving directing to others: telling, selling, participating, delegating
  • Learning to identify the ‘readiness’ level of your direct report when assigning a task. Case studies are used to analyze the ability as well as the willingness to do a task to determine ‘readiness’ level.
  • Adjusting the communication style based on ‘readiness’ level to help the direct report reach a high level of autonomy when performing the task
• Applying the concepts of Situational Leadership to assist with day-to-day guidance and direction of direct reports
• Identifying what it means to delegate effectively and the common barriers that make delegation difficult
• Completing a participant self-assessment “Rate Yourself as a Delegator’ to understand where there are opportunities to become more skillful.
• Through video clips, developing a greater understanding of how to effectively adapt the way you delegate based on the individual’s ‘readiness’ level and DiSC style
• Learning the research that defines and provides data on engaged, disengaged, and actively disengaged employees
• Sharing survey results that identifies factors known to increase motivation and engagement
• Examining the research on understanding human needs and ways to create an environment or set of circumstances that inspires engagement by responding to the unique needs of the individual
• Through video clips, learning how to increase motivation and engagement by adapting to needs based on an individual’s DiSC style

Day 4 – Effective Performance Management: Training and Coaching (8 hours)

• Outlining the comprehensive performance management process: setting performance expectations (covered in day 2), then training effectively so that the individual has the necessary knowledge and skills to perform the task successfully, and providing ongoing coaching to reinforce or redirect efforts
• Identifying the participant’s baseline understanding of the purpose and importance of training through a Job Instruction Training Pretest
• Skills practice – Sending a clear message
• Skills practice – Using the active listening skills (covered in day 2)
• Identifying the baseline skills, knowledge, and mindset of the new learner
  Identifying the natural learning curve for all new learners
• In small groups, conducting a simple non work-related one-on-one training on a task with 6-8 steps using a training model: preparation, demonstration, practice, and evaluation
• Identifying the characteristics and actions of an effective coach
• Participant Self-Assessment – “How I Rate As a Coach”
• The easy side of coaching – learning tips for providing positive, reinforcing feedback
• The harder side of coaching – learning and practicing a coaching model to provide redirecting and developmental feedback effectively