Senior Executive Leadership Program

The program kick-off and orientation will set the stage for the entire program. This is an opportunity for the Executive Leadership Team to identify the organizational goals of the program and reiterate their commitment to learning and professional development. It’s also an opportunity for participants to get to know one another, identify their personal goals for the program, and commit to assisting their colleagues in achieving success. In addition to these overarching goals, the session will:

• Provide a program overview
• Connect participants to executive coaches
• Introduce the 360 assessment and how to maximize its use
• Begin the creation of leadership development plans

The workshop portion will focus on “practical ethics.” In our society, we’ve conflated ethics with laws, policies and regulation to a simple understanding of right versus wrong. A long recitation of “do’s and don’ts” isn’t ethics, it is rules, policy, and law. Ethics is much more than that; ethics is about making decisions and building relationships. Following a list of rules doesn’t help in either case.
While an ethical person certainly would choose the right thing when presented with a choice between right and wrong, what leaders really need is the ability to choose between two rights. That’s the higher level of ethics and that is what we particularly need senior members of organizations to be able to do.

Ethics and character are the foundation of effective leadership. That foundation is demonstrated through action and, in particular, decision making. Leaders make tough decisions every day. The toughest decisions are those that put deeply held values in conflict. This is especially true in the Federal government where leaders are constantly balancing multiple agendas, rights of future generations, agency policy, and the interests of numerous stakeholders. The “right thing to do” for these decision makers is further compounded when the right thing to do collides with the political thing to do.

Federal government decision and policy makers are faced with these complex decisions on a daily basis. This workshop provides the foundation for ethical leadership and courageous decision making. Even more important, it gives leaders a foundation to stand on in tough times. In a world of unremitting change, leaders must display unremitting character, integrity, and courageousness when faced with their toughest decisions.

Senior executives are always on stage; they are continually evaluated, judged, critiqued and appraised for their ability to effectively convey the message of their organization. Their stage may be Capitol Hill in front of a congressional committee or it may be in front of a small group of employees who are asking what’s in store for the Department in the upcoming year. At all times, they need to convey confidence, poise, and professionalism when engaging audiences in order to put their organization (and themselves) in the best possible light. An ability to communicate ideas persuasively is at the heart of effective leadership, and never more so than for senior executives. Yet this skill set is often neglected or taken for granted.

The ability to represent themselves and their organization in the best possible light is a strong attribute of effective leaders. Leaders must be able to “sell” their organization to stakeholders and customers in order to ensure they receive the resources they need to achieve their mission. Further, leaders must be able to connect with bosses, peers, and subordinates in both formal and informal settings. This ability to “connect” often spells the difference between effective communications and wasted time.

Participants will make four recorded presentations (of increasing complexity) in front of the cohort then receive one-on-one feedback from a professional coach. The ability to see oneself as a presenter, and understand the positive impact of strong presentation skills, reinforces the importance of establishing and maintaining a strong connection when communicating. The greatest idea in the world will go unheard without the ability to connect, influence, inspire and persuade. These traits are at the heart of effective senior executive leadership.

Throughout their time in Federal service, from employee to supervisor, to senior leader and executive, these senior executives have learned to manage conflict and use it as a springboard to more effective decision making and problem solving. Resolving conflict in a way that helps people find common ground and mutual understanding is a critical leadership skill, particularly for senior executives. Finding a resolution that satisfies conflicting priorities can stimulate new approaches to old problems. Innovation is often a by-product of well-managed conflict. In addition, successful conflict management approaches can minimize risk by gathering multiple perspectives and enhance understanding and collaboration throughout the organization.

This workshop will build on the conflict and negotiations skills these senior leaders have developed over their career and take it to the next level: how to build effective coalitions. The 21st century requires real collaboration and teamwork as well as a bringing together of all the knowledge, issues, possible solutions, and the needs and funding of multiple, well-informed stakeholders. Senior executives need to build coalitions, both within their organizations and with other governmental as well as private stakeholders.

