High Impact Leadership and Strategic Management 5-day Program

The Convergence of Leadership, Communication, Critical & Strategic Thinking

Introduction:

By completing this highly interactive and challenging program, managers and leaders will gain insights into the complex subject of ‘strategy’. The link between effective leadership and organizational strategy is crucial. Failing to plan results in confusion and poor decision-making. Before planning, leaders must determine the outcomes they seek and share their vision across the organization, to maximize commitment to action. Only by galvanizing the workforce, being clear about the aims, and making the best use of resources can organizations beat the competition and achieve their objectives.

The program offers delegates the opportunity to develop their leadership skills, gain expertise in strategy, and learn to communicate more effectively with their team. By enhancing their skills, leaders and emergent leaders will be able to achieve significantly improved outcomes for themselves and their organization.

This program will cover:

• The importance of strategic thinking to deliver business success
• The need for a systematic approach to strategy formulation & implementation
• The use of appropriate measurement tools to track performance and inform future strategy
• Communicating effectively throughout the organization to maximize performance

Key leadership competencies for the 21st Century: Strategic and Agile thinking

Objectives:

By the end of the program delegates will have learned to:

• Recognize the impact of leaders on strategy and of strategy on leaders
• Develop strategies and plans utilizing strategic and analytical tools
• Understand the importance of innovation in the strategy process
• Influence others and communicate more effectively as a leader
• Select measurements to track, inform and support decision-making

Impact:

Organizational Impact:

Your organization will benefit from managers and supervisors who return with a knowledge of how to communicate, motivate and inspire teams towards the organization’s strategy and achieve maximum success. They will be able to:

• Build productive teams to achieve growth, continuous improvement, and implementation of change through the application of strategic and critical thinking skills.
• Work more efficiently and effectively when setting and planning goals that have relevance to the Value Drivers (KPI’s) of the organization

Methodology:

This program will utilize a variety of proven adult learning techniques to ensure maximum understanding, comprehension and retention of the information presented. This includes the use of presentations, discussions, group work, videos and exercises guided by the tutor who will facilitate the learning process. Pre and post-test assessments will be carried out to measure the learning and understanding  benefits resulting from the program.

Who Will Benefit from this Program:

The program is beneficial to a wide range of professionals, but will particularly benefit:

• Senior Managers
• Heads of Department/Project Leads
• Professionals wanting to gain, or improve, leadership capabilities
• Professionals who need strategic thinking skills
• Professionals wanting a refresher in leadership and strategy
• Professionals with aspirations to become senior leaders

Course Content:

Day 1

Strategic Challenges Faced by Leaders

• Strategy development and strategic planning
• Understanding stakeholder interests – achieving consensus
• Using popular strategy tools and understanding their limits
• Life cycles: Business, Product, Market
• Understanding the business environment
• Achieving business sustainability – the value chain

Day 2

New Approaches to Strategy Development

• Understanding that strategizing is a process
• Strategy Tools – imagining possible futures
• How different CEO’s apply analytical tools
• Zooming in and zooming out – valuing the concept of enough detail, but not too much
• Innovation: red & blue oceans
• Innovation: dealing with success and failure

Day 3

Strategic Leaders: Influence and Communication

• Vision, Mission and Values – just words?
• Culture, Power, Influence
• Communicating with 3rd parties
• Communicating internally
• Influencing, persuading and negotiating
• Virtual communications

 Day 4

What you Measure is What you Get

• The Balanced Scorecard
• Strategy maps
• Priorities and critical success
• How measurements impact actions
• Extrapolating and forecasting
• Turning measurement results into information

Day 5

Personal Challenge – Plan to Act

• Adair’s Action Centered Leadership
• Motivating individuals, teams & organizations
• Different levels of engagement
• How can team leadership differ – different leadership options
• Team exercise
• Personal action planning