Applied Leadership Seminars helps CEOs transform their ability to lead themselves, their teams, and their organizations to a better future. Our goal is to provide customized training that not only introduces best practices in leadership, but also transforms how the CEO thinks, feels, and acts so that they become more capable of influencing organizational outcomes.

The structure of the training is two-staged.  The first stage involves four assessments that are done online:  Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Emotional Intelligence, SCARF, which is a motivation assessment, and the proprietary Leadership 360 Assessment. The Leadership 360 Assessment is a rigorous, 200-question survey completed by the CEO, board members, direct reports, and peers, and covers the CEO’s level of achievement on nine leadership competencies (see below). These competencies cover both organizational and personal leadership skills.

The second stage includes 12 one-on-one training sessions (minimum of an hour) over a six-month period. This duration is essential for the instructor-CEO relationship to evolve and to integrate the training into the CEO’s real-world challenges and opportunities. The results of the assessments are fed into the program and oriented to problem solving through discussion and feedback. The experience engages the CEO to address the question:  What is holding them back from achieving their fullest potential as a leader?  The instructor helps the CEO create a personalized action plan to close the “knowing/doing” gap by addressing concrete practices they will focus on after the training program is completed.

During the program, the CEO will also complete the Leadership Support Assessment. This is another proprietary tool that provides feedback to the CEO about their ability to build and support constructive relationships in a company (and in their lives overall).

The capstone of the training experience occurs during the final session when the CEO’s board directors are invited to participate. The CEO presents their action plan and seeks feedback and the support of the directors.

Training Content: Nine Leadership Competencies

Organizational Leadership

1. Set Direction. Setting direction for people and organizations is the highest priority for CEOs because it meets a basic human need to have purpose and to be on a journey. A direction becomes deliverable when risks are identified and managed, and objectives are realistic relative to the organization’s capacity.
2. Building the Team. CEOs are critical for maximizing the human capital of the organization. They recognize the importance of diversity in thoughts and perspectives. CEOs nurture high-performing teams into existence and enable psychological safety, a condition in which team members feel included, safe to contribute, and safe to challenge the status quo without fear of being embarrassed, marginalized or punished in some way.
3. Managing Performance. A well-designed performance management system will maximize the potential of an organization and minimize interferences that get in the way of delivery. Reward systems must align behaviors within an organization while nurturing an environment of support that enhances motivation. CEOs ensure that the behaviors that are desired are those rewarded. They establish goals and metrics, as well as the strategies for developing the vital performance monitoring relationships with employees.
4. Steward Structure. CEOs understand that structure must be carefully matched to the organization’s purpose and environment. Structure also creates the links among authority, responsibility, and accountability. Structure influences behavior and shapes an organization’s culture over time. CEOs use structure judiciously as an enabler of change.
5. Set Boundaries. CEOs create code-of-conduct policies and manage these proactively rather than in damage control when a crisis occurs. Employee welfare is paramount for CEOs, and the boundaries they set and enforce ensure this. It is a CEO’s job to get all employees into positions where they can continuously learn and this requires inclusion — the state where each employee feels valued, respected, and supported.

Personal Leadership

1. Nurture Behavior.  CEOs must manage their behavior — it is not a consequence of who they are — it is an input to what they can be. It demonstrates what they believe and value. The role of emotional intelligence is critically important because it drives the CEO’s ability to manage and control his or her emotions and to influence the behaviors of others as well.
2. Conversations. Everything that occurs in an organization happens as a result of conversations. Conversations within an organization turn it into a viable and living network of people, with the highest level of teamwork enabled by future-oriented conversations.
3. Provide Support. CEOs realize that their mental and emotional proximity to another person will impact that person’s development potential. Opportunities emerge for employees when CEOs nurture relationships with them. CEOs and their support are the agents of employee learning and development, which are the building blocks of organizational success.
4. Space to Deliver. CEOs shift their focus from the work of delivery onto the work of people. What CEOs do to achieve their own mastery; they must also use to nurture in the people around them. Their ongoing effort is on sustaining a viable future for the organization, interrogating reality, managing behavior, having productive conversations, monitoring performance, and providing support to people and the organization.