All workshops can be customized to content, learning objectives, and duration.


Leadership Development Philosophy

We believe there are three major components to be considered when developing leaders: 

  1. How does the leader sees themself?

  2. What skills does the leader have/need?

  3. How does the leader's behavior affect followers?

No matter the organizational level of the leader, proper pedagogy would conclude that each learner is in a constant process of growing in knowledge, skills, and behaviors to produce the results that are important to them.

Leaders will only grow in the areas they see as necessary. Therefore, transformational development requires helping the leader to see more clearly between their ideal self and their real self. 

Leadership effectiveness happens two ways:

  1. When the leader begins to align their real self with the ideal leader they aspire to become.

  2. When the outside of view of the leader aligns with how the leader views themself.

Self-Awareness: How DOES THE LEADER

When it comes to leader development, self-awareness is often the most critical component.

The overarching theme in the domain of self-awareness is developing the character of the leader.  


Character is often thought of in moral terms, such as integrity or honesty. However, the development of the leader's character goes beyond this cursory understanding and includes a number of components to consider in development such as:

  • Core beliefs

  • Personality

  • Emotional intelligence


Leaderskill: What requisite skills must the leader must possess?

The skills and talents of a leader become the observable outcome used to evaluate effectiveness and performance.

Our philosophy goes beyond a mere performance orientation and instead takes a longer view of the leader's skills, focusing on mastery rather than performance.

While effective in the short term, a focus on performance can leave leaders without the skills or talents they will need in order to be successful long term. 

Alternately, a focus on mastery develops the individual needs of the leader, awakening potential that will continue to serve the leader and the organization over time. 

Followership: How does the leader's behavior impact followers?

If you are leading but no one is following, you are nothing more than a performer in a one-act play.

To fixate on the leader in development may build their self-awareness and requisite skill, but communicates to those they lead that they do not matter very much.

A strong case could be made that engaging followers is what leadership is all about.


Of all the domains of leadership, followership may receive the least of attention, yet it is critical to organizational success.

To download our full leadership development philosophy, please click here.

Our Courses

Below you will find a list of courses that we have offered to clients in the past.

All courses will include the character structure development of emotional intelligence. It is our belief that of all the elements a leader can work on, emotional intelligence has the biggest potential for impacting the skills of the leader and how followers choose to follow. Therefore, even our skill based programs will have an emotional intelligence framework to support the learning.

Each course can be customized to a client's current needs and linked to any strategic organizational objective.

We are able to accommodate workshops of any length, however, most of our clients choose a full 8-hour training day to maximize the development opportunity. 

We believe that training is an event, while development has a longer term objective. Therefore, each of our development programs comes with continued support in the form of concise follow-up communication to  reinforce key learnings and/or group coaching. Other follow-up options are available based upon the learning culture of the organization.

Upon reviewing the course summaries below, CLICK HERE TO CONTACT US to discuss how we may assist in the development of your organization's leaders. 

Leadership Optic: Self-Awareness

So You Say you want to lead (The emerging leader) . . .

Duration: One Day
Leadership Optic: Self-Awareness

Overview: This course is targeted for managers who are new to leadership or not yet in a formal organizational role with followers. Self-awareness will be created by participation in a workplace emotional intelligence self-assessment. Customized applications of self-assessment learning will be made to case studies and leadership skills such as coaching followers. In preparation for a leadership role, participants will gain knowledge of how and when emotions impact workplace judgments and decisions, then use acquired skills to apply tools that facilitate enhanced execution. Integration of emotional intelligence with topics such as improved work efficiency, coaching others, interpersonal communications skills, and building and maintaining a team are direct outcomes of this training session. Action plans will be written for individual development based upon content learned in the course.

Learning Objectives:
-- Increase self-awareness by taking an emotional intelligence self-assessment.
-- Understand core elements of leading others.
-- Process the impact that emotions have on judgment and decision-making.
-- Write a development plan that links emotional intelligence to personal effectiveness.

Developing your leadership story . . .

Duration: One Day
Leadership Optic: Self-Awareness

Overview: The art of storytelling is as old as human history itself. Stories are meant to engage and inspire. Sadly, many leaders have not thought about what their personal leadership story is, or what they desire it to be. In this fast paced workshop, participants will produce an autobiography of what brought them to their current leadership moment. They will produce a historical timeline that draws in critical leadership inflection points. Learners will examine ten leadership principles that are foundational to making their personal story a reality. Using the classic story telling technique of: Hero, Villain, Muse, Conflict, and Resolution the learner will proactively create the story of what they desire their personal leadership epitaph to be.

Learning Objectives:
-- Link the importance of values communication to work outcomes.
-- Prioritize personal values and link these values to leadership.
-- Create a set of leadership principles that flow from personal values.
-- Write a leadership story that is based upon values and principles.
-- Develop a communication tool to share values and principles with teams.

leading with emotional intelligence . . .

