Seminars for Leadership & Management
The seminar descriptions below include typical topics covered. Business Visions Group will customize each seminar to your specific needs. Some seminars can be tailored as Keynote presentations.
Assessments & Team Development Seminars
Course Description
Participants will:
- Expand self-awareness about one’s own behavioral pattern/style
- Create common language across the team/org concerning behavioral styles:
- Controllers take charge and get things done
- Persuaders are well liked and connect quickly on a personal level with many types of individuals
- Stabilizers create security, predictability, dependability and harmony especially on teams
- Analyzers enjoy information and data and are focused on quality, accuracy and getting it “right”
- Understand the impact style patterns have on others
- Recognize the critical connection between one’s intent and impact
We each have comfort (conscious or unconscious) using a typical behavioral style when interacting with others. Our style has an impact; when our impact is positive, trust and respect increase in the relationship. Sometimes our intent may be positive but we have a negative or unintended impact, and when that happens, it may simply be a result of our style in the moment or situation. As adults, we have access to a variety of styles allowing us to connect more effectively with others as situational needs become known.
Awareness of one’s Behavior patterns, or Style, is important then to building more effective communication, reducing tension between coworkers and developing more productive work relationships.
Audience
Intact work teams/groups, leadership teams, general employees
Applicability
Create self-awareness/Emotional Intelligence, Increase employee engagement, Workplace Diversity, Team building
Pre-Work
Self-Assessment (Purchased separately and done online in advance)
Participants will:
- Review The Effectiveness Institute “Behavior Pattern” 4-quadrant model: Controlling, Persuading, Analyzing and Stabilizing
- Recognize activities that increase/deplete one’s energy and engagement and learn ways to effectively manage this
- Role play alternative behavioral styles, deliberately change ones’ behavior in order to connect better with others, reduce tension and develop more productive workplace relationships
- Create common language around describing behavior and impact, and using this to provide more effective feedback to one another
- Learn/share best practices about using behavioral styles awareness at work
Course Description
Knowing oneself and being aware of one’s impact on others (intended or otherwise) places tremendous onus of personal accountability. None of us can be placed in a box or labeled based on preferred Behavioral Styles, in fact, as adults we always have the choice to behave differently, based on the situation. When team members notice their own conversational tone, gestures, choice of words, decision-making & problem-solving methods, they seem better able to take personal ownership and responsibility for how they engage tasks (work) and people (stakeholders.) In this follow up seminar, participants will understand how they (based on their behavioral style) acquire and contribute energy to the workplace. They will also learn to recognize behavior patterns in others so that they can shift their behavior if necessary, in order to improve business outcomes and stakeholder engagement.
Audience
Intact work teams/groups, leadership teams, general employees
Applicability
Increase self-awareness/Emotional Intelligence, Increase employee engagement, Workplace Diversity, Team building, Workplace Transformation
Pre-work
Attendance at Behavioral Styles debrief Seminar and Behavioral Styles “As I See Myself” Self-Assessment
Course Description
Participants will:
- Understand Gallup’s core research on “strengths-based” vs. “deficit-based” development and its impact on development & engagement
- Learn about their Top 5 Talents and recognize how these talents show up in common day-to-day tasks and interactions
- Commit to personal development using the personalized Strengths Discovery and Action-Planning Guide for applying one’s strengths in the next week, month, and year
“Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day? Chances are, you don't. All too often, our natural talents go untapped. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths. To help people uncover their talents, Gallup introduced the first version of its online assessment, StrengthsFinder, in 2001 which ignited a global conversation and helped millions to discover their Top Five Talents. In its latest national bestseller, StrengthsFinder 2.0, Gallup unveils the new and improved version of its popular assessment, language of 34 themes, and much more.” (Excerpt adapted from Gallup website)
Each person has unique and valuable talents. If each of us were to leverage our diverse individual strengths, individuals and teams are more likely to experience success. Unfortunately, most people (and teams) struggle to maximize individual strengths, partly because we aren’t able to clearly identify what those strengths are. For example, if one were put on the spot to talk about their top five strengths, it might take some labored thought. It often is easier to rattle off one’s weaknesses! Herein lies the challenge… imagine transforming your team’s workplace by becoming absorbed in strengths-based development.
Audience
Intact work teams/groups, general employees
Applicability
Workplace Transformation, Increase self-awareness/Emotional Intelligence, Increase employee engagement, Team building
Pre-work
Complete StrengthsFinder 2.0 Assessment (Books purchased separately)
Course Description
Participants will:
- Discover the nuance of one’s Top 5 Strengths and how these unique strengths drive success and impact others
- Learn how to use leadership strengths to create a positive work environment and increase employee engagement
- Apply strengths to current work situations and create a personal plan to develop talent into leadership strengths
Based on the Wall Street Journal’s #1 best seller StrengthsFinder 2.0, participants in Strengths Based Leadership will discover practical ways to bring their “natural talents” to their daily life and work in their role as leaders and managers. In this highly interactive seminar, participants will have completed the online assessment and will enjoy exploring how bringing one’s authentic self to work can positively impact their overall satisfaction, engage others, and increase productivity.
