Art of Leadership
During this two-day workshop, learn and practice new leadership paradigms and skills. Discover your strengths and areas of improvement through insightful teaching, feedback and group interaction, and experiential exercises.
Participants develop a committed action plan, as well as a team brand to capture and apply what they have learned to their workplace.
We focus on styles of leadership, closing the gap between vision and current reality, attitudes toward leadership, defining power and relating to it, creating trust, cordial hypocrisy and its impact on organizations (In Dari, the term is zaher wa baaten).
Overview:
Art of Leadership begins with the following leadership distinctions:
- Leader is a Learner
- lEader has Ears to Hear
- leAder is Adaptable, Flexible
- leaDer is Directional – Vision
- leadEr is an Enroller – Team‐builder
- leadeR is Responsible
We consider the following:
- Styles of leadership
- Closing the gap between vision and current reality
- Attitude toward leadership and how my attitude impacts others
- What is power and how do I relate to it?
- What is trust? How do we create trust in organizations? What is the cost of mistrust?
- What is cordial hypocrisy and its impact on my organization? (In Dari, the term is zaher wa baaten).
Participants develop a committed action plan as well as a team brand to capture and apply what they have learned to their workplace.
Duration: Sixteen hours in length; with translation, twenty‐four hours or three days.
Materials:
- Participant workbooks are provided
- Videos are used to illustrate key learning points
- Handouts are provided for exercises; Pre‐training questionnaires provided in English and / or Dari
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Art of Leadership II
The purpose of this two-day lab is to build competence in:
Maintaining Congruency
- Aligning your actions with your new learning
- Engaging in bold conversations
- Creating value in meetings
- Positioning yourself as a trusted advisor
Developing Leaders Around You
- Identifying leaders in your midst
- Creating a plan for future development
- Strategizing with your team
- Identifying consequences and payoffs
Call to Action
- Clarifying and living your vision
- Developing action steps
- Inviting others to join in
- Calibrating and re-calibrating along the path
Just for Women
A workshop designed to explore the unique leadership style of women, discuss challenges and opportunities in the Afghan context, and affirm vision, value, and focus.
Overview:
This workshop begins with discussions of women of influence, past and present.
We consider the following:
- Unique challenges and opportunities women leaders encounter
- Internal beliefs that either limit or open up possibility
- The challenge of balancing time between family, friends, community, work, and self
- The power of vision and commitment in leadership as women
Duration: Eight hours in length; with translation, 1.5 days
Materials:
- Participant workbooks are provided
- Supplies for exercises; each participant has opportunity to make a creative display of the gift that they are to their family and workplace
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Shackleton: The Journey of Leadership
In this two-day course we use the extraordinary expedition of Ernest Shackleton as a case study in leadership and teamwork. We will use the film, Shackleton (2002), as a visual textbook on leadership for exploring the following topics:
- Vision and Quick Victories
- Symbolism and Personal Example
- Optimism and Reality
- Stamina
- The Team Message
- Core Team Values
- Conflict
- Humor
- Risk
- Tenacious Creativity
Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders
A two-day workshop modeled after Kouzes and Posner’s research, Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders explores the key characteristics of successful leaders. These leadership behaviors are able to be learned by anyone who will spend time developing them.
Overview:
This training focuses on the five practices of extraordinary leaders as follows:
- Model the Way
- Inspire a Shared Vision
- Challenge the Process
- Enable Others to Act
- Encourage the Heart
In addition to exploring the five practices in depth, we consider the following:
- What is leadership?
- Servant Leadership
- The Leadership Pyramid
Duration: Sixteen hours in length; with translation, twenty-four hours or three days
Materials:
- Participant workbooks are provided
- Handouts are provided for exercises
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Five Practices of Extraordinary Teams
A two-day workshop modeled after Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, Five Practices of Extraordinary Teams explores the key characteristics of successful teams. These team characteristics and behaviors are able to be learned by anyone who will spend time developing them.
In this two-day workshop, we focus on five areas:
Learning to Trust
- Integrity
- Results
- Building team trust
- Value yourself – your strengths, weaknesses, and mistakes
- Value your team – their strengths, weaknesses, differences, and their mistakes
- Two misconceptions
- The Misconception of Shame: Shame to Admit You Are Wrong or Have Weaknesses
- The Misconception of Losing Trust: You Will Lose Trust If People Know You Are Not Perfect
Embracing Conflict
- Three misconceptions: conflict will...