Duration: One Day
Leadership Optic: Self-Awareness

Overview: Participants will develop an understanding of the impact that emotions have on productivity and execution in the work environment. Via interactive discussions, group work, and peer coaching, the learner gains knowledge of how and when emotions impact workplace judgments and decisions, then use acquired skills to apply tools that facilitate enhanced execution. Improved work efficiency and interpersonal communications are direct outcomes of this training session. Self-awareness will be created by a validated and reliable emotional intelligence leadership self-assessment. Customized applications of self-assessment learning will be made to individual current work situations. Action plans will be written for individual development based upon content learned in the course.

Learning Objectives:
-- Discover leadership traits that followers value.
-- Link self-awareness to desired leadership traits.
-- Write a development plan that links emotional intelligence to personal leadership effectiveness.

Team Risk Type Compass . . .

Duration: One Day
Leadership Optic: Self-Awareness

Overview: In this workshop learners will understand how individuals and teams may approach risk. Based primarily on personality research, the Risk Type Compass uses aspects of an individuals temperament to place them into one of eight risk propensity categories known as Risk Types. An individuals Risk Type will give an indication of how an individual perceives risk, how much uncertainty they can cope with, and how they will react when unexpected events or outcomes occur. Utilizing a common organizational assessment such as the Risk Type Compass, a common language may evolve around ways in which individuals perceive and teams communicate risk. Once both individual and team tolerance for risk is understood and a language for risk is communicated, teams use practical issues they are currently working on to move forward at faster and more efficient paces.

Learning Objectives:
-- Understand the importance that risk brings to decision-making.
-- Articulate how different risk preferences modulate individual and team performance.
-- Participate in a Compass Risk Type self-assessment.
-- Analysis of risk that impacts team function.
-- Learn to flex to other risk types when need arises.
-- Write a development plan to improve decision-making and performance based upon risk flexibility.

Pearman Personality Integrator: Myers-Briggs Done Right . . .

Duration: One Day
Leadership Optic: Self-Awareness

Overview: In this day of organizational diversity, putting people into a box or a color type discounts the individuality and creativity they were hired to achieve in the first place. In this creative and innovate workshop, learners will explore from over 1 Million distinct personality types, allowing them the freedom to be themselves rather than fit into any organizational stereotypes. Learners will receive a measure of personality in one’s natural state (i.e., what is most comfortable) and in one’s everyday environment (i.e., what is most often demonstrated). It also explores natural tendencies by providing insight into their level of flexibility, agility, and resiliency, which are critical markers for integrating personality with emotional intelligence. This workshop utilizes the Pearman FlexIndex which measures how learners are able to leverage their psychological resources to operate at peak capacity.

Learning Objectives:
-- Advanced understanding of how personality impacts behavior.
-- Understand the 8 mental functions that lead to millions of personality types.
-- Utilize a FlexIndex to become more adaptable to other personalities.
-- Write a development plan that integrates personality into improved behavioral outcomes.


Mapping Critical Relationships . . .

Duration: One Day

Leadership Optic: LeaderSkill

Overview: To assist leaders in developing emotional connection with individuals in their organizations, we have identified eight Emotional Intelligence connection skills that have the potential to enhance the engagement of followers. These competencies hold great potential for you as a leader, both for the difficulties they may pose as well as the positive outcomes they offer upon mastery. These emotional connection competencies include Presence, Trust, Calm, Patience, Speaking Truth, Valuing Others, Empathy, and Openness. This workshop will allow learners to understand the emotional connection competencies they rely on most while ascertaining any style deficiencies that may exist. In addition, participants will map critical relationships that are vital to their success. Learners will then map their skills to the critical relationships they need to foster to have successful outcomes.

Learning Objectives:
-- Heighten awareness and appreciation for business being about achieving results through relationships.
-- Self-assess and understand the eight Emotional Intelligence competencies and the effect on relationships.
-- Map critical relationships for success and specify stakeholder needs.
-- Create a plan to enhance emotional connection with these critical relationships.

What You Know About Stress is Killing You . . .

Duration: One Day
Leadership Optic: LeaderSkill

Overview: Googling the word “stress” can be stressful. On the first results page you will discover that stress has been linked, among other things, to:

-- Depression
-- Anxiety
-- Heart attacks
-- Stroke
-- Hypertension
-- Autoimmune diseases
-- Viral infections
-- Certain cancers

This list doesn’t even touch workplace, home-life, and relationship problems or death!

According the American Psychological Association’s annual Stress Survey, the majority of Americans are experiencing stress at a level that they know is harmful to them. The survey also revealed that while concerns related to money and work remain the top two stressors for Americans, family responsibilities have now moved into the top three. Generationally, in spite of their education, social connectedness, and global consciousness, Millennials report higher levels of stress than any other generation. It is no surprise that everyone knows that stress is a major problem. But what if we are looking at it all wrong? What if we believe about stress is actually the real problem? What if our focus on managing our stress is only extending the problems and the consequences? What if what is really needed to overcome this modern-day epidemic is a medically accurate stress education followed by the courage to actually eliminate our stress wherever possible? If a gazelle is being attacked by a lion, should the gazelle simply exercise, meditate, and get eight hours sleep in order to minimize the power of the lion’s jaws? Or should they find the courage to deal directly with the threat that is creating their stress?

