Introduction

This Action Centred Leadership course is designed to develop the leadership skills required by those who need to mobilise others to deliver exceptional results in their organisations and beyond.

That means it is designed to develop the leadership abilities needed to:

• build organisational visions, deliver transformational change, provide direction and inspire, motivate and support teams and individuals striving to deliver exceptional outcomes with an emphasis on purpose and values and ethical decision-making.

• support the growth of individuals to enable them to fully utilise their talents to achieve personal ambitions and aspirations with a focus on well-being and finding the right work/life balance,

• develop organisational capabilities to produce high quality products and deliver exceptional services to create extraordinary experiences for customers and other stakeholders through innovation and creativity.

• create a culture of continuous improvement where people feel empowered and take great pride in their work.

• connect people and facilitate teamwork where people respect each other and where positive relationships among and between diverse groups are critical to organisational success and personal wellbeing.

• create an environment where challenges are turned into value-enhancing opportunities for all stakeholder groups.

These are the critical challenges facing leaders today and as the pace of change in society continues to accelerate it means the challenges will become more complex and, therefore, demand more effective leadership to build a positive future for everyone.

The course is based on John Adair's Action Centred Leadership (ACL) which is widely used across the world in all sectors of commerce, industry, emergency services, hospitals, armed forces, government departments and charitable organisations. Over more than 50 years more than one million managers have been trained using ACL - and it's more popular today than it has ever been

Aims

The overall aim of this 4-day training programme is to give each participant the opportunity to understand the nature and practice of good leadership in such a way as to make them more effective as a leader, a colleague, and a team member. To achieve this, the course will aim to develop:

·  an awareness of the three areas of overlapping needs present in all working groups: the needs of the common Task, the needs of the Team and the needs of each Individual team member

·  an understanding of the leadership behaviours required to be an effective leader, the ability to recognise leadership behaviours when they are observed and the capability to determine what leadership behaviours are appropriate in any given situation.

·  an opportunity through engaging in leadership role play with assessment and feedback to develop insights into current skills designed to create a pathway to becoming a more effective leader.

·  a clear idea how new leadership skills may be applied in the workplace to improve team performance and deliver exceptional outcomes.

Objectives

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

·  Define leadership and contrast leadership and management.

·  Outline a range of leadership styles and describe own preferred style.

·  Describe the three areas of overlapping needs that are present in all working groups.

·  List the functions a leader is required to perform to address group needs, successfully.

·  Demonstrate an ability to determine the appropriate style required in any situation and to recognise leadership functions when they are being deployed.

·  Describe how gender, cultural heritage and birth generation impacts on behaviour and explain how this informs leadership style.

·  Explain how leadership skills can be applied in the workplace.

Methods

Presentations, case studies and desk-top exercises are used to help you understand the role of leaders in modern public and private organisations. In addition, you will have an opportunity to develop insights into a number of personal skills, preferences, styles and behaviours.

Duration: 4 days

Who it's for:

Everyone whose role requires him or her to take responsibility for delivering results for all an organisation’s stakeholders, through teams of people. This includes senior executives, middle managers, first line managers, team leaders, supervisors, superintendents, and functional managers, at all levels in all sectors.

Course Content

Day 1

Introductory session

· The programme for the day

· Personal introductions

· Access to course material

· Support and follow up

Session 1: Learning & Remembering

· Course objectives, content and method

· How to improve retention, the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

· Access to the course workbook

Session 2: Management v. Leadership

· Exercise: comparing and contrasting the roles and behaviours of managers and leaders

· Review of exercise

· Exercise: completing a task without a designated leader, the Playing Cards exercise

· Review of exercise

· How Leaders deal with failure

· Case study: comparing how airlines and healthcare systems deal with failure

· Leadership and management, the critical differences

Session 3: Emotional Intelligence

· Accounting for the differences between managers and leaders

· The theory of multiple intelligence

· Defining emotional intelligence and emotional intelligence competencies

· Exercise: improving your ability to describe your emotions – Plutchiks Emotions Diagram

· Review of exercise

Session 4: Body Language and Communications

· Exercise: improving your ability to understand the emotions of others through non-verbal communications

· Review of exercise

· The impact of tone of voice in the communications process

· Exercise: assessing and analysing your own emotional intelligence

· Review of exercise

Day 2

Session 5: the Business Case for Investing in Leadership Development

· Exercise: identifying the expected results to be achieved from better leadership

· Review of exercise

· What managers need to do differently to become effective leaders

· Exercise: leadership practise, the Jigsaw Puzzle exercise

· Review of exercise.