Coalition building is needed when one organization recognizes it alone does not have the resources or people power to have a real impact on an issue. Coalitions assist in setting priorities for action, helping to identify specific data and informational needs from other groups and agencies, sharing resources and expertise, and broadening the development of new audiences.

There are many ways to develop others: have them attend training; mentor them; provide new opportunities; etc. Senior executives are familiar with and have employed these elements to help their subordinates be successful. This workshop will provide a new set of skills for developing others. Senior leaders have a responsibility to help their subordinates develop their critical thinking abilities. They have a responsibility to create strong decision-makers who are able to learn and grow. The best way to provide this development is through coaching.

Executives in this program have coaches assigned to them. This workshop will build on that experience and provide participants the ability to coach those who work for them. Coaching engages employees’ own unique knowledge and experiences to help them figure out how to solve problems. Coaching utilizes objectivity, curiosity and powerful questions to engage employees and this workshop provides senior executives the ability to assume this important role. The questions serve as catalysts to unlock employees own experiences, training, and background and apply them to wise decision-making and an appropriate course of action. Coaching also trains an employee to more effectively receive and utilize constructive feedback.

Through a coaching conversation, employees identify the steps to take to achieve a specific goal or course correction, and a timeframe in which to take those steps. This workshop will help participants learn how to walk through this accountability process and use it as an additional learning and communication tool.

Participants will gain powerful new communication tools that create stronger, more confident employees with initiative, creativity and enhanced decision-making skills. Leaders who coach rather than direct, experience more significant returns on their investment in employee development. They also enjoy a significant increase in their own satisfaction with their management role.

Develop a coaching mindset not only helps senior leaders develop others more effectively, it enhances their own leadership skills as well.

In these turbulent budgetary times, the need for a strategic perspective grows increasingly important. While these can be seen as difficult, even dangerous, times for government agencies the future is also full of opportunities. Strategic thinkers give these opportunities life and capitalize on them. In today’s rapidly changing environment, leaders need broad perspective, vision, and an intrinsic awareness of the trends and developments shaping their work.

This workshop will provide leaders with a set of tools that will facilitate a shift from the tactical, day-to- day and short-term to the strategic, visionary, anticipatory and long-term through the use of scenario planning. At the same time, it will serve to reinforce the importance of those day to day, short-term focused activities that actually move the organization forward. Strategic thinking is only effective to the extent that it leads to action.

The rapid pace of change has made it increasingly difficult to predict the future, especially beyond the next few years. Leaders, however, still need to make decisions for their organizations which have long-term implications. Traditional strategic planning focuses on identifying and describing one most probable or likely future and then developing a strategy which will allow the organization to succeed in that future. The effort usually entails a review of external forces and some detailed modeling of price, cost, and other variables. Unfortunately, in the current rapidly changing environment, many organizations have seen the fundamental underpinnings of their assumptions collapse while they waited for their most probable future to emerge.

The scenario planning process systematically explores the uncertainty inherent in looking at the longterm future. The process involves developing a set of alternative descriptions of the future which differ from each other in fundamental ways via differences in technology, consumer expectations, or other factors. The goal of developing these multiple scenarios is not to improve the odds of correctly predicting the future, but rather to allow managers to fully understand the driving forces affecting the future. By understanding and recognizing these driving forces, the ability of managers to plan for alternative operating environments and to react to change is enhanced.

The emphasis for this workshop is to increase awareness of the importance of strategic thinking and provide the necessary background and skills to effectively put that thinking to work to form plans in advance of change and bring the organization along as changes occur.

These skills need to be overlain with a sense of political savvy that enables success and helps leaders hold themselves and their organizations accountable for results. Accomplishing the goals and objectives of any organization requires more than just smart people who work hard. It requires the political savvy to know how to forge alliances and avoid animosities in order to be effective. This workshop presents participants with a radical challenge—to understand all the unspoken things which can quickly derail their efforts and agendas as well as their careers. Participants learn to become a master of organizational politics while remaining positive, affirming of themselves and others, and being wholly devoted to making them, their fellow leaders, and their organization more effective and accountable.