- Divide the team
- Cause resistance to meeting
- Hinder decision making
- How to have good conflict
- Repeat shared vision, values, and goals
- Resolve bad conflicts
- Communicate effectively
- Lead the way
Making and Keeping Commitments
- Follow decision making process
- Define the problem
- Gather information
- Outline possible solutions
- Test possible solutions
- Reject two myths that hinder decision making
- Myth #1: You need complete certainty to decide
- Myth #2: You need complete agreement to decide
- Be open to change
Accepting Accountability
- What should be included in accountability?
- Who is responsible for accountability?
- Why is it so difficult and why take the risk?
- How to create a culture of accountability
Paying Attention to Results
- Review of the four previous Practices; each builds towards results
- Learning to focus
- Avoiding poor substitutes
- Solutions to bring success
- Keep score
- Results-based rewards
- Role of the leader
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Developing Leaders around You
The leader’s key question: Am I raising up potential leaders? This two-day course addresses the need for and process of developing leaders. The following principles are used as an outline for this powerful course in leadership development.
- Leaders need to reproduce leaders
- Acquiring and keeping good people is a leader’s most important task
- Those closest to the leader will determine the success level of that leader
- An organization’s growth potential is directly related to its personnel potential
- Grow a leader, grow the organization
- Leaders attract potential leaders
- It takes a leader to know a leader, grow a leader, and show a leader
- Leaders who mentor potential leaders multiply their effectiveness
- There is no success without a successor
- Developed leaders expand and enhance the future of the organization
- A leader’s success can be defined as the maximum utilization of the abilities of those under him
- The more leaders you lead, the more leaders you need
New Horizons for Afghan Leaders
In order to empower Afghans for long-term sustainability, the “New Horizons” lessons address these needs: personal development, handling resources effectively, empowering others, handling conflicts, etc.
This twenty-hour program is held in English or Dari language and made relevant to Afghan culture. Lessons touch on social issues such as the problem of trust, nepotism, developing civil society etc., and offer principles of leadership and management skills to respond to these concerns.
Overview:
- The Sun is Shining - Ambition, Diligence, Goals
- Walls and Google and You - Change in Life
- The Sweetest Word on Earth - Understanding Others and Appreciating Differences
- The Alms of Knowledge - Capacity Building and Developing Others
- I am Sorry, No Credit - Building Trust in Life
- Responsibility Gives Energy - Developing Responsibility
- Criticism and Correction - Accepting Criticism
- As Iron Sharpens Iron- Agreeing to Disagree
- Listening and Speaking Skills – Paying attention to others
- Not Alone, but Together – The Importance of Team
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Coaching and On-line Discussion Groups
Typical training retention in classroom settings is a mere 10%. Studies show that when classroom training is accompanied by one-on-one coaching, the effectiveness of turning concepts to action increases four to seven times.
We provide a powerful coaching option to every one of our leadership programs. These one-on-one sessions are used to turn ideas and resolutions into action. Through questions and inquiry the coach catalyzes the trainees own ideas and solutions and then them accountable for moving forward with concrete action steps.
In addition, we offer moderated on-line discussion groups that are especially useful for trainees scattered throughout Afghanistan. A form of distance learning, these lively forums for the exchange of ideas enhance the classroom training and draw the trainees into a cohesive and effective team.
The One-Year Leadership Experience
Our signature offering launched in 2009 is a one-year transformational leadership training experience. Although there will be some formal “classroom style” teaching that will transfer information, the focus of the year is the formation of new mindsets, new skills and new tools.
As leaders from the same organization participate together, this community experience will provide an on-going support and motivational team for putting new habits into practice within the company. At the same time, individuals and teams will build a network of leaders across sectors, including NGO, business, government, and education.
Components of our one-year training experience includes:
Assessment: A standardized assessment instrument used to identify specific training needs and benchmark for program effectiveness. Client feedback and post-program assessment is also used to demonstrate program value and overall effectiveness (ROI).
Weekly Leadership Forums: Clients interface with others from various organizations regarding leadership topics. Meetings occur twice a week for 2.5 hour sessions during nine months per year at our site, after working hours.
Three Leadership Seminars: Three leadership seminars during the year. Specific program details are determined through participant input and assessments.
Five Business Skills Seminars: Five business skills days at the Silk Road site, providing clients exposure to other areas of business training.
Leadership Coaching/Mentoring: Two hours of coaching each month by a leader who is with the client through the year to ensure the integration of new learning into everyday practice.
