Leadership Development Program
2009-2010

The Leadership Development Program provides current owners, key non-family managers and the next generation of owners/managers with the opportunity to sharpen leadership skills and kindle enthusiasm for the challenges of running a profitable enterprise.

The Program, consisting of eight full-day work sessions, is taught by faculty of the Whittemore School of Business and Economics and experts in family business.

Each participant in the Leadership Program will create a Personal Strategic Plan (PSP) initiated in the first session and developed step-by-step in the following sessions.

A PSP begins with a personal vision statement, i.e., a long-term picture of where the individual wants to be in his or her career in the next 5 to 10 years. Over the remaining sessions each person will develop a plan for achieving the vision, as well as how the achievements will contribute to their family's business. The content of the sessions themselves will include a range of leadership concepts and models, self-assessment tools, and discussions of problems and issues faced by the participants in their current jobs.

By the end of the program the participants will be able to carry away a document that captures their learning from the program as well as an action plan for their future.

The program meets one day per month for the eight months.

Location
All sessions will be held in Concord.

Cost
The fee is $1,995 per person (for members of the Center for Family Business) or $2,450 per person if you are a nonmember. Cost includes a continental breakfast and lunch each day and all class materials. (For information about membership in the Center, click here.)

To Reserve Space
If you would like more information about the Leadership Development Program or other programs of the Center for Family Business please contact the office at (603) 862-1107, or E-mail: Barbara Draper.

Download the Brochure and Enrollment Form
Click here to download the brochure and enrollment form for the 2008 Leadership Development Program.

The Program 2009-2010

Module 1: Thursday, October 22, 2009
What is Effective Leadership?
The opening module has two objectives. The first is to begin the process of building a learning community where participants are comfortable sharing ideas and taking the risks required for learning new ideas and skills. The second objective is to define “effective leadership” by discussing concepts and experiences. The session introduces the concept of emotional and social intelligence which has been shown to differentiate outstanding from average performing leaders in a wide variety of settings. Video-tapes of leaders and exercises are used to aid in applying lessons learned throughout the day.

Module 2: Thursday, November 12, 2009
Building Self-Awareness & Developing a Personal Vision
Self-awareness is the foundation of effective leadership. This module is designed to build participant’s self-awareness and to begin the process of developing the Personal Strategic Plan (PSP). Personality and values assessments will be completed and discussed to help participants increase their awareness of their own unique personality, values, and hopes for their future. Toward the end of the session, participants will be placed into groups of two or three and given an assignment > to visit each other’s work setting, conduct interviews, and gain insights and information that can assist their partner(s) in the development of their self-awareness and their PSPs.

Module 3: Thursday, December 17, 2009
Leadership Skill Feedback:
Our Personal Strengths and Weaknesses
In this module participants will receive feedback from multiple sources: (1) their partners, who have visited their work setting and interviewed their co-workers and family members, and (2) a 360-degree competency assessment completed by themselves, their co-workers, friends and family members. The module will focus on working with and fully understanding the feedback, including reconciling how others view the participant’s strengths and weaknesses and how they view themselves. Participants will coach each other to fully comprehend the feedback and help each other begin to develop goals and action steps for personal development. The feedback and coaching will be used to further develop participants’ Personal Strategic Plans (PSPs).

Module 4: Thursday, January 14, 2010
Motivating Employees
Effective organizations need employees who are bring their best attitudes and energy to work every day. This module will involve an in-depth discussion of motivation theories and techniques. We will also focus on clarifying the situational variables that bring out the best work habits in each participant. Considerable time will be spent discussing how to manage one’s own and others’ motivation in the participants’ organizations.

Module 5: Thursday, February 11, 2010
Building a Synergistic Team
One of the most important developments in the practice of effective leadership in the past two decades has been the use of teams to increase efficiency and innovation in the workplace. In this module, we will learn about the strategies and behaviors necessary for building and leading an effective team. Participants will learn the fundamentals of team leadership including how to facilitate team meetings and how to create an environment that encourages commitment and cooperation. Exercises and discussions of team effectiveness theories and participants’ experiences will aid learning.

Module 6: Thursday, March 18, 2010
Managing Confrontation and Conflict
Research reveals that a large percentage of a leader’s job involves managing employee conflict. One of the greatest challenges is determining when a conflict is healthy and productive for employees (for example, healthy debate) and when it can be debilitating and hurt productivity (for example, clashing personalities). Leaders also need to know how to effectively confront employees who are creating unhealthy conflict or not meeting expected work standards. In this module, we will discuss theories about good and bad conflict, engage in exercises that determine participants’ typical reactions to conflict, and discuss effective strategies for managing different types of conflict.

Module 7: Thursday, April 22, 2010
Becoming a Resonant Leader in a Family Business Environment
Resonant leaders understand the needs and the dreams of those they lead. In this module we will clarify and discuss Resonant Leadership and how it benefits an organization. This module will also focus on how participants’ can use the Competency Assessment Process to hire, develop, and promote employees that fit the culture and most pressing needs in their organizations. This will include practicing “behavioral event interviewing,” an interview technique that enables an interviewer to achieve an effective match between the skills needed by an organization and the skills held by a job candidate.

Module 8: Thursday, May 13, 2010
Presentations of PSPs, Review of the Program and Graduation
This session will represent the culmination of the learning > over the year of the program. Participants are asked to invite their families and company leaders to this session to hear the presentation of their Personal Strategic Plans (PSPs). There will be a review of the program with participants sharing what they learned and what they are taking away from their eight months together. A family business specialist will join the group to lead a discussion about the transfer of leadership and ownership in the family business and the role that each generation should play in that process.

A certificate in Family Business Leadership will be awarded to those who successfully complete the program.

For More Information or
To Reserve Your Space in the Program
If you would like more information about the Leadership Development Program or other programs of the Center for Family Business please contact the office at (603) 862-1107, or E-mail: Barbara Draper.

Recent graduates reported that the course gave them the:

• Tools to become a better leader and mentor.
  
• Skills and self-confidence to accept more responsibility in the company.
  
• Confidence to change patterns of behavior.
  
• Ability to think outside the box.
  
• Confidence to overcome the lack of a college education.
  
• Opportunity to form lasting friendships with people from different industries, yet the same family issues.
  
• Environment of trust for sharing ideas/problems and getting feedback.