Agenda July 21 – 22 or December 8 - 9  

1.) Understanding The Technical Leadership Challenge

 > What the Technical Leadership Gap is and how it impacts your organization and you.

 > How scientists, researchers and engineers determine the success --- or failure --- of organizations.

 > Six reasons technical professionals fail or fall far short as leaders

 > “If I’m the expert, why aren’t people listening to me?”  The problems organizations have in getting the most from their technical professionals.

2.) Improving Technical Leadership Effectiveness
 

 > What determines effective leadership anyway?  Four radical changes in the best practices views of technical leadership that impact you

 > How the culture of technical organizations defines effective leadership

 > Five ways technical organizations inadvertently undermine their leaders

 > Can people really change?  How improvement occurs:  what’s easy, what’s difficult

 > Charting your own course for learning and development:  challenging, realistic

3.) Taking Stock of Your Strengths and Weaknesses

 > Why improving leadership effectiveness must begin with objective self-assessment

 > Pro’s and Con’s of the four tools that help you assess your effectiveness

 > Accurately anticipating your own communications strengths, problems and blind spots

 > Distinguishing between major and minor problems

4.) Improving Your One-On-One Communications Skills

 > Clarifying your own core communications tasks, responsibilities and opportunities

 > Identifying and breaking the four destructive patterns that occur in leadership conversations

 > Fully learning skills for giving feedback, exerting informal influence, telling people things they don’t want to hear, consulting and coaching

 > Using Active Listening both to understand others and make your own point

 > Fully understanding what a collaborative leadership style is, why it’s essential in a technical organization, and what you must do to collaborate optimally

5.) Improving Your Group Communications Skills, Building Your Team

 > Understanding the inherent potentials and predictable problems in all group communications

 > Why most technical meetings fail or fall far short

 > How to lead every meeting to ensure full, comfortable, productive engagement

 > Four teambuilding tools you can use immediately to turn your group into a high-performing team

 > Special problems and opportunities of building teams across multiple sites and countries

6.) Increasing Partnering Effectiveness

 > What partnering is and is not, and why it’s an essential technical leadership competence

 > Five guidelines for developing and using customer surveys

 > Improving partnering results with clients, users, peers, other organizations, other departments.

 > Understanding, applying partnering methods in your own situation.

7.) Applying Institute Program Insights
 

 > How people change, why they don’t and what you can do to implement new skills thoughtfully.

 > Clarifying your real job priorities and goals.

 > Understanding and scheduling your 360 Survey and individual coaching

 > Planning specific applications and pilots of Institute insights, strategies and tools

 > Learning to learn, anticipate and overcome obstacles, chart gains and improvement