Achieving Leadership Excellence

Introduction

This course focuses on the leader’s role in developing and motivating excellent teams. Rather than trying to define one ‘right’ way to lead, it will introduce a range of complementary approaches that delegates will have the opportunity to practice, combine and adapt to suit their personal preferences and organizational needs.

By exploring the leadership role from a number of different perspectives, the seminar allows delegates to experiment with innovative ways to empower and enthuse their team and influence positively their organizational climate and culture. The benefits to the organization will be leaders better able to focus on organizational goals and better equipped to develop their team towards sustainable performance improvement.

Objectives

By the end of this course participants will be able to:

• State the principles and advantages of high-performance teams
• Explain the fundamentals of interpersonal communication
• Give and receive feedback effectively
• Select appropriate approaches to team problem-solving and decision-making
• Demonstrate effective conflict resolutions techniques
• Improve personal productivity and use of time
• Set out a tailored motivation strategy
• Identify personal leadership strengths and development needs
• Apply powerful influencing techniques
• Articulate a personal leadership brand
• Select appropriate techniques for developing their team

Target Audience

All leaders who want to create a productive workplace and organizational culture to enhance their leadership effectiveness; also HR professionals who wish to gain a deeper understanding of organizational and leadership behavior.

Management & Leadership Outline

The course covers the following topics:

Fundamentals of High-Performance Teams

• The definition of a High-Performance teams and how it differs from a traditional team
• The three elements of High-Performance teams
• Four types of teams
• The stages of team development
• Create an image and name for your team

Basic Communication

• How people’s perceptions and viewpoints differ
• The basics of face-to-face communication
• The difference between one-way and two-way communication
• To understand the skill of listening
• To improve active listening skills

Giving and Receiving Feedback

• Learn what feedback is
• Discover how open or closed you are to giving and receiving feedback
• Learn to give effective feedback to others
• Learn how to receive effective feedback from others
• Practice giving and receiving live feedback from team members
• Make a personal improvement plan to respond to team feedback

Group Dynamics

• Learn what group dynamics is
• Experience and discuss group dynamics in action
• Learn about group process and shared leadership
• Determine what you can do personally to improve group process skills
• Rate your team’s group process
• Identify how your team will improve its group process

Team Decision Making

• Discuss barriers to group decision making
• Learn about methods of group decision making
• Practice consensus decision making
• Practice using a group decision-making model
• Identify how your team will improve its group decision making
• Review who is responsible for current team decisions
• Identify team decision issues to be addressed
• Discuss shifting to ideal team decision-making responsibilities

Team Problem Solving

• The challenges of group problem solving
• A working definition of problem-solving
• A model for group problem solving and how to use it
• How to do creative brainstorming
• How to use cause and effect diagrams to analyze problems
• How well your team is set up for effective problem solving
• The areas of group problem solving in which your team will improve

Conflict Resolution

• Learn a definition of unhealthy conflict and how to keep from crossing over into it
• Learn about five different conflict management styles
• Use a model to help you to choose how to respond to potential conflict situations
• Assess which conflict styles you most often use
• Practice a Three-Step-Model for resolving conflicts
• Decide how you want to modify your conflict style and how you will better handle your current conflicts

Time Management

• How you are currently using your time
• The barriers which keep you from managing your time more effectively
• The difference between the important and the urgent, and how to schedule a time for the important
• To set professional goals to guide your use of time
• A systematic approach to managing daily events

The power tools of leadership: motivating and delegating

• Identifying the important factors in motivation
• Appreciating how different theories of motivation can be applied to the work setting
• Tailor motivational efforts to individual employees and different situation
• Identify the benefits and the barriers to delegation
• Identify the different delegation styles and understand the guidelines for on how and when to use them
• Evaluate employees and situations and determine the appropriate delegation style
• The difference between doing, leading, and managing

The characteristics of leadership

• Characteristics of highly effective leaders
• The difference between traditional and transformational leadership
• Using flexible effective leadership styles
• Successful leaders equity check their critical decisions
• Effective leadership and emotional intelligence
• Using the continuum of decision-making options
• Making decisions and building teams

From performance appraisal to performance management

• Performance Appraisals to Performance Management - manager’s self-evaluation
• Managerial barriers to Effective Performance Appraisals
• How to assess an employee’s performance fairly - avoiding subjectivity and bias
• The benefits of on-going Performance Management
• Leadership coaching behavior assessment
• Your leadership coaching style - strengths and gaps
• Using performance management as a leadership strategy

Leadership strategies and tools for building a learning environment

• Defining a learning environment and its benefits
• The five learning disciplines
• Personal mastery - learning to expand our personal capacity to create the results we most desire
• Mental models - seeing how our internal pictures of the world shape our actions
• Shared vision - building a sense of commitment in a group
• Team learning - crating a thinking synergistic environment
• Systems thinking - a language for describing the forces that shape the behavior of systems

Building leadership influence through communication

• Identifying the importance of effective interpersonal communication for the leadership role
• Building trust and believability: behaviors vs. intentions
• Perception and communicating with others
• Self-concept and leadership success - strategies for improving self-concept
• Delivering clear, concise messages
• Using active and reflective listening skills
• Acting assertively, not aggressively or passively