Topic: What’s hiding in your closet? How to uncover your organization’s dysfunctions

Suitable Audience:
Managers and employees at any level

Session Description:
Few, if any, organizations have got it “right.” Whether it’s an unsustainable pace of work, disengaged employees, disconnects between those at the top and those doing the work, or simply a lack of alignment and passion for the business, most organizations are failing to tap into unrealized potential amongst their employees and unfulfilled opportunities within the marketplace.

Yet we know what makes for an effective organization ─ and how to create one. It requires surfacing and addressing those things that aren’t working. It requires brutal honesty, unfiltered conversations and a passion for improvement. Simply put, organizational dysfunctions (and yes every organization has them) must be forced out of the closet, exposed in the public domain and fixed.

As radical as this my seen, it is possible to do. And everyone has a hand in this, be they a front-line worker or top level executive. In this lively, provocative and engaging presentation, Rosie will show you how. Not afraid to talk about organizational unspeakables, she will engage the audience in an entertaining hunt for dysfunctionality and outline what everyone, regardless of their position in the organizational hierarchy, can do to create a healthy, sustainable, productive and profitable organization.

Learning Objectives:

• To empower audience members to create healthier organizations
• To give participants specific tools to surface and address organizational dysfunctions
• To help participants gain a fresh perspective on what’s working and what isn’t within their own organization - and what their responsibilities are in addressing them

Outcome:
At the end of this session, participants will be energized and invigorated. They will be excited about the opportunities they have to address some things within their organization that may well have been bothering them for some time.

Delivery Options:
This talk can readily be adapted for an in-house session. In this case options could include the following:

• Interviews with key personal to obtain anecdotal data
• Leadership assessment for key personal
• Confidential employee survey to identify possible organizational dysfunctions

Topic: “They just don’t get it” How to ensure your executives are on board, without risking your own job.

Suitable Audience:
HR Professionals

Session Description:
Employee engagement is driven more by the quality of senior leadership than any other factor. Highly engaged organizations are characterized by employees who believe that those at the top truly care about them. Conversely, when senior leaders are seen as out-of-touch, distant, and more concerned about shareholders than employees, disengagement is rampant.

Although this is common knowledge, it typically presents a dilemma for those in HR, training or development. With diverse relationships in every part of the organization, it is those in HR who most frequently hear employees’ concerns or frustrations regarding the leadership of those at the top. But while they can see the problem, the solution is not always clear. With neither organizational power nor executive interest, those in HR may feel powerless to address the organizational elephant of senior leadership behavior. The situation is compounded when these HR experts are charged with implementing a leadership development program designed to increase engagement or change culture.

With her 35 years of experience in organizations, Rosie has seen this scenario play out many times. She understands the dilemmas HR professionals face while at the same time is intimately familiar with life in the C-suite. In this thought-provoking and informative presentation, Rosie will outline tried and tested strategies for those who, while not at the top themselves, nevertheless see the problems that ineffective executive leadership creates. She will present a wide range of realistic and practical strategies that those in HR can use to inform, challenge and develop those at the top, and in so doing, ensure success for leadership development initiatives and engagement strategies.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn what to do if your executives “just don’t get it”
• Understand how to create an engaged organization through effective executive leadership
• Know how to ensure that executive development is given a high priority and is relevant, effective and realistic
• Learn strategies to address executive leaders who are disconnected from employees and/or cannot find the time to meet their employees needs

Outcome:
At the end of this session, participants will feel empowered to confidently and realistically engage their senior leaders as true partners in the development of an effective organization. Armed with a host of realistic strategies, they will have a clear sense of how to safely and respectfully connect those at the top with the needs of all employees.

Delivery Options:
This presentation is suitable for either a keynote or workshop.

Topic: Executive Leadership: Getting it right at the top

Suitable Audience:
Senior leaders

Session Description:
Those at the top have a profound impact on the success of their organization. Effective and relevant executive leadership directly translates into an engaged, sustainable and profitable organization. Conversely, executive leadership that is out-of-touch, externally focused, and embedded in paradigms of days gone by, leads to employee disengagement, poor morale and ultimately a lack of organizational competitiveness.

