​How can one be a "powerful leader,"

and yet lead with “power”

that isn’t about pushing or pulling,

manipulating or coercing?

Leading through trust requires different skill sets and mindsets than leading through fear. Rewards and punishment are no longer the chosen tools in the toolkit. 

What's challenging is not the new concepts, but breaking through the cultural conditioning that we have all experienced and transforming the fear-based behaviors that still live in us. These can be measured as "personal entropy": the amount of fear-driven energy that a person expresses in his or her day-to-day interactions with other people.

The good news is that even the smallest of steps forward can have a large impact on the quality of your leadership.

Overview of Workshops

FOUNDATIONS

Introduction to Conscious Leadership
six 75-min sessions
A high-level view of what Conscious Leadership is, the shift in mindset that is essential, and what it takes to change culture to create a Conscious Organization
  • Conscious Leadership - What it is and Why it Matters
  • Conscious Leaders Create a Culture Where People Matter
  • Moving Beyond Rewards & Punishment: ​Igniting Intrinsic Motivation and Alignment
  • How am I Showing Up as a Leader?: An Introduction to Needs-Based Communication
  • Measuring Conscious Leadership and Organizational Culture
  • The Development Journey: A Path to Become a More Conscious Leader


Introduction to Needs-Based Communication (NVC): Communication grounded in self-awareness and self-responsibility, not blame
one 75-min session
Prerequisite for "Needs-Based Communication Core Concepts" if you did not participate in the "Introduction to Conscious Leadership" workshop (see above).


Needs-Based Communication (NVC) Core Concepts: 
Enhancing Self-Awareness & Self-Responsibility 
six 75-min sessions
Learning Needs-Based Communication (NVC) develops essential skills and mindsets for the Conscious Leader.
  • Own Your Own Reactions: Observations
  • Own Your Own Feelings: Self-connection
  • Own Your Own Needs: Authentic Expression
  • Invite Others to Own Their Own Reactions, Feelings & Needs: Empathic Listening
  • Own Your Own Choices: Self-Empowerment and Autonomy
  • Self-Responsibility: Being Accountable for Myself

​
Hear Me ... See Me: 
Valuing the People in your workplace ... and in your life
three 75-min sessions
The pragmatic application of Needs-Based Communication skills into the brief moments of interactions that a leader has with staff or colleagues so that they experience a fullness of being valued. 
  • Attention & Presence: The most precious of human resources ​
  • "Hear Me": The foundation of being valued​
  • "See Me": Redefining the need of recognition​


APPLICATIONS

Conscious Accountability:
Effective feedback & accountability without blame
six 75-min sessions
Move beyond blame and punishment to learn the skills and mindsets to activate conscious accountability. Support the Conscious Leader to dynamically ensure that each person on the team fulfills their role in alignment with the shared purpose, the core values, and other guiding principles.
  • Giving Conscious Feedback: Moving beyond praise & criticism
  • ​Receiving Conscious Feedback: Learning vs. "mistakes"
  • Mutual Accountability:  ​"Calling in" to alignment rather than "calling out"
  • Conscious Agreements: Staying in integrity around our agreements
  • 100% Responsibility, Not More, Not Less: Taking full responsibility for my behaviors, but not for others
  • Conscious Terminations: Honoring the humanness of everyone when employment relationships are ended


Conscious Conversations:
Embracing Uncomfortable Conversations
six 75-min sessions
Enhancing the Conscious Leader's skills to engage in connecting conversations even when emotions are rising, the stakes are high, and reactivity is abundant.
  • Move to Presence Before Action: Transform our own reactiveness
  • Shift out of the Drama Triangle: Recognize — and transcend — patterns of reactivity in the workplace
  • Engage in Uncomfortable Conversations: What to do when you engage in challenging situations and strong emotions arise
  • Harvest the Gifts of Conflict: Focus on what matters amidst the chaos
  • Celebrations, Generosity & Gratitude: The fuel of conscious organizations
  • Define and Claim Personal & Professional Boundaries: Communicate clarity that supports our work and our dignity


Building Conscious Teams:
Structures & processes that create an effective team 
six 75-min sessions
The primary goal of every Conscious Leader is to build a Conscious Team that is cohesive and effective. Ensuring your team has the direction, the structures and the supervision to succeed.
  • Ignite Intrinsic Motivation: Develop the core structures that inspire engagement and are the basis of accountability
  • Build Cohesion: Give your team voice to own the present and co-create the desired future
  • Conscious Roles: Encourage autonomy aligned with clear expectations and accountability
  • Conscious Supervision: Presence, Seeing, Listening, Coaching, Support
  • Conscious Communication: Create the structures to facilitate communication, collaboration & connection
  • The People on the Team: The proactive, on-going process of developing and sustaining an effective and cohesive team


Special Topics ​
​* for those workshops without a link to a detailed description, contact us for more information

Training Framework

​Our intention in facilitating these workshops is to support you in having an impact on how you are showing up in the workplace. We have found that the likelihood of impact is much higher when the participant (a) prepares for the session beforehand, (b) applies the learnings from the session afterward, and (c) has an opportunity for feedback and mutual accountability:

PREPARE: For each session, there will be preparatory materials on a private web page, including handouts to download, reading assignments, videos, etc. As we start each session, the facilitator will assume you have engaged with these preparatory materials as the instructions suggest. Typically, this preparation will take about 20-30 minutes. The core content of each session is presented as videos within these materials.

