Upward Leadership
This interactive, reality-based beginning leadership course is a fast moving course designed to help leaders develop a personal leadership philosophy and learn basics about leading organizational change and developing high performing teams.
Many people in leadership positions, especially new supervisors, have not taken time to develop a personal leadership philosophy. The first day of this class is designed to lead participants through a variety of activities that highlight different aspects of being a leader. One example is an activity where each writes a job description for a “leader” requiring them to articulate skills, knowledge and abilities they believe a leader should possess.
Prior to the course, participants complete an on-line DiSC Behavioral Profile and review their customized report. During the course, behavior styles are discussed. A reflective time allows participants to think about the strengths and challenges of their personal style. The goal of this portion is to help leaders see the benefits of different styles, and how they can better work with people whose styles are different than theirs.
The topic of emotional intelligence is introduced. Discussion is encouraged. The goal of this segment is to help leaders see the importance of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management to building a healthy work environment and growing as a leader.
The morning of the second day introduces important elements of leading change, such as Stages of the Transition Cycle. Another important topic focuses on building commitment for change.
In the afternoon, the topic shifts to developing high performing teams. Key aspects include:
- Characteristics of High Performing Teams
- Examining a California Team Excellence Gold Metal Winning Company
- Stages of Team Development
Course Objectives:
- Utilizing the DiSC, learners will identify their dominant behavior style and identify at least three things they can do to better communicate with individuals of a different behavior style.
- Learners, when reflecting on their leadership philosophy as compared to those of other successful leaders, learners will identify at least four steps they can take to improve their ability to lead.
- In small groups, learners will take the Stages of Transition Cycle Quiz and successfully pass it with a score of at least 70%.
- Develop a plan to build commitment using a five step structured approach.
- Develop a plan to constructively deal with resistance using a five-step process.
- Given a case study about teams, learners, using the small group process, will identify at least four key characteristics of successful teams.
- Given descriptions of team behavior, learners will correctly identify the appropriate stage of team development.
Participant Comments:
"I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank you once again for the excellent class you gave us. I truly enjoyed and will use the information you taught us during this class. Your presentation was informative and engaging. You used many examples from your personal and professional life to outline what you were teaching…as well as solicited many responses from our class on actual situations we face on a day-to-day basis. I came away feeling like I learned some valuable tools to assist me with my unit and with the company as well. I will be giving my unit the 'Perspectives About Leading Change' survey this week." Lee (October 2007)
“I would recommend this class to others because it really stimulated me to look at my style of leadership and identify areas of weakness.” Gary
“The thing that helped me most was understanding that people resist change for a variety of reasons and not just because they want to be difficult.” Shelly
“I would recommend this class because it provides tools to improve yourself as a leader and others around you.” Norm
“The thing that helped me most was the emphasis on how we need to care about the workforce if we expect to succeed.” Linda
“I would recommend this class to others because Merle has a lot of energy and enthusiasm. You’ll be forced to think and participate throughout the course.” Mark
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