Leading For Performance

Today’s employees don’t respond to a manager who gives direction, but rather commit to a leader who asks for their help in setting direction. And today’s business doesn’t wait for decisions to go up and then back down the chain of command. It needs empowered leaders at all levels. Strong leaders understand that the performance, morale, and retention of their people is directly tied to the quality of their working relationships with them.
They appreciate that getting involved in their people’s professional development and involving their people in decision making leads to real-world results. When leaders perform, people perform. And when people perform, businesses succeed.

Leading for Performance enables organizations to ensure their leaders can drive business performance through effective communication, employee selection, team building, coaching, conflict resolution, and more. Leading for Performance is a suite of contemporary leadership development modules that provides midlevel managers, team leaders, and other first line managers with the skills necessary to be competent in their roles. Participants explore proven employee selection, communication, team building, conflict resolution, coaching, goal setting, performance review, and other leadership best practices that provide organizations with a sustainable advantage despite external market forces.

Offering Details

Leading for Performance is a suite of practical, configurable, facilitator-led leadership effectiveness modules featuring integrated, stand-alone learning:

• Working Styles: Dimensions of Social Style is a one-day module that offers leaders proven interpersonal versatility skills for identifying the various Social Styles in the workplace, then adapting their own behavior to work more effectively with direct reports and other coworkers.
• Meeting Leadership Challenges is a one-day module that explores the responsibility and accountability inherent to leadership positions. Participants learn about the many nuances around leading people in today’s dynamic workplace, and examine the leadership needs of their associates to create a work environment that ensures performance with fulfillment.
• Interviewing for Selection reduces the number of poor hiring decisions that result when managers don’t use a behavioral approach to interviewing. This one-day module helps participants better prepare for and conduct behavioral interviews, and evaluate the responses of candidates during the interview.
• Setting Goals for Success is a one-day module that provides managers with perspectives and skills associated with setting goals for associates. Participants explore proven goal-setting processes, best practices for linking goals to strategy execution, and the importance of setting goals that address both performance and fulfillment considerations.
• Coaching for Performance is a one-day module that offers leaders coaching techniques that help them make the transition from a conventional output-management approach to one in which the coach actively creates an environment that fosters performance and fulfillment.
• Reviewing Performance is a one-day module that examines what constitutes an effective employee performance review. The performance review process focuses everyone – leaders, individuals, and teams – on meeting individual and organizational goals, thereby contributing to the execution of business strategy. A successful performance review process ensures shared responsibility for feedback and development.
• Managing Conflict is a one-day module that offers leaders specific skills for addressing conflict using a collaborative, win-win approach. People who don’t manage conflict well not only experience the negative aspects of destructive conflict, but also fail to reap the creative benefits of constructive conflict.
• Delegating with Confidence is a one-day module that helps leaders delegate the right tasks and the right level of responsibility to the right associates to maximize involvement and productivity. Leaders need to overcome the tendency to adopt a “heroic” leadership approach, instead delegating responsibility appropriately, even as the leader is ultimately accountable for the outcome.
• Motivating for Results is a one-day module that focuses on the creation of a work environment in which associates consistently put forth their best efforts. Motivation is a critical element of successful performance, and leaders need to consider how to address motivation while not ignoring other elements that create results.
• Communicating with Purpose is a one-day module that helps leaders apply effective communication practices that work in today’s dynamic business environment. Participants gain an understanding and working knowledge of specific skills for driving more effective one-to-one business communication with associates and colleagues.
• Problem Solving is a one-day module that explores effective ways to solve problems in the workplace. Participants learn to reach better solutions more quickly, whether working by themselves or with a team; to experience less stress and frustration during the problem-solving process; and to build on what they already do when solving problems.
• Taking Smart Risks covers effective risk taking in today’s uncertain business climate. Participants of this one-day module learn that risk taking is key to contemporary business and personal success, and that it’s imperative to do much more than respond, anticipate, and cope.
• Creating an Empowering Environment is a one-day module that shows leaders that empowering employees to make decisions and take risks infuses new ideas, competence, and confidence into everyday work life. Participants learn how to overcome the hesitancy to empower people and learn best practices for doing so.
• Managing Time Wisely, a one-day module, offers insights into proven ways to enhance one’s time management. Participants first learn how to improve their self-management skills, thereby facilitating the application of effective time management techniques and strategies.
• Building High-Performance Teams explores the leadership characteristics required for assembling and developing teams committed to first-rate work. Participants of this one-day module learn just what constitutes a “team,” what kinds of skills and tools can be used to enhance team effectiveness, and how work units and cross-functional teams can achieve improved quality of working together.
• Managing Styles in Conflict offers invaluable insights into how to communicate more effectively with businesspeople of varying Social Styles when stress is high and people are in “back-up behavior.” Participants learn to recognize their own back-up tendencies, as well as those of peers, direct reports, and internal/external customers.