Learning Objectives:
-- What stress is…and what it is trying to tell you and your body.
-- The positive purpose of your stress reaction.
-- Identify the sources of stress in your life.
-- Not accepting disappointment as inevitable.
-- The importance and power of mindset and focus when experiencing stress.
-- When stress is harmful…and when it is not.
-- Understand the impact of the expectation equation (E>R; R=D).
-- Strategies for identifying solvable and unsolvable stressors.
-- Best practices for eliminating your solvable stressors.
-- Best practices for minimizing the impact your unsolvable stressors.
-- The absolute, non-negotiable need for friends when conquering stress.

Coaching With Emotional Intelligence . . .

Duration: One Day Leadership Optic: LeaderSkill

Overview: Coaching has quickly become one of the most important leadership skills recognized by organizations. So much so that most organizations have either developed a proprietary coaching model or have purchased one from one of many on the market today. Whether purchased or proprietary, most of these models adequately describe the coaching process that is aligned with the organization's values. However, what is often missing is the recognition of the human element that exists on either side of this coaching dynamic. The emotionally intelligent coach has a level of self-awareness that gives them confidence in themself as a coach and a keen awareness of the development level and emotional intelligence of the person being coached. In any coaching conversation there are at least 3 conversations happening at once. An emotionally intelligent coach will recognize that what they are saying is the least important of the three. This workshop will allow coaches in the organization to gain a higher level of emotional self-awareness, then develop plans to coach others to higher levels of performance.

Learning Objectives:
-- Articulate important competencies of emotional intelligence.
-- Understand when emotion is clouding judgment in coaching.
-- Develop strategies for emotional regulation.
-- Learn the importance of impulse control to provide clarity of thought.
-- Practice the skill of empathy to gain understanding of what the person being coached desires.
-- Enhance strategies for interpersonal relationships.
-- Assist the coachee in the testing of reality.
-- Discern the impact of stress management on effective coaching outcomes.
-- Write an emotionally intelligent coaching plan.

interviewing with emotional intelligence . . .

Duration: One Day
Leadership Optic: LeaderSkill

Overview: Hiring the right person for any job can be one of the most important organizational decisions a leader can make. A more traditional interviewing model helps the organization understand a candidate's past experience, yet gives little insight into their style of thinking or their emotional agility. Those who espouse that past behavior is a predictor of future behavior forget that in order for this to be true, the situation and circumstance must be exactly the same to even hope to get a similar outcome. Rather than focusing on the outcome of a particular behavior, what if the interviewer was skilled in looking at experience and education in light of emotional intelligence? In this workshop we look at the concept of what an emotionally intelligent answer to an interview question might look like. Most interviewing workshops look at the questions that are asked. In this workshop, we focus on the answers the candidate gives and how they align with valid and reliable models of emotional intelligence.

Learning Objectives:
-- Analize candidate responses in light of emotional intelligence.
-- Understand the importance of self-awareness and self-regulation for the interviewer.
-- Understand the importance of self-awareness and self-regulation for the interviewee.
-- Discern how a candidate learns from mistakes.
-- Learn a candidate's emotional triggers and how they respond when faced with tension and complexity.
-- Look for candidates who can describe specific examples and show an ability to stay cool during stressful situations.
-- Demonstrate integration of revised beliefs to show learning agility.


leaderpath 360 . . .

Duration: One Day or 2 half days
Leadership Optic: Followership

Overview: In this workshop, participants will experience a full circle approach to learning what others think about their leadership performance, decision making, and relationships. The basic premise behind 360-degree feedback is to draw responses regarding leader effectiveness from supervisors, peers, subordinates, and other critical relationships. Participants will incorporate the feedback they receive into a workable developmental action plan. Follow-up to this plan is critical to measuring the progress in the participant’s developmental journey. Through a series of interactive group exercises, the learner is able to process the feedback they receive from their raters and to find actionable behavioral improvements.

Learning Objectives:
-- Obtain 360 feedback from important relationships on emotional intelligence.
-- Compare other perspectives to the individuals self-scores.
-- Understand the balance in emotional competencies necessary for effective leadership.
-- Identify actionable exercises to improve emotional intelligence.
-- Develop an action plan to incorporate 360-feedback into required organizational tasks and relationships.
-- Utilize a proven process for discussing 360-feedback actions with those who provided feedback.

Maximizing Team Strengths . . .

Duration: One Day
Leadership Optic: Followership

Overview: This workshop is built on the framework of the New York Times best selling book “Now Discover Your Strengths”. Each person on a team takes an assessment from the book and brings this into the workshop. The team then works to understand the basic framework of developing from a person’s strengths. Once these concepts are clear a problem that the team is working on is proposed and using their individual strengths the team engages in a problem-solving process. As a result of this workshop the team will better understand the contributions that others make, increasing the self-awareness of the team. The team leader will have a document of all the members strengths which serves as an aide in coaching from a strength based frame.

Learning Objectives:
-- Complete an assessment of individual strengths.
-- Build team awareness of individuals strengths and how they approach work.
-- Focus on creative problem solving using the strengths of individual team members.
-- Enhanced team culture.
-- Development of a leader coaching tool.