Session 6: Action Centred Leadership (ACL)

· Exploring why we need leadership, the focus on tasks, teams, and individuals.

· Selection and training of leaders before Action Centred Leadership, the nature or nurture question

· The origins and development of ACL

· The structure of the ACL Model, the Borromean Rings, and the relationship of the three leadership focuses.

· Exercise: constructing the Borromean Rings

· Review of exercise

· Leadership functions and the leadership process

· The Traits approach to Leadership selection and training

· Other factors that may impact on your ability to lead

· Exercise: creating you own traits profile

· Review of exercise

· Conclusion: are leaders born or made?

Session 7: Leadership Focus: The Team

· Leadership styles and the need to match style with situation.

· Assessments of leadership style: what is your natural style?

· Exercise: what is your preferred Leadership Style? The Leadership Style Inventory

· Review of exercise.

· Tuckman’s Team Development model and how that helps determine an appropriate leadership style.

· Exercise: the Team Maturity Inventory

· Review of exercise

· Theory ‘X’ management and Theory ‘Y’ management and self-fulfilling prophecies

Session 8: Working in Teams

· Concern for teams and group dynamics

· Exercise: working in large groups, the Solve the Murder exercise

· Review of exercise

· Constructing an effective team

· Exercise: what role do you typically play in a team? Belbin team roles

· Review of exercise

· Exercise: the NASA Moon Landing Exercise

· Review of exercise

· The importance of consensus building

· The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, the Lencioni Model

· Exercise: addressing the 5 Dysfunctions

· Review of exercise

· The importance of developing the right culture

· How people communicate in an organisation offers an insight into prevailing culture

· Leading culture change – the role of the transformational leader

Session 9: Why Else do People Form Teams or Join Groups?

· Exercise: how open are you? The Johari Window

· Review of exercise

· How to reduce your blind spots – the role of feedback

· When, where and how to deliver feedback

· Exercise: Wordbuild

· Review of exercise

· How to reduce your façade

· Exercise: using Aron’s 36 Questions to reduce façade

· Review of exercise.

Day 3

Session 10: Focus: Individual Development – Leadership and Diversity

· Identifying the scope of diversity at work

· Diversity of cultural heritage and the values of generation cohorts

· Selecting a leadership style based on the situation and the diversity variables of readiness, birth generation, gender, and cultural heritage.

· Exercise: using Avatars to explore how to select your leadership style

· Review of exercise

· Exercise: leadership of maturing teams and diversity

· Review of exercise

Session 11: Focus: Individual Development – Motivation

· The need for encouragement, the wisdom of geese

· Exercise: motivation function, how the response of a person with a management mindset differs to that of a person with a leadership mindset

· Review of exercise

· Exercise: defining ‘motivation at work’

· Review of exercise

· The theories of thought leaders of the 20th Century

· Defining ‘motivation.’

· Considering some approaches to improving motivation.

Day 4

Session 12: Focus: Individual Development – Some Myths about Motivation

· What are the barriers to motivating individuals?

· The critical difference between motivation and demotivation

· The power of money: what is the impact of remuneration policies on the motivation of people?

· Remuneration policies that do not have the potential to demotivate.

Session 13: Leadership and Motivation

· Using alternative approaches to create high-performing teams.

· Turning motivational theory into practical leadership actions

· How leaders motivate individuals

· Designing jobs that are inherently motivating.

· How organisations provide a motivating environment – the Job Characteristics Model

· Exercise: the Tower Exercise

· Review of exercise

Session 14: Modelling the Way

· Setting an example – living your values and vision

· Leading Self – demonstrating best practice and role model behaviour.

· Walking the Talk but having a Talk to Walk

· Exercise: how you plan to set an example?

· Review of exercise.

Session 15: Action Planning & Follow-up

· Transferring learning to the workplace

· Your message to your team following the course

· Sources of further information

· The final message – the Power of Geese.

End of Course