Professional Skills

Effective leaders are adept at juggling different tasks, competent in leading others to deliver high levels of performance, successful in navigating across the organization and are always composed. Such leaders make their work look easy, though it is not.

This program is designed to help managers become a more effective leader. The program will examine the fundamentals of self-management, leading teams and motivating others to accomplish your company’s goals.

Based on relevant readings, case discussions and introspective exercises, participants will gain deeper insights and develop a greater understanding of organizational culture and dynamics, management best practices, the role of the manager, and the nature of influence. You will explore your own personality, strengths and weaknesses, and will begin to determine your own unique leadership style. A key outcome will be your own action plan that you will implement on your return to work and continuously grow your leadership capability.

PROGRAM BENEFITS

• Improve your performance by strengthening your management skills
• Manage your team, your boss, and your colleagues more effectively
• Develop a management style that suits your unique personality
• Handle difficult management situations with greater certainty in your decisions
• Earn a Certificate of Participation from the Governors State University Continuing Education Unit

TOPICS COVERED

• Distinguishing management myth from reality
• Understanding the motivations of colleagues and competitors
• Recognizing strengths and blind spots in yourself and others
• Building emotional intelligence to communicate effectively
• Influencing others from a position of authority—or without authority
• Managing within organizational hierarchies
• Earning trust and building relationships
• Leading for long-term results

WHO SHOULD ENROLL

This management training program is ideal for new or experienced managers in any function who want to become better leaders. Participants should be ready to grapple with complex and uncertain scenarios without obvious solutions. Required readings shall be distributed upon enrollment.

High performance teams are central to delivering breakthrough results. However, such teams emerge only with intentional and strategic effort on the part of a team leader.

This two-day intensive program is designed to help you understand will first help you understand your leadership style and how it impacts how you create and lead teams. You will also examine the best-practice process from forming a team to leading it to sustained levels of high performance. You will discover how to effectively lead a time in a flexible, but firm manner, helping team members change tasks and behaviors as necessary. Emphasis is placed on honing the capabilities required for leading diverse teams to deliver high levels of performance.

PROGRAM BENEFITS

• Understand your own leadership style with the goal of more effectively leading each member of your team
• Assemble and manage diverse teams to optimize innovative and high-quality outcomes
• Map out the conversations to build your team’s infrastructure or analyze an existing one with the goal of enabling each member to do their best work
• Create a plan to address a team challenge you are facing today
• Develop practical skills of resolving conflict, providing feedback, and holding members accountable
• Earn a Certificate of Participation from the Governors State University Continuing Education Unit

TOPICS COVERED

• Your leadership style and its impact on individual team members and the team culture
• Common team pitfalls and how to avoid them
• Building a team’s infrastructure that enables individuals to fully contribute
• Leading teams in optimal decision making
• Recognizing the sources of conflict and the different paths toward resolution
• Providing individual feedback for accountability and learning
• Leading teams in continually assessing and improving how they work together
• Applying strategies to virtual teams

WHO SHOULD ENROLL

If you are interested in optimizing your ability to lead and manage teams in ways that result in project success and organizational effectiveness, this 2-day seminar is for you.

Change is a constant in today’s knowledge based, digital economy that is subject to disruption. Business must be prepared to manage disruptions that impact them or to create an internal organization capable of fomenting winning disruptions.

This requires an understanding of your organization’s internal environment, it’s culture, resources and capabilities and the fundamental principles of managing change. It also requires leaders that have a clear vision of their competitive environment and the ability to be effective second movers, fast followers or disruptors.

In this highly interactive two-day program, you will acquire the skills and strategy you need to become an effective change manager to help your organization successfully manage disruptive change or to create culture that supports leading disruptions.

PROGRAM BENEFITS

• Build your understanding of industry disruption, and the market-driven forces that allow disruptors to succeed
• Learn how to examine your organization’s resources, capabilities and culture
• Gain a framework to managing organizational change in response to external factors that are disruptive to your business model
• Gain a framework to creating an internal culture and processes that leads disruption within the industry, sector or consumer segment
• Gain tools and insights to help you create an action plan to accelerate individual and corporate success when in the midst of disruptive change and high-intensity work environments
• Earn a Certificate of Participation from the Governors State University Continuing Education Unit

TOPICS COVERED

• Understanding disruption
• Understanding change management principles and strategies
• Using projects as an engine of change
• Aligning stakeholders behind your vision
• Building and maintaining trust
• Maximizing opportunities and organizational performance through change management
• Understanding when to move and when to jettison a change effort

WHO SHOULD ENROLL

Designed for managers who lead or participate in change initiatives. The program will be beneficial to such individuals in the private, public and nonprofit sectors. To optimize learning and successful transfer of learning back to the organization, teams are encouraged to attend.