On 12 December 2024, Developing Leaders finished another successful virtual Leadership Essentials Program, with a group of 10 wanting to develop their leadership skills, build confidence in their role, and manage their teams expectations without fault. Leaders from DriveGroup Corporation, Housing Hub, Halgan and Sunrise Health Service worked together to complete the program designed to provide practical skills to match exisiting leadership behaviours.
A core principle of leadership is that to lead others, you must first lead yourself. Through the Leadership Essentials Program, leaders develop absolute clarity on their core leadership capabilities, and demonstrate the ability to be;
- Grounded, dependable and worthy of trust,
- Responsible, reliable and respected
- adaptable in times of stress, pressure and changing business environments, and
clear on their own purpose and values, and how to inspire and empower their team to a common vision.
Through one-on-one engagement over a course of structured and individually tailored coaching sessions, leaders identify and develop their leadership behaviours for the purpose of creating an environment for each individual in your team / business to develop and thrive.
How it works:
The Leadership Essentials Program is comprised of 16 sessions; 8 Workshops, 4 Q&A’s and 4 Literature Reviews. Each workshop covers one of the critical leadership learnings and core skills essential like mastering difficult conversations, managing expectations from your team and creating intentions. These topics bring small group discussions and collaboration between the participants leading to multiple views and insights from various businesses unlike any other leadership program on offer. The Literature reviews bring a newfound perspective on critical aspects of leadership and lead to more discussions within the group.
What stood out the most was his ability to connect with each individual on a personal level. He puts in 100% effort, encourages participation, and ensures everyone feels heard. His guidance helped me gain clarity, shift my perspective, and truly understand leadership in a new way. He doesn’t just teach leadership—he embodies it, setting a great example of what a true leader should be.
Saliha Naveed, Housing Hub
Key Components:
Velocity Leadership Checkpoint
Each participant in the Leadership Essentials Program begins their leadership development journey by completing the Velocity Leadership CheckPoint. This provides a comprehensive understanding of the leadership strengths and development areas prior to the formal program allowing each participants to develop their own Program Learning goals.
Core Content
Developing Leaders utilises relevant and current leadership concepts, either created internally or referenced from others. These will include, but not limited to:
- AIR/BLEEDS Model for Personal Responsibility
- Own Up, Clean Up, Move On
- Team Expectations (Likes / Dislikes list)
- Creating Intention and Prisms of Listening
- DRIFT model for coaching and feedback to team members
- IDRIFT model for Difficult Conversations (& dealing with push back)
- Overcoming FEAR and being NICE
- The 9 Stages of Meeting Convergence
- Personal Purpose and Values
- Behaviours Types – focussed on Passive Aggressive Behaviour
- The Elevator Model for Task Management and Task Efficiency
- Johari Window and Leadership Vulnerability
- The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team
Workshop Preparation Activity
Each Leadership Essentials Program workshop requires a small amount of preparation to fully utilise time spent. This may include reflection over the previous fortnight’s activity, identifying areas of improvement or concern to discuss in the session, reading or watching relevant leadership behaviour material. It is expected that the participant will be on time and fully prepared for the session.
I enjoyed the ability to share experiences with people in different industries and work experience backgrounds. The ability for the trainer to draw on their experiences as both team member and leader made it easier to relate to the material. Although there were a number of topics in the program, I couple of really interest topics I enjoyed included; how to have difficult conversations and prioritising the important tasks, not the urgent tasks.
Nicholas Lai, DriveGroup Corporation
Anchoring Activity
At the completion of each Leadership Essentials Program workshop a series of agreed anchoring (or ‘homework’) activities will embed the behaviours discussed in the workshop, and provide a dynamic opportunity to put new behaviours into practice. Realistic, relevant and practical leadership activities starting within a 48-hour period greatly impact the effective transfer the leadership behaviour learning back to job roles.
Monthly Leadership Literature 101
Broader reading on leadership and management is an important aspect of the Leadership Essentials Program. In the program we break down the best leadership works from around the world into bite-size, practical actions through discussion and reflection. The 4 x 1 hour literature reviews are less formal than the other workshops, and are greatly enhanced when complimented with discussions with the participants Manager as well as within the workshop. Titles that may be included in the Leadership Literature 101 program include:
- Atomic Habits – James Clear
- Dare to Lead – Brené Brown
- Leaders Eat Last – Simon Sinek
- Who Moved My Cheese – Spenser Johnson
- The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey.
All the leadership books chosen have a practical aspect to them that enhances the practical learning conducted in the workshops. Managers of participants are provided with a summary guide of the relevant leadership book and a selection of questions that could be asked to start a discussion with your participants – we don’t expect you to read the texts in full!
Monthly Live Q&A
In the live Q&A session, participants have the opportunity to bring ‘live’ problems or issues that they would like help and guidance with. These discussions can relate to all or any of the Leadership Essentials Program content, and remain confidential within the participant group.
Is the Leadership Essentials Program for You?
Signing up for the next Leadership Essentials Program isn’t just investing in your leadership skills but it is investing in yourself. Many members didn’t just gain skills for their leadership but found relevance and growth within their own personal lives.