Weekly Email Communications: Weekly emails with insights, encouragement, follow-up, and reminders.
Sponsor Organization Meetings: Quarterly meetings with each participating organization to provide opportunity for feedback, dialogue, and vision sharing.
Capstone Project & Presentation: Small groups of participants prepare an interactive case study that synthesizes all they are learning with the opportunity to present projects to the participant group and the sponsor organizations.
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Strengths-Based Leadership: A Journey of Self-Discovery Through the StrengthsFinder® Assessment Instrument
During this one-day workshop, discover and explore your unique top five strengths and talents as identified through the Gallup assessment tool and learn how to use them to improve your leadership impact. You will gain greater understanding of how your leadership skills influence the culture of your work place. You will also learn how to work better together as team.
This program includes pre-training assessments in Dari and English which take approximately two hours to complete. Strengths reports and tools from the Gallup organization are provided.
Overview:
Strengths-based development involves three stages:
- Identification of talent;
- Integration into how one views himself or herself;
- Behavioral change.
Research has proven that the best way to develop people is to identify ways in which they most naturally think, feel, and behave as unique individuals and then build upon these talents to create strength in an organization.
Duration: Sixteen hours in length; with translation, 3 days
Materials:
- Pre-Training Assessment given in Dari and English – Approximately 2 hours to complete
- Strengths reports and tools provided by Gallup organization
- Participant workbooks are provided
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Cultural Mapping and Navigation© Program
This program is designed to develop cultural learners who are aware of their own culture, appreciate the culture of others, and know how to turn cultural differences into cultural bridges that develop coexistence into synergy in work and living settings.
Overview:
The program allows for Inter‐Cultural Intelligence (ICI) to be developed and applied on individual, team and organizational levels in areas like the following:
- Individual Coaching: Inter‐Cultural Intelligence
- Inter‐Cultural Team Building Interventions
- Inter‐Cultural Team Development and Dynamics
- Inter‐Cultural Conflict Resolution
- Inter‐Cultural Negotiations
- Inter‐Cultural Communication
These outcomes culminate as a result of learning at 4 levels: Inter‐Cultural Learner; Self and Inter‐Cultural Mapping; Inter‐Cultural Navigation; and Strategic Organizational Alignment.
Cultural Mapping Assessment. Level 2 of the program employs the output of a cultural mapping assessment that is completed by all participants. Cultural Mapping© is a powerful tool to discover the impact of inter‐cultural dynamics in the work environment. This tool will help you to develop your inter‐cultural leadership ability. Some of the benefits of Cultural Mapping are as follows:
- Discover how the 12 dimensions of culture have an impact on the work‐related behavior of the different members of the team.
- Use the know‐how of Cultural Mapping to get an inter‐cultural personal and team dynamics insights.
- Adjust and fine‐tune your team and relational strategies in internal and external organizational relations.
- Solve conflict on the basis of a solid understanding of the ‘why’ of inter‐culturally rooted conflicts.
- Come to grips with the cultural drivers amongst the leadership of the organization and use that to drive the corporate culture development process.
Duration: 1, 2 or 3 days without translation, depending on the ICI levels covered.
Materials:
- Level 2 Includes Cultural Mapping Assessment to be completed by all participants
- Participant workbooks are provided
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Understanding Yourself and Others through DiSC® and Team Dimensions – a behavioral profiling assessment used to improve interpersonal relationships, productivity, and teamwork
Organizations worldwide have embraced the language of DiSC®, pioneered by Inscape Publishing over 30 years ago. DiSC is a personality behavioral testing profiling assessment used to improve lives, interpersonal relationship, work productivity, teamwork, and communication.
The DiSC Suite integrates into our Understanding Yourself and Others Through DiSC Program to provide a composite overview of the individual behavioral profiles of team members. This information is then used to guide program participants through a process to where they are able to understand their behavioral preferences and team dimensions, as well of those of their colleagues.
We then use these new found skills to address specific workplace related issues that are identified by the client. Workplace issues here include: leadership development, customer service, communication, conflict-resolution, negotiation, motivation, selling, individual and team effectiveness, and productivity.
The DiSC model provides nonjudgmental language for exploring behavioral issues across four primary dimensions. Every day, organizations use DiSC to establish a common language, paving the way for successful training and coaching applications. Detailed, personalized information helps people apply DiSC learning to specific business situations.
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