Self -awareness or self-clarity is an important attribute of effective leaders, and is the first step in an on-going leadership development process. The purpose of this workshop is to help participants identify their gifts and strengths, their limits and weaknesses. Participants will also put together a detailed development plan for how to best leverage their strengths and manage their weaknesses (the assumption being that it is sometimes better to manage around weaknesses rather than spend time and energy trying to improve them), and included in the development planning process will be a consideration of how participants can enhance their ability to learn from future experiences.

The purpose of this workshop will be accomplished through the use of feedback instruments (MBTI, FIRO-B, Benchmarks, for example), experiential exercises, individual reflection and analysis, and brief lectures. One-to-one consultation with participants regarding patterns and themes in their feedback would strengthen the program and is an option.

Target Audience: Mid to upper level managers and executives.

Workshop Length: The Leadership Assessment Experience requires a minimum of two days, and depending on the needs of participants, can be designed for as many as five.

This two-to-three day program has two interrelated emphases:

i. A review and application of Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) research of how individuals develop their leadership skills and perspectives over the course of their careers. The role of challenging job assignments, developmental relationships, hardships, and coursework, and other experiences will be presented discussed. Participants will complete an audit of the development experiences they have had; they will also complete and get feedback from the Job Challenge Profile and the Learning Tactics Inventory. Participants will develop a clear understanding of how they, and the people report to them, learn, grow and change.

ii. The role of the leader as a developmental coach. Participants will develop insights into the importance of providing assessment, challenge and support to those being coached, and they will develop the skills needed to effectively coach others. This part of the workshop will provide opportunities for skill practice and feedback.

Target Audience: The target audience for this workshop is managers and executives who have as part of their role and responsibility the development of other leaders and managers.

Workshop Length: Designed as a two-three day program.

Based on the seminal work of Parker Palmer, David Whyte and Peter Block, the premise of this workshop is that effective leadership comes from the identity and integrity of the individual. Beyond the “what” and “how” and “why” of leadership is the “who”; yet in most leadership development programs participants are not asked to reflect on how their self impacts their practice of leadership, for good and bad.

One purpose of this workshop is to invite participants recover a sense of true self or identity. The culture in which we live, the organizations for which we work, the people with whom we work, often encourage us to become caricatures of ourselves. In the language of May Sarton, we learn to wear “other people’s faces.” This purpose will be partially accomplished by engaging participants in a consideration of their birthright gifts and limits.

A second purpose of this workshop is to assist participants in developing the insights needed to work and lead out of a deep sense of integrity. For the purposes of this workshop, integrity is understood as wholeness. Three different aspects reclaiming wholeness will be explored:

• Moving from Collusion to Congruence. Speaking our truth without blame or judgment (Angeles Arrien) rather than hiding what we really think or feel is the operational definition of congruence. Emphasis will be placed on the intra-personal, interpersonal and organizational problems caused by collusion.

• Integrating All of Life’s Energies. We are mental, physical, emotional and spiritual people. We are whole people. We cannot fragment ourselves by bringing only part of ourselves to work. Our wellbeing and our sense of fulfillment requires that we use all of our energies in the accomplishment of our work and in our leadership activities.

• Embracing Our Light and Shadow. All individuals cast light and shadow; because of their place in the organizational hierarchy, leaders tend to cast more light and longer shadows. Yet leaders, in the very way they become leaders, tend to screen out any thought of shadow. Participants will be encouraged to take a journey in and down to acknowledge and begin the process of integrating their shadow.

In large groups, small groups, and solitary settings, these work and leadership issues are explored, making us of personal stories, reflections on work experience, insights from poets, and experiential activities as a way into reflection and discussion.

Target Audience: This experience is designed for up to twenty-four participants, and it is important that prospective participants be invited to this program, never sent or coerced into participation.

Workshop Length: Requires a minimum of three days. Ideally, the program would be held in four or five retreat-like sessions spread out over the course of a year.

The purpose of this workshop is to equip organizational leaders with the skills and perspectives needed to accomplish three essential leadership tasks: setting direction, maintaining alignment, and managing change. Experiential exercises, reflection on actual leadership experiences, lectures and class discussion will be used to develop needed insights and skills.

A secondary purpose of this workshop is to provide participants with optional ways for the leadership tasks to be accomplished - from a strong dominant individual leader to a shared or relational leadership model.

Target Audience: The practicing organizational leader, ideally one who has been in a leadership role for a minimum of three years.

Workshop Length: This program is designed for a two-day workshop, and it also can be modularized to fit within another program.