Leadership Workshops

Overview

Research convincingly demonstrates that having an engaged and committed workforce produces numerous beneficial outcomes, such as better organisational performance and lower turnover. The problem is that, despite widespread efforts to drive improvements, engagement levels haven’t increased over the last 20 years—some studies even indicate that they are worse!

Traditional top down, command and control-based leadership models are at the heart of this problem. Whilst they may offer simplicity of decision-making and clarity of organisation, they also tend to foster “obedience” rather than the commitment, creativity and focused execution needed to maximise productivity and competitiveness. However, introducing new structures of governance isn’t the solution either, because engagement cannot be legislated for with rules or procedures. Instead, a different form of leadership is required.

Content

Today, leaders must learn how to establish a “psychological contract” with their team, where their dealings with people are less transactional and more relational in nature. Their effectiveness depends on their ability to build trust, because engagement is just a symptom of great leadership—trust is the root cause. This can only be achieved by leaders with strong inner qualities who know how to create deep emotional connections. This workshop explores the factors that lead people to commit more of themselves – to give their discretionary effort – and looks at the core aspects of emotional intelligence that underpin this outcome. It includes a 12-week follow-up programme which delivers the spaced repetition needed to integrate new ways of working.

Outcomes

Participants will learn how to create a high performance culture in their team and beyond by:

• Developing a simplified understanding of leadership (cutting through the confusion of the 40+ theories and 1,500+ definitions that currently exist)
• Knowing why the successful delivery of tasks, whilst essential, is insufficient for great leadership and what else must be mastered in order to excel
• Understanding how social perceptions are formed, individually and at group level, so they know where to start in building engagement and trust
• Appreciating how our powerful, instinctive emotional reactions can limit effectiveness
• Learning how to become less reactive and more responsive, allowing them to increase their focus, creativity and authenticity, thereby enabling them to convey a more empowering presence.