Leadership for High-Performance Organizations
Leadership for High-Performance Organizations is a customizable, project-driven program designed for senior leaders. This program examines and develops the key competencies essential to effective leadership. Participants gain an understanding of business concepts necessary to lead high performing organizations. The program develops the ability to drive innovation by building skills in critical thinking, creativity and innovation, and strategic execution. Participants become better decision makers by developing an awareness of enterprise initiatives and the context within which decisions are made and evaluated.
Although the delivery model varies per client preference, Leadership for High-Performance Organizations typically consists of three modules. Each module consists of seven four-hour sessions for a total of 84 contact hours. The program culminates with the presentation of Strategic Projects that ensure the transfer of learning and increase value to the organization.
MODULE ONE: Foundations of Leadership
This module is intended to provide participants with the foundational knowledge that is necessary to create a solid base for future learning. We begin with an initial introduction to the program, the instructors, and the participants. Then, teams of participants will consider and select from the Strategic Project proposals, each of which are chosen for their potential to generate real organizational benefits.
Mastering the Future
Basic concepts of business planning are presented. Participants are introduced to the frameworks that provide structure for understanding future-oriented managerial decision making in a global environment. The planning function is examined, and the elements of business plans are presented.
A Market-Driven Perspective
Three principles unify this session: First, delighting customers is at the heart of a successful business. Successful companies develop, maintain, and enhance long-term, profitable relationships with customers rather than producing short-run sales at any cost. Second, a focus on creating customer value drives the company’sunderstanding of the market and guides marketing decisions. Third, marketing activities are carried out in a service-dominant environment in which key customers respond to the impact solutions have on the activity streams through which they create value for their own customers.
Creativity, Critical Thinking & Innovation
Creativity, critical thinking and innovation are all defined in numerous ways. While business leaders often frame these concepts as decision-tree modeling or probability theory, we will examine them from a behavioral frame. This topic is important to leaders, as creativity, critical thinking and innovation are vital components in the strategic decision-making process. We will focus on developing specific skills to build creativity into the cultural fabric of an organization.
Innovating Value
Drawing on topics presented earlier, participants will be given specific tools that can be used to identify new ways of innovating value by developing a customer needs-based or comprehensive-solutions perspective in a proactive manner.
Choosing and Seizing Market Opportunities
Companies that provide business-to-business services face choices regarding when to invest in customer relationships and when to seek new opportunities. In this session, we will explore those choices. Participants will gain perspectives and tools for pursuing profitable long-term growth.
MODULE TWO: Strategic Decision-Making
Participants have analyzed the market impact for their Strategic Project and can fit the project into the overall structure of the business enterprise. They have gathered preliminary information on their project, based on their initial meetings in Session One. As the participants return, the emphasis moves to decision making: choosing which courses of action will have the best implications for the future of the organization.
One More Time…What Is Strategy?
Strategy is distinguished from long-range planning. Various frameworks for strategic analysis and review will be presented, examined and applied to organizational business situations. We will examine the link between markets, customers, distribution, services, and products for strategic positioning. We will also integrate strategic thinking into business planning.
Culture & Values
The foundational principles of organizational culture and the tenets of the organizations culture will be analyzed. We will discuss how values and philosophies guide behaviors, the difference between enacted and espoused culture, and how to create, maintain and socialize values. Participants will be assessing their own work group cultures using a proprietary cultural audit instrument.
Understanding the Numbers
Business leaders must have the ability to understand and interpret financial statements in light of management activities and the need for driving positive financial results. Sample financial documents will be used as a basis for the analysis and interpretation of financial statements in light of business activities.
Creating and Capturing Customer Value
Providers of business solutions are challenged by the need to identify the best opportunities and make the most of those opportunities. Customers vary dramatically in their actual needs and in their ability to partner with suppliers. Thus, suppliers must learn how to clearly articulate value propositions and how to modify those value propositions to meet the needs of different segments or individual customers. Moreover, they must make wise choices regarding investment in customer relationship management activities. Drawing on concepts developed previously, this session will help participants understand the challenges of conceptualizing and managing complex service offerings for business customers.
Understanding Competition
In this session, we will discuss the components necessary to understand competition. We will differentiate between sources of distinctive competence and competitive advantage. Value-chain modeling will be introduced to understand differences among competitors, as well as strategic group mapping. We will also discuss the importance of strategic profiling.
Strategic Fit
There are numerous levels of strategy within the organization. Each level requires a different set of tools to justify strategic fit. We will analyze what factors need to be considered when assessing strategic fit. Participants will learn how to evaluate the appropriateness of specific strategies within defined contexts while focusing on developing an understanding of competitive markets, organizational profiling, creating strategic initiatives, and change management.
MODULE THREE: Integration and Execution
Module Three brings together and integrates participants’ previous learning with an emphasis on the Strategic Project. This session places far more emphasis on the execution of the strategy by examining leadership, leading change, engaging employees, and coaching others. This session is intended to be more micro in nature, focusing on the day-to-day actions, behaviors, and decisions of the participants as they engage in the process of moving the organization forward into the future.
Leadership – Pure and Simple
Leadership is distinguished from management. Managerial roles will be reviewed. Using leadership to develop high performance teams and increase engagement among those teams will be discussed.
Leading Change
Today, more than ever, organizations are confronted with continual change. Highly dynamic environments force organizations to change frequently to maintain profitability. The ability to change is evolving as a viable proxy for organizational effectiveness. During this session, participants will come to understand why alignment of various departments and methods is important in organizations. They will discuss how change can be used to modify behavior and increase effectiveness.
Engaging Employees
During this session, we will review processes for engaging people in the enterprise and methods for motivating and managing the performance of the workforce. We will discuss frameworks for assessing and building the knowledge and skills of the enterprise.
Coaching & Developing Others
This session will incorporate coaching others and understanding the importance of active listening as well as emotional intelligence. While emotional intelligence helps individuals to communicate better, reduce their anxiety and stress, defuse conflicts, improve relationships, empathize with others, and effectively overcome life's challenges, effective coaching empowers individuals and encourages them to take responsibility. The combination increases employee and staff engagement, improves individual performance and helps identify and develop high potential employees.
Effective Persuasion
Participants will develop a deeper understanding of the role that leaders play in influencing others. The session will focus on rules of engagement that can be used to persuade others in both one-on-one and group settings. We will also provide participants with tools to recognize when others are attempting to use manipulation techniques. Specific behavioral skills will be assessed and evaluated. Participants will leave the session with a new set of tools to effectively persuade others while simultaneously building trust and rapport.