Leadership Development
Leading in a world with continuously mounting pressure to achieve results while creating a positive employee experience and building a culture of engagement, inclusion and collaboration is not easy.
While the pandemic has added even more complexity to the leadership role, the fundamental leadership principles have not changed. It’s about being the bridge between employees and the organisation, building relationships, holding people accountable and creating a culture where all eployees feel they can thrive, while being inspired to put in discretionary effort.
Our practical and inspirational leadership development offering is focused on this heart of leadership, developing the desire and skills to bring out the best in others and mobilize them to excel.
LEADConnect
Remote working presents an opportunity to reimagine how teams’ work and how people are led.
LEADConnect, Free To Grow’s powerful new learning journey focuses on the 6 C’s that are most critical to effectively leading in the remote / hybrid work environment.
Learning is structured as a series of microlearning bites – short bursts of high impact learning of 1,5 hours each. Each bite is focused on a specific topic, providing a deep dive into one piece of the hybrid leadership puzzle. Together, the bites provide a well-structured, innovative, and practical learning journey that leaders can tackle one step at a time.
The 10 microlearning bites are complemented by a Toolkit with practical tools to facilitate conversations and engagement. Optional small group or individual online coaching further bolsters the learning.
The Content: A series of 10 sessions
- The challenges and opportunities of leading remotely: Tweak how you engage with team members to make a mig difference to their experience of working remotely
- Be intentional about engagement: Make the 4 engagement connections central to every interaction with team members and align them to the organisation’s “bigger picture”
- Set your team up for success: Understand and meet our team’s physical needs (tools and resources) and emotional needs (enable clarity through a team agreement and manage boundaries)
- Make virtual team meetings engaging and productive: Ensure high TOUCH (apply 10 tools to strengthen connection and engagement) and high TECH (optimise virtual tools)
- Ensure virtual ‘one on one’s’ are impactful: Focus on ‘checkin-in’ rather than ‘checking-up’. Provide recognition and meaningful performance feedback. Utilise a menu of templates for a variety of 1:1’s.
- Support your team’s wellbeing: Use the wellbeing continuum: Identify signs of burnout and stress amongst team members. Develop the mindset and skills needed for wellbeing conversations.
- Cultivate a climate of psychological safety where all team members feel safe to participate, question and challenge: Using the ‘speaking-up’ ladder, develop steps to encourage your team to move upwards.
- Strengthen trust and accountability virtually: Build leaderhsip trust by applying the 4C’s of trust to the remote environment and create accountability through ART (Action, Repiition, Trust).
- Build and maintain team cohesion and a sense of belonging: Utilise appropriate virtual team-building activitiesand optimise celebrations, rituals and fun to keep connected.
- From knowledge to action: reflect, review and realign: Use virtual skills and tools that worked well more frequently and address any remaining barriers to application and success.
Target group: Leaders of leaders and leaders of teams
Engaging Leadership
Research abounds that proves that organisations that are successful in driving higher levels of employee engagement generate better results. This is evident through:
The drivers of increased engagement:
1. Respect
Leaders who treat members of their team with dignity and respect.
2. Empowerment
Leaders who are willing to listen to other’s opinions, and empower rather than control or restrict the people on their team.
3. Clarity
Leaders who provide a strong strategic narrative about where the organisation is heading.
4. Values
Leaders who build trust by aligning daily behaviour with organisational values.
These drivers of employee engagement correspond directly with the behaviour of managers.
Because most managers have been promoted because of their technical skills, many feel that they lack the skills and ools to fulfill this role effectively. Engaging Leadership has been designed to address this gap.
The modules
1. Employee Engagement
What it is, why it’s needed now more than ever before, the strength of the drivers in your environment and the role of your leaders in turning pirates and passengers into paddlers.
2. Credibility
Setting the example by aligning your actions with the organisations values and applying the 6C’s of Credibility.
3. Connection
Creating connected, inclusive, engaging and fun environment.
4. Contribution
Using a strength’s based approach, taking developmental feedback to a new level, mastering appreciation, recognition and personal praise.
5. Communication
Applying the 4I engaging communication model, practising the art of conversation, pros and cons of different communication channels (and when to use what) and participation tools to enhance participation in your team meetings.
Target group: Leaders of leaders and leaders of teams
Coach 2 Excel
A cutting edge programme that is designed to equip managers with the tools and techniques required to fulfill the role of coach effectively. It brings together carefully selected nuggets from the fields of neuroscience and coaching and carries Free To Grow’s signature strength of creative programme design that makes learning stick.
Outcomes
- A commitment to the development of the potential of all staff.
- Awareness of everyday formal and informal opportunities in which to use coaching as a tool to develop skills and improve performance.
- Increased skills to relate to and build a positive relationship with diverse staff.
- Greater commitment to using existing performance measurement instruments fully as a development tool.
- Improved listening and feedback skills.
Target Group: Leaders of leaders and leaders of others
Score!
A comprehensive, blended learning journey for supervisors. As the vital link between management goals and execution, first-line leaders need the knowledge and skills to align their team’s efforts with the organisation’s goals and values and create a work environment in which employees are committed, feel pride and take ownership. It is no wonder that many first-line leaders underperform and fall short of realising their leadership potential.
First-line leadership training is a valuable tool to help people master the basics of management. SCORE! takes the development of first-line leaders a few steps further by also focusing on the internal and value shifts required to achieve results through others.
Outcomes
- Understanding their roles in maximising their team and the organisation’s performance
- Increased self-awareness and a growth in confidence
- Enhanced ownership, optimism and resilience
- Ability to run structured and effective team meetings
- Skills to build productive working relationships through increased respect, understanding, trust and appreciation
- Knowledge and skills to communicate more effectively
- Understanding assertiveness and how to apply the DISK recipe in various situations
- Understanding employee engagement
- Learning how to inspire your team and bring meaning to their work
- Knowledge and skills to observe, assess and coach your team to fulfil their potential.
Target group: Supervisors
EmpowHER
Women have as much potential as men. However, high-potential women commonly progress into first-line leadership positions in most organisations before getting ‘stuck’ there. This results in a lack of gender diversity at senior leadership and decision-making levels. The accelerated development of women, therefore, becomes critical for organisations that realise the untapped potential of half their workforce and want to challenge the status quo.
A step-by-step journey that translates potential into performance by building the mindsets and skillsets of women in first-line leader roles and those identified as future leaders. An important and unique part of the EmpowHER journey is the active involvement and development of their direct leaders through a different, parallel growth journey.
Outcomes
- Understanding your self-awareness and self-esteem and their importance in their growth and development
- Taking ownership of life, work and career
- Staying positive and motivated through the tough times
- Identifying career goals and action plans to achieve them
- Learning to overcome obstacles
- Gaining clarity on personal purpose and values
- Shaping a personal brand
- Spotlighting your strengths
- Understanding the difference between assertive, aggressive and submissive behaviour
- Mastering the skills and tools of assertiveness.