Leaders who use Strengths-based skills learn how to invest in others' natural talents and meet the four basic needs of those who look to them for leadership which include trust, compassion, stability, and hope. The assessment will also enable participants to plot their own strengths based on Gallup’s “Four Domains of Leadership” Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building and Strategic Thinking.
Audience
Intact leadership/management teams, Management/Leadership Development, New Manager Training
Applicability
Workplace Transformation, Increase self-awareness/Emotional Intelligence, Increase employee engagement, Leadership Team building
Pre-work
Complete Strengths-Based Leadership Assessment (Books purchased separately) Participants who have completed a StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment in the past will still need to complete the Strengths Based Leadership assessment.
Course Description
Team members will:
- Understand the characteristics that drive high performing teams
- Recognize their team’s current strengths and decide how to sustain these positive behaviors
- Recognize their team’s current vulnerabilities, and after prioritizing, decide how to manage and /or develop new behaviors and skills
- Create a team development plan using a Continue-Start-Stop framework
- Align ad-hoc work groups to manage the development plan and drive accountability
Teams That Work (Effectiveness Institute) uses an online survey that measures and identifies team member’s perceptions of the presence (or absence) of six characteristics identified as essential to high performing teams. The 6 characteristics include: Trust, Respect, Commitment/Communication of Purpose, Drive for Results, Managing Team Conflict, and Role Alignment & Accountability.
The Teams That Work + (Plus) option allows the team leader to receive feedback against the same 6 Characteristics, and how their leadership skills impact the team. When this option is chosen, the leader’s responses to all questions will appear independently (alongside of the collective team) in the assessment report. Often the team leader sees capability in their team that the team may not (and/or vice versa.)
The highly interactive debrief of the assessment provides an ideal opportunity for team members to explore individual and collective perspectives that impacts engagement with the team itself. As a result of this discussion, team members collectively agree on a team development plan, assign ownership of the plan, and create milestones to benchmark their successes.
Audience
Intact work teams/groups, new teams forming after a re-org, teams experiencing challenge and needing a tool to get to the crux of that challenge, teams that are ready to challenge themselves to the next level of capability
Pre-work
Complete Teams That Work/Teams That Work Plus Assessment (Separate cost).
Description
An experiential team learning event that highlights the need for communication, trust, transparency, testing assumptions, employee engagement, and leveraging resources. Participants will engage a real-life scenario of facilitating an organizational change within a prescribed time limit. They will be challenged to manage through ambiguity, create a strategy, and work together with every participant. The exercise is successful when everyone is 100% engaged.
Please inquire for additional details.
Leadership Development Seminars
Course Description
Participants will:
- Learn the dynamics of team development stages (Forming- Storing- Norming- Performing- Transforming) and why each is important
- Learn the essential characteristics of High Performing teams (Trust, Respect, Commitment to Vision/Purpose, Drive for Results, Managing Conflict, Aligning Roles & Responsibilities, Accountability) and their role in developing the team as an individual contributor or team leader
- Learn what drives “Employee Engagement” and their role in maximizing it
Most people would agree that the purpose of a workplace team is to leverage diverse talent and skill in order to get a job done. “Functional vs. Dysfunctional”, “Engaged vs. Disengaged”, “Performing vs. High Performing” have become standard language to describe the challenges that team leaders face as they solve problems, create a strategy or execute a well-defined business goal. In HR talent management discussions today, where promotional and succession planning decisions are made, greater emphasis is placed on how well leaders are building, developing, optimizing, maximizing, and engaging the human capital of their work groups and teams.
Effective teamwork is critical to successful organizations, particularly when change is constant. The greater complexity and scope of strategic planning, execution and the velocity of change generally requires greater collaboration and sharing of resources. As many teams have had to either “do more with less” or “less with less”, they have had to re-evaluate what it means to BE a team.
Audience
Intact work teams/groups, new teams forming after a re-org, teams experiencing challenges and needing a venue to explore root cause and potential remedies, teams that are ready to challenge themselves to the next level of capability
Course Description
Participants will:
- Understand how their own decision-making style impacts quality, speed, yield and effort
- Learn the RAPID process to enhance effective business decision making
- Use RAPID to diagnose a past business decision, or to prepare and plan for an upcoming business decision that requires a different approach
Decision effectiveness is the critical link between organizational transformation and business performance. Decision effectiveness is often defined by the quality, speed, yield and effort of the decision that is being made. Ideally, critical business decisions such as strategy, product development, mergers/acquisitions, and re-orgs, will be done quickly, with minimal effort, and yield the greatest positive impact on the desired results. Added to that, business leaders typically bring their own default “style” of decision making; (Democratic, Autocratic, Consensus, or Participative) each having its’ own value and consequence.
