Program participants work with proven management concepts, strategies and models employed by organizations who truly believe their success is contingent on the performance of their human resources.

Our innovative, menu-based design approach takes place in three stages or phases.  The process will enable your company, in collaboration with our consultants, to select the major leadership topic areas of most relevance to the organization’s strategic plans and goals.

The customization is critical to the success of your leadership development initiative and ensures the content is relevant and fundamental to the organization’s strategic intent.  Once the major topics have been selected and confirmed, our program facilitators will build the Detailed Program Outline.

The curriculum development process may require one or two meetings, with the most time being spent on the second step, reviewing the Detailed Program Outline and selecting the appropriate Program Peripherals.  Peripherals include such items as assessment instruments, videos, experiential exercises, simulations, etc. related to and supporting curriculum choices.

An example of a detailed Program Roll-Out can be found at the end of the leadership section of the catalogue.

Coaching for skills development and counselling for relationship building are fundamental themes that permeate the curriculum, both deliberately through classroom-based instruction and inherently in all that is said, done and learned in the program.

On the practical application side, throughout the program your leaders receive coaching and counseling from our facilitator.  Any subsequent rounds of the program will adopt a “cascade effect” with each round of program graduates coaching and counseling participants in subsequent rounds, catering particularly to direct reporting relationships.  This approach guarantees two critical outcomes:

1. It perpetuates the learnings from the program across all levels of the   organization; and
2. Builds strong and effective relationships between direct reports.

At the launch of the leadership program, participants are grouped by our facilitator into peer mentoring teams . . . for the duration.  The roles and responsibilities of the peer teams are clearly defined in the initial module and include, skill practice coaching and follow-up, feedback, discussion and planning clinics in session, as well as reinforcement and support between modules.

The use of accelerated learning techniques ensures all learning styles are appealed to in an environment where your managers, supervisors and team leaders are actively involved in their own learning.

This leadership development program addresses the people and resource management skills required of leaders in industry today, is module in format  (for example, four, 2-day sessions at intervals of approximately four weeks)    and takes about four months to complete the program.

When it comes to development of leadership skills, what you don’t know definitely can hurt you!  Our management profiling system is intended to fill the feedback void that exists when you examine your behaviour in the light of only one source . . . you!

Many companies engage in a 360 degree, computer-driven assessment process, because it will improve leadership effectiveness . . . leaders understand how others perceive their leadership skills.

The assessment we recommend is the Management Effectiveness Profile System.  (MEPS)

In particular, the MEPS will:

a) measure and assess current levels of management expertise
b) determine specific skill areas in which to change or improve
c) increase management’s ability to cope with pressure and change
d) lead to better achievement of personal and organizational goals

We recommend a multi-level process of measurement and evaluation, pivotal to the ongoing success of this leadership development initiative.

Participant feedback will be gathered through facilitator observation and Feedback Sheets at the conclusion of each of the workshops.  The purpose of this level of evaluation is to measure participant satisfaction with the training process itself and to assist the company and our consultants in adjusting the curriculum thereby keeping it vital to the interests of the participants and strategic goals and plans.

Pre and post-testing accomplishes this.  Level 2 evaluation can be a separate process from the event itself, depending on the degree of technical complexity of the content.  Or, it can be as uncomplicated as including a question or two in the design of participant Feedback Sheets, which works especially well with soft skills training.

Often this is where problems occur, particularly if there is no support or opportunity to use and retain what was learned in the program.  Anticipating such barriers and attempting to measure their affect on transfer of learning (application) is critical.  Observation for performance back in the workplace and participant follow-up at the 6 to 8 week mark post-program is ideal.

We recommend the following critical success initiatives to support the implementation of your company’s leadership development initiative.  In our experience, these suggestions have proven valuable for our clients:

1. Senior Executives Roll Up Their Sleeves and Get Involved in . . .

• The formal program launch session
• Ongoing support, coaching and counseling of program participants
• Demonstrating the Leadership competencies, skills and behaviours
• “Crash Testing” the assessment instrument
• Participation in half-day Executive Overviews, one prior to each workshop
  
  This involvement from the senior most level will demonstrate the organization’s commitment to leadership development and secures “buy-in” on the part of all participants.

2. Link leadership development to your company’s Vision, Mission, Core Values and Strategic Business Objectives.

We believe your company will gain a number of benefits through this strategic leadership development initiative:

1. Leaders will work more actively to attract and retain the best people for your company.
2. The program will foster a culture committed to continuous learning, skill development and improvement.
3. Could result in its integration with other crucial Human Resources systems and practices (i.e. HRIS, performance management, career development and succession planning).
4. Create a clear and practical approach to leadership development for all managers, supervisors and team leaders.
5. Embed a common understanding of the role and impact of leadership development.
6. The Menu-Based Curriculum process will ensure that the content reflects the strategic intent and stated needs of the organization.
7. Creation of universal frameworks, strategies, processes as well as a common “leadership language” that will build strong interpersonal relationships between management and direct reports.
8. Open entire new pathways of effective communications between and across the strategic business units within, and without, your company.