Skills Workshops for
Leaders and Teams
Hands-on, skill building workshops inhabit the space between a one-hour talk and a one-year coaching relationship. I offer customized workshops on a narrow range of specialty topics to support Conversation and dialogue, the most important skill for effective leadership, and the primary vehicle for managing change.
Customized Programs
I work with you to create learning sessions that meets your group’s needs on multiple levels:
- Length – two hours or up to two days
- Modularity – a focused, single event or a series across several weeks/months
- Outcomes – activities and “homework” practices tailored to your environment
Learning Grounded in the Real World
To create accountability and improve retention of learning, most programs include a short series of group coaching calls at 3-4 week intervals following the workshop.. These conversations, conducted via bridgeline as a teleclass, provide a forum to reinforce the learning, as well as provide opportunity to share successes and strategize – as a group – obstacles encountered back on the job. The group coaching increases the probability of real change by up to 600%, and maximizes your investment in the program.
Click on any of the links below to learn more about the core topics:
- Positive Skills for Leadership: If you want to build a happier, more positive workplace, start with You, then focus on strengths and ongoing conversation.
- The Coaching Series: a modular series for busy leaders who want to learn or refresh on the basics and beyond.
- New Manager Assimilation: Rapid integration for new leaders.
- Generational Diversity: Managing Millennials: I maintain a passion for supporting the emergence of new workplace “rules” that serve everyone better.
- Full Contact Communication: Creating Accountability: When EVERYONE in the group learns common skills, communication improves at all levels.
Positive Skills for Leadership – and Life
This learning event helps participants learn and practice a series of skills that have proven to improve individual and group resiliency and reduce stress. Topics covered include:
- A Positive approach to problem-solving and analysis
- Connecting to the Bottom Line: The value of happiness and positive emotion in the workplace – and especially for leaders
- Defining Practice: The tyranny of habit, and using the mind-body connection for personal transformation
- Personal Skill Building for resiliency
- Group/team resiliency skills
- Call to Action: creating a personal commitment, using the Six P’s of Powerful Goal-setting
Participants will:
- Learn and practice at least a half-dozen skills to improve self-care and personal resiliency, a critical skill for leaders in high-stress situations (note: some of these can also be passed on to line staff to help them also cope more positively with anxiety and stress)
- Experience and learn several group practices they can take back to share with their teams that will support a more positive, optimistic work environment and a higher level of employee engagement
- Make a personal commitment to change at least one personal and one leadership habit to improve resiliency
- Have fun, and enjoy a relaxing day away from the daily grind
Duration: Four hour to full-day
The Coaching Series
The Coaching Series: Skills for Leaders who want to improve Accountability and the Effectiveness of their Coaching Conversations
This multi-part program will provide managers at ALL levels with specific tools which, if applied and practiced, will improve the quality and effectiveness of their conversations both on the job and in life.
Modules can include:
- How to Create a Culture of Accountability
- Rules for Conversation and Effective Coaching
- The Cycle of Commitment: How to make clear requests
- Strategic Delegation
- Full Contact Listening (The Forgotten Skill)
- Positive Conflict Management
Duration: 1.5 – 2 hour sessions across a few months. Every session includes skills practice and an assignment to practice the skills between sessions.
New Manager Assimilation
This extraordinarily effective teambuilding process is based on the premise that the effectiveness of a manager and staff’s relationship is impacted by their degree of shared understanding. Built on the Johari Window communications model, this highly interactive exercise provides a “safe” and structured process for a new manager and work group to get to know how each other operate. When conducted within a new manager's first few months on the job, it can accelerate the “getting to know the boss” process by up to six months, so everyone can focus on the business. A modified form of the exercise can be used to help a more tenured manager and work group exchange balanced feedback and/or “reset” the conversation space.
P.S. This is one of my lowest cost programs – yet one of the highest impact facilitations I deliver. It’s a great way to see what a skilled coach and facilitator can do for your team, without risking a lot. I guarantee you’ll be thrilled with the conversation and the outcome!
Duration: Four to five hours total, although not all parties are present for the entire exercise.
Generational Diversity: Managing Millennials
Alternate Title: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? – Skills for Managing Four Generations in the Workplace
The Millennials (aka Gen Y) have arrived, and the other generations are still hangin’ around. What are the implications of this reality? What conflicts arise between generations when work habits, communication styles, and value systems collide?
This interactive program uses stories, short exercises, and debriefing to create understanding of the issues of generational differences – and some things we can do to both work with and capitalize on them. We draw on participants’ experiences to build a better framework for effective communication (special emphasis on speed, technology, and potential cross-generational friction points).
Typically, participants say that the session really opened up their understanding of issues unique to each of the four generations currently in the workplace, and helped them to understand how and why Millennials are not wrong… they’re just different, and so require new approaches to engage them and keep them connected and motivated.
NOTE: Participants will receive a comprehensive handout for reference post-meeting.
Duration: Presentation – 1 hour; hands-on workshop – 3-4 hours
Full Contact Communication: Creating Accountability
For leaders as well as teams, this program focuses on creating PERSONAL accountability for communication. Participants explore the nature of communication, with particular emphasis on creating awareness of personal filters and the multiple messages they may be sending and how those might be received and interpreted by others. Participants will learn important distinctions and skills that can make an enormous difference in how they are perceived by others.
Topics (in the expanded workshop) can include: non-verbal communication, primary learning/receiving styles, selecting appropriate communication channels, group communication tips, and the power of language to create reality. Participants may also take a listening skills assessment and practice Full Contact Listening.
Duration: Customized; anywhere from a single 2-hour session up to two 4-hour workshops
To learn more about how to customize any of these programs, contact Jim.