Recent studies in organizational effectiveness suggest that business leaders need to develop more thoughtful approaches to how decision are made. How can business leaders minimize intrinsic decision bottlenecks that include too many chiefs, accountability challenges, and analysis paralysis? An approach that has enjoyed much success among Fortune 500 companies and small business alike is RAPID, an acronym representing different critical roles or activities that stakeholders have during the decision-making process. RAPID as a decision-making tool helps give real accountability to the right people, allowing power to be shared, but also sets useful boundaries. Involving the right people appropriately saves time and allows all of the decision stakeholders to focus on the right things. Experience has demonstrated that when RAPID is used over the long term, business leaders make qualitative decisions, quickly and with fewer struggles.
Audience
Managers/Individual contributors who are involved with strategic/significant decision making
Applicability
Workplace Agility, Challenge the Status Quo
Pre-work
Reading required: “Who Has the D” Harvard Business Review (to be sent to all participants)
Participants will:
- Learn how to minimize reactivity and maximize responsiveness through self-awareness and relational awareness
- Use a personal “Case Study” to learn what you already do well and what you can improve
- Use the “Relational Awareness Model” as a tool to role play and move interpersonal conversations forward in a productive manner
Course Description
Experts in interpersonal communication tell us that we create first impressions in less than 5 seconds, and then spend the next 2 minutes looking for supporting data. As we get to know one another, we formulate assumptions (positive or negative) about one another, and overtime these can become enshrined as beliefs. Unless we question these assumptions and challenge our beliefs, we react instead of respond, relationships become stuck, and collaboration dwindles.
Managing communication dynamics requires a growth mindset; openness, self-reflection, and other-awareness. These help us to gain perspective on what’s happening and what I need to do (or not do) next. Participants will learn to use a tool to help them do this that includes: Differentiation (Owning my point of view), Empathy (experience form others perspective), Curiosity (Suspend certitude and ask open ended questions), and Making Meaning (explore my assumptions and the “story” I create around what I’ve experienced, seen, heard)
Audience
Managers/Individual contributors who are involved with significant decision making, Collaboration skill development
Applicability
Managing Stakeholders
Course Description
Participants will:
- Use the Gallup Q12 to identify what is currently contributing to one’s personal workplace engagement
- Learn from recent Gallup and Blessing White studies about engagement metrics and current drivers of employee engagement
- Evaluate their own engagement and begin to understand what contributes to the current reality
- Understand 6 attributes of workplace Climate – and evaluate their current circumstances
- Create a Team Engagement Plan (Continue-Start-Stop framework) in order to identify best practices regarding employee satisfaction and accountability
Using recent data from Gallup’s Engaged Workforce Studies and Blessing White’s 2016 Annual Employee Engagement Survey, this interactive and dynamic presentation brings new insight to employee engagement/motivation, and creating an ideal work place environment. No longer “motivation,” today’s focus is on “engagement “– what drives it, what sustains it and what gets in the way for most employees. More importantly – what can leaders and managers do more of/less of to tackle the challenges of optimizing the engaged workforce? In this seminar, participants will learn about organizational (team/group) “climate” through the lens of 6 attributes that include: Flexibility, Responsibility, Standards, Rewards, Clarity, and Commitment. While leadership of an organization typically sets the tone of workplace climate; employees have greater impact day-to-day. Ultimately employees choose to contribute positively (or not) to the “ideal work place” by their behaviors, attitudes and drive.
Audience
Intact work teams/groups, Managers
Applicability
Workplace Resilience, Leading Change, Optimizing Performance, Challenge the Status Quo
Course Description
Participants will:
- Learn about the Heath Brothers “Switch” model that identifies 3 constant elements of change: rational, emotional, and clear direction. They will identify their own current state thinking, emotions and sense of direction in light of their own workplace experience about change/on-going change.
- Learn that “resilience” (a personal quality with behavioral based skills) is a daily choice, that when acted upon, ignites new thinking patterns to challenge assumptions and beliefs, creates positive emotions, provides clarity of action.
- Learn 7 Resilience factors and associated best practices (Emotional Regulation, Impulse Control, Causal Analysis, Self-Efficacy, Realistic Optimism, Empathy, and Reaching Out.)
- Create a personal commitment plan to help each individual develop resilience skills in order to increase their own engagement
Researchers remind us that relentless change, increasing expectations, changing roles, limited resources and uncertainty are the new norm in most business cultures, particularly in financial services. As many of us try to adapt, cope and manage ourselves effectively, we are aware of the impact of change on our workplace engagement, confidence and competence. Resilience is the quality that helps us to: find the energy to engage ongoing change, manage daily challenges created by change, move forward with hope after repeated change, and discover our own capabilities and potential in the midst of change.
Audience
Managers/Individual contributors who are engaging substantial change; experiencing change fatigue, and need tools to help re-engage.
Applicability
Workplace Agility