Unfortunately, all too often executive leadership is marked by good intent but ineffective practice. Compounded by consultants unwilling to bite the hand that feeds them, and employees unwilling to take the risk of challenging up, dysfunctional executive leadership has become many an organization’s dirty little secret. Employees know it, but executives are oblivious.

It needn’t be this way. In this thought-provoking and bold presentation, Rosie will identify ways in which senior executives and managers can respond to the challenges of today and shed the vestiges of days gone by. Not afraid to state the hard truths regarding employee’s view of their executives, Rosie will present data that may surprise and shock many a senior leader. She will outline proven strategies that executives can use to learn what employees really think of those at the top. Exploring how this impacts organizational effectiveness, Rosie will show executives how to gain a competitive advantage by developing their own leadership in ways they have not previously done. She will present realistic and proven strategies to help today’s executives manage their host of conflicting priorities and lead in ways that meet the needs of their employees in today’s complex and challenging environment.

Learning Objectives:
Participants will learn

• How to create an engaged organization through effective executive leadership
• How to ensure that executive development is given a high priority and is relevant, effective and realistic
• How to develop a collaborative and effective senior leadership team
• How to overcome systemic and traditional barriers to effective executive leadership

Outcome:
At the end of this session, participants will have a fresh perspective on their leadership and be eager to implement some different strategies to ensure they continue to develop their leadership. While acknowledging the challenges of leading at the top, they will have a renewed energy to develop their own leadership and that of their executive team.

Delivery Options:
This talk can readily be adapted for an in-house session. In this case, options could include the following:

• Leadership assessment for all senior leaders
• Top team assessment
• One-on-one interviews with all senior executives
• Confidential employee survey and/or to solicit employee’s candid views on senior executive’s leadership
• Benchmarking assessment of senior leadership performance

Topic: Do you have what it takes? A new approach to understanding your leadership

Suitable Audience:
Leaders at any level

Session Description:
We have known for some time that children pass through distinct stages of development on their journey to adulthood. As part of this evolving process they develop abilities that fundamentally expand their understanding of the world around them. However, this developmental process does not stop as we reach adulthood. Continuing throughout adult life, many individuals also experience a series of overlapping yet distinctly identifiable stages of development. These stages, known as “Action Logics,” inform our thinking and action on an everyday basis.

This has a profound impact when it comes to leadership. Leaders’ actions are the result of how they personally interpret their surroundings and react, particularly when their power or safety is challenged. This interpretation impacts where leaders place their attention, their underlying assumptions, what inferences they draw and, most critically, the actions that they take. In other words, leaders’ behaviors are directly driven by their stage of “Action Logic.”

The complexity and challenge of leading in today’s turbulent environment demands that leaders interpret their world from a later stage of Action Logic in which conflicting viewpoints can be fully integrated. Indeed, studies suggest that organizational transformation is simply not possible unless senior leaders and/or their advisors are at what is known as a “post-conventional” stage of Action Logic. Disturbingly, research suggests that only 10% of leaders are at this stage. Given this, it is hardly surprising that organizational transformation efforts fail and we hear much talk of a “crisis in leadership.”

In this informative and challenging presentation Rosie introduces the Action Logic framework. She will challenge participants to reflect on their own stage of Action Logic and consider how this may inherently impede their own leadership performance and that of their colleagues. With a multitude of examples, Rosie will present the theoretical basis for this model and show participants how to use it to transform the leadership in their organization ─ and in so doing create the conditions for successful organizational transformation.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how the stage of Action Logic inherently limits or impedes leadership abilities
• Recognize how the dominant Action Logics within an organization impact organizational culture and success
• Learn ways to develop one’s leadership capacity through action inquiry and development of later Action Logics
• Know how to determine one’s personal stage of Action Logic

Outcome:
At the end of this session, participants will be energized by the acquisition of a refreshingly different way to understand leadership behavior. They will be excited to use this new knowledge to adopt some different techniques to understand and develop the leadership of both themselves and their colleagues.

Delivery Options:
This presentation is suitable for either a keynote or workshop and can easily be adapted for an in-house session. Options include:

• A simplified leadership assessment to offer a preliminary view on the possible stage of Action Logic (suitable for large audience)
• A full Leadership Development Profile to properly assess the stage of Action Logic for each participant
• Presentation of collective reports to determine dominant organizational Action Logics
• A one-on-one debrief for all participants to discuss their personal Action Logics