Professional Leader: Leading with Emotional Intelligence

Introduction

Public and private sector organizations alike are increasingly recognizing the need for their professionals at all levels to take a strategic approach to run their part of the organization. But “Strategy” is a frequently misunderstood concept which needs to be translated into everyday language and the strategy process demystified into something every manager can understand. The strategy is not merely about “achieving and keeping a sustainable competitive advantage”, but is about being genuinely creative and providing effective leadership. Strategic planning is not simply an academic exercise but is one that entails thinking through strategic analysis, options appraisal, goal setting, implementation and measurement, and getting real personal and business value out of the process at the same time. The first part of this workshop introduces the principles of strategy and develops an effective process for developing strategy at all levels in an organization. No matter how knowledgeable and competent its individual members may be, a dysfunctional team will undermine organizational goals, sap morale, and waste effort. The second part of this workshop focuses on the critical roles of team leader and middle manager in harnessing their team’s potential and introduces and practices techniques for moving the team to peak performance.

Objectives

By the end of this training course, participants will be able to:

• Develop an accurate self-awareness of yourself
• Practice self-management
• Have a positive influence on the emotions and motivation of others
• Develop cohesive, emotionally intelligent teams
• Create an atmosphere that fosters emotional intelligence
• Understand and apply the psychology of leadership
• To define and to demystify the concepts of “strategy” and “strategic planning”, but also to demystify the strategy process - as part of “Helicopter Thinking”
• To break the strategy process down step-by-step, providing a practical toolkit for managers for each key stage
• To illustrate it through some well-chosen and highly stimulating case studies - and to distil the lessons from this
• To apply it to your own area of management responsibility - through planning the analysis, option generation, choice, implementation, and measurement phases of strategy
• To put this within the overall context of your own organization and of the change and influencing process generally
• To give you a lot more confidence in managing your role strategically within your organization
• To understand your role as a manager and a leader
• To identify and leverage talent within the team
• To engage and motivate the team with shared vision and values
• To establish clear objectives and standards of performance for your team
• To manage and use conflict and challenge

Training Methodology

This is an interactive course. There will be open question and answer sessions, regular group exercises and activities, videos, case studies, and presentations on best practices. Participants will have the opportunity to share with the facilitator and other participants what works well and not so well for them, as well as work on issues from their own organizations. The online course is conducted online using MS-Teams/ClickMeeting.

Who Should Attend?

Professionals from any industry wish to complement both their understanding of the ‘bigger picture’ of their organization and its context and their ability to lead teams. This broad spectrum of perspectives makes the program particularly appropriate for functional specialists looking to move into wider management positions.

Course Outline

Day 1: Strategic Thinking and Analysis

• What is strategy/strategic planning?
• What are the main conceptual frameworks?
• External analysis - understanding and analyzing business attractiveness - ‘PEST’ factors, growth drivers, competitive forces, market dynamics
• Benchmarking your own strategic position/competitor analysis
• Mini-case on importance of external analysis

Day 2:  Internal Analysis and Fusion of Analyses into Strategic Options

• Overview of day one
• Internal analysis: financial and non-financial – the balanced scorecard concept
• Mini-case on importance of internal analysis
• The fusion of analyses into strategic choices - SWOT and the strategy matrix
• The framework of a strategy: avoiding 'paralysis by analysis'

Day 3: Scenarios and Strategic Innovation

• Review of the tools used so far
• Putting a strategic plan together – the 5-page framework
• Strategies for alliances and joint ventures Exercise on one’s own influencing skills
• First-phase work on the main case study

 Day 4: Global Strategy and the Management of Internal Communication

• The essence of globalization and global strategy
• How to build and manage a strategic planning team
• Communicating strategy through the organization
• Second-phase work on the main case study

Day 5: Strategic Implementation and Getting the Value Out of Strategy

• Final-phase work on the main case study and group presentations
• Effective execution - converting rigorous analysis and planning into action
• Strategic planning of your own career
• Summary of the corporate and individual value of strategic thinking