Course Description
Good leadership is critical to individual and organizational success in today’s challenging global IT environment. Leaders are needed at every level of an organization, and IT is no exception. Whether you’re an experienced leader, relatively new to leadership, or thinking about taking the step up to leadership, this modular Leadership Boot Camp has something for you. Taught in an intensive 5-day format, this Boot Camp Workshop gives IT professionals a strong foundation upon which they can continue to build, using their personal Leadership Development Plan developed over the duration of the Leadership Boot Camp.
The emphasis of this workshop is on learning and applying simple and proven leadership principles and techniques. Participants learn how to leverage existing strengths, identify opportunities for leadership development and growth, and find their own path as a leader.
Module 1 focuses on developing the core leadership skills and behaviours essential to success as a leader at any level. Module 2 focuses on the need for leaders to have and demonstrate strong communication skills, and offers a proven best-practices framework leaders can use to maximize communication effectiveness. Module 3 focuses on how leaders can build strong teams to achieve goals through effective feedback and coaching.
Participants also have the option to continue their leadership journey after the workshop with professional leadership coaching. Five hours of professional coaching can be pre-purchased at a special workshop fee for those wishing additional support with implementing their personal leadership development plan.
Format
Lecture, interactive discussion, case-study, and application.
Why
Strong leadership skills are essential to ensuring project goals and objectives are set and achieved, and that project teams remain committed and focused on achieving deliverables.
The enriched 5-day modular format provides maximum opportunity to learn key leadership skills quickly, and limited enrolment and small class size maximize opportunities for participants to interact with each other, and with the facilitator. This is a proven combination that yields maximum results.
Instructor Expertise
This Boot Camp is designed and facilitated by a recognized and respected leadership development professional with over 15 years of proven IT leadership development experience.
Module 1: Leadership for IT Professionals (2 Days)
Module Description
This first of three modules focuses on developing core leadership skills and behaviours. Throughout the module participants explore and discuss essential leadership concepts and behaviours, and use this information together with a self-assessment, to create their own personal leadership development plan. Participants are encouraged to share their leadership development plan with their manger/supervisor, and to take additional steps to continue to develop themselves as a leader after completion of the boot camp.
Self-assessment is essential to leadership development. Participants complete a private and personal Everything DiSC Workplace personality self-assessment prior to attending this module. The assessment results are referenced in all three modules, beginning with the implications of the self-assessment on leadership in Module 1. Participants are encouraged to bring other assessments they may have completed prior to attending the boot camp for additional insight to help them create their leadership development plan.
Module Objectives
Upon completion of this module, participants will
Know the relationship between leadership and managing change.
Be able to define and describe essential leadership skills and behaviours including,
Knowing which classical leadership style is most effective in various situations, and how to shift leadership style appropriately to be an effective leader,
Knowing the role of, and how to use, influence in being an effective leader.
Know their leadership behavioural preferences – using the Everything DiSC four-quadrant personality assessment model, and how these preferences affect how they approach leadership.
Know the roles emotional and social intelligence play in leading and motivating others.
Know the importance of the relationship of the leader with the group, and how to demonstrate leadership to the group/team/project team.
Know the importance of the relationship of the leader with individuals on the team, and how to demonstrate leadership at the one-to-one level with team members.
Have created a personal leadership development plan.
Module Content – Overview
Key learning components of this module include:
Principles of leadership – what is leadership, and what are the essential leadership skills and behaviours a leader must know and demonstrate.
Understanding My Preferred Leadership Style – participants gain essential insight into their individual leadership behaviours and preferences, together with a solid understanding of the needs of their team and individuals on the team using the Everything DiSC Workplace four-quadrant behavioural model. The Everything DiSC Workplace self-assessment debrief provides:
An overview of all 4 DiSC quadrant behavioural styles and related subtypes – including a general description of goals objectives, fears and motivators all related to leadership,
Detailed insight into leadership style and related behaviour preferences,
Insight into behavioural priorities and desired outcomes of working with others – key drivers of influencing others,
Insight into what motivates you as a leader, and what causes you stress,
Understanding of how your individual leadership style reacts to, and interacts with, other styles; and when and how to shift your preferred style to be a more effective leader,
Strategies to increase your leadership effectiveness with other styles,
Insight into how to approach building more effective interpersonal relationships as a leader,
Detailed understanding of leading other DiSC styles within the context of goals, actions under pressure, and fears,
How to identify others’ DiSC style.
•Meeting individual and group needs – the importance of a leader’s relationship with individuals and the group, including which takes precedence over the other, and how to balance the needs of the group with the needs of individual group members.
Applying emotional and social intelligence principles to lead and motivate others.
Stages of team development and related requirements of the leader.
Your leadership brand – defining how you want to be known as a leader.
Creation of an individual personalized leadership development plan.