ENGAGE: Participate in the workshop session (or listen to the recording if you are unable to attend). Typically we will do a brief check-in, then we will focus half the time on debriefing your application of the material from the prior session, and the other half of the time on questions of clarity around the new material within the current session.

APPLY: Each session will have a set of activities that supports you in applying the key concepts in your workplace environment. Typically, the practice to apply the learnings will also take about 20-30 minutes. 

FEEDBACK and MUTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY: Each participant will be paired with another participant who will be their “Accountability Buddy.” As a means of enhancing accountability and providing an opportunity for feedback, We have two requests to support your learning:
  1. Each participant is to email their completed activity worksheet to the facilitator and to their Accountability Buddy at least 24 hours before the next session begins.
  2. Each Accountability Buddy pair is to meet weekly after each session for a period of no more than 20-30 minutes. During these sessions, we invite you to give feedback and support to each other regarding the completed activity worksheets, review key concepts and apply the learnings in the workplace.

Training Formats

Each workshop is an interactive, activity-based experience where participants are invited to learn through self-reflection, interactions in pairs or small groups, and engagement with the whole group. Workshops combine innovative, interactive strategies with essential principles of leadership and communication to create a robust learning experience.

Live Virtual Instructor-Led (vILT) Format

Benefits of vILT workshops include: 
  • Doable in a busy schedule. Flexible.
    • Short 75-min sessions are easier to integrate in your work week than taking a half day or full day for a workshop.
    • Participate from anywhere with an internet connection — from your office, from home, from your hotel room.
    • If you miss a session, you can watch the recording of it at a time convenient for you. 
    • Easy to connect to the video session using a mac/pc (with video camera & microphone), a tablet or even a smart phone.
    • No time lost in travel to get to the training.

  • Engaging learning process. Focus on impact.
    • ​Live, interactive sessions with integrated activities in a robust and flexible video learning environment. We use zoom video technology which includes break-out rooms, screen sharing, polling, chat windows, etc.
    • Space between sessions provides time to review core concepts and apply the learning in your day-to-day work situations before the next session.
    • You can review any session by watching the recording of it as many times as you would like.
    • Class size is typically limited to 12 to ensure personal interaction with every participant.
      ​
  • Cost Effective. Strong Value.
    • Cost effective for small groups or large groups. 
    • Eliminates travel costs.

Live In-Person Instructor-Led (ILT) Format
​Onsite at your location

​For many of our clients, workshops at their own site with an experienced facilitator physically present are the preferred choice for training. 

Benefits of ILT workshops include:
  • Most familiar and time-tested training method.
  • Ease of human interactions, both during structured and non-structured time, is an opportunity for a rich shared experience.
  • Physical space enables richer somatic and creative learning activities.
  • Training can be highly customized to meet specific organizational needs.
  • Experiential learning process focuses on impact.

Other Considerations:
  • Logistics include scheduling a training room with equipment and supplies, coordinating meals and refreshments, booking hotels for those traveling to the event.
  • Travel costs of the facilitator.
  • Not typically cost effective for groups of less than six.
  • Half-day, full-day or multi-day sessions require concentrated commitments of time.​
Examples of skills that flow through our work:
  • listening — so that the other person has an experience of being heard
  • empathy — the basis of care and compassion - recognizing the "weird" ways that we unconsciously ask for empathy
  • expressing disagreement without blame - an integral skill of feedback and mutual accountability
  • recognizing our own unconscious reactions and limiting beliefs - these are what diminish our relationships and effectiveness as leaders
  • seeing conflict as something to be harvested, not avoided

Training and the Development Process

Training is a process not an event — skills development and behavior change require engagement, practice and reinforcement over a period of months, not days.

If you are looking for inspiration, understanding of concepts or familiarity with skill set, then taking a workshop from the list at the left will likely meet your needs.

If you are looking for sustainable impact through tangible skills development and behavior change, then a more robust process is recommended ... specifically:

Becoming a more Conscious Leader is a process that typically involves a repeating cycle of ...
  • leadership training
  • practice
  • feedback
  • leadership coaching
  • peer engagement
  • manager engagement
  • mutual accountability

Our expertise is not only in the leadership training and coaching services that we provide, but also in designing a leader development process and customized program based on your unique needs, desired outcomes and budget.

​We invite you to contact us to have a conversation about the conscious leadership development you desire!