Module 2: Communication Skills for IT Leaders (2 Days)
Module Description
Strong communication skills are essential for success as a leader. This course focuses on the essential communication skills and strategies vital for leading effectively in today’s fast-paced, demanding IT environment. Participants learn about their own preferred communication style and how to adapt their preferred communication style to be more effective as a leader when communicating with others around them i.e. communicating up, down and across, as a leader.
Note: This course uses the Everything DiSC Workplace personality self-assessment to help participants understand their communication style preferences, and to be more effective in communicating with others. The Everything DiSC Workplace self-assessment is completed prior to attending the course.
Topics covered include
Communicating effectively as a leader
Using communication skills to manage up, across and down
Using communication skills to influence and motivate others as a leader
Using communication skills to manage team conflict
Duration
2 Days instructor led workshop
Format
Lecture, interactive discussion, case-study, and application.
Why
Strong communication skills are essential for leaders to ensure project goals and objectives are set and achieved, and that project teams remain committed and focused on achieving deliverables.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
State the importance of effective communication to the role of leader,
State the importance of using vision and mission in communicating direction, overcoming conflict, and motivating others,
Prepare a simple and effective communication plan,
Ask effective questions to better influence others,
Improve the amount of information retained through active listening,
Create a relevant framework for managing the expectations of others,
Communicate unforeseen or negative changes in a collaborative manner,
Constructively approach and manage conflict.
Course Content – overview
Key learning components of this course include:
Defining effective interpersonal communication in a leadership context.
Understanding our preferred communication style as a leader using the Everything DiSC Workplace assessment, including
determining one’s own communication style and its impact on others as a leader,
adapting one’s preferred communication style for improved effectiveness with others as a leader.
Essential message components and structure – how to structure your message when communicating about change, making a decision, solving a problem, and giving good or bad news.
Developing an effective interpersonal communication approach – using the concept of story to frame communication, and to motivate, inspire and influence others.
The effect of organizational culture on communication.
Using recognized communication skills Best Practices to
be effective in the role of leader,
better manage the expectations of others.
Influencing the outcome – using proven techniques to influence others including,
active listening – using active listening to maximize retention of information and influence others,
asking open-ended questions – to maximize information-gathering efforts and influence others.
Managing Up, Across, and Down – using a proven key message format to influence others and manage expectations.
Communicating unexpected or unwanted news effectively – using proven techniques to communicate unexpected negative news.
Addressing conflict positively – using proven steps and approaches to resolve conflict.
Prerequisites
A desire to communicate more effectively as aleader.
Module 3: Giving Feedback, Having Courageous Conversations, and Coaching for Leaders (1 Day)
Description
This final of three modules focuses on leveraging communication skills as a leader to give and receive feedback, and coach others. Giving effective feedback is vital to coaching others, developing others, and to maximizing team performance. Giving and receiving effective feedback also helps to foster accountability and respect in the workplace.
Module Objectives
Upon completion of this module, participants will know
How to prepare to give effective feedback,
How to deliver any type of feedback in a positive and respectful manner,
The differences and similarities between feedback, confrontation and courageous conversations,
The benefits to themselves, and others, of being able to give and receive feedback in an open and trusting manner,
The fundamentals of coaching others,
How to tailor giving feedback and coaching to different personality styles,
How to deal with difficult issues when coaching and giving feedback,
How to identify the core issue to address when coaching and giving feedback,
The difference between different types of feedback e.g. reinforcing, redirecting etc. and when to use one type versus another,
Three different coaching approaches – directive, collaborative and facilitative, and when to use each,
How to coach and motivate others for development and performance using feedback.
Module Content Overview
Key learning components of this module include:
Defining effective feedback – what feedback is, and what feedback is not, and the choices people have when giving and receiving feedback.
The feed-back process – a model for understanding how to give and receive feedback, and how to use feedback as a precursor to coaching.
The differences and overlaps between feedback, confrontation and courageous conversations.
Feedback and emotions – the role that emotions play in both giving and receiving feedback.
Feedback, coaching and DiSC personality style – exploring how different personality styles both give and receive feedback, and how to approach different DiSC styles in a coaching context.
Principles of effective coaching – what is effective coaching and how to set up the coaching relationship for maximum effectiveness.
The Rules Of Coaching – essential rules a coach must follow when coaching others.
Coaching and Feedback – know how and when to give feedback that motivates and builds confidence.
Identifying and picking the right issue – how to identify and pick the right issue, and where to focus the discussion when giving feedback and coaching e.g. dealing with one instance versus an ongoing pattern, handling one-off versus ongoing issues.
Leadership, feedback and coaching – dealing with the special issues leaders must deal with when coaching others, and giving and receiving feedback.
Practical application – participants identify a situation that would benefit from coaching and/or providing feedback, and work through preparing to coach or give the feedback.
Optional (at additional fee) leadership coaching
5 hours of one-on-one leadership development coaching with an experienced professional leadership coach.
Participants can optionally pre-purchase five hours of additional one-on-one telephone coaching to help them refine and work on their personal leadership development plan.
