Our Methodology
Many managers aspire to be leaders, and with the right effort and development, they may be. But with the continued churn in leadership roles, some managers have been challenged to lead sooner than planned. Almost overnight, they’ve stepped up to roles that they thought were a few years down the road. It’s risky to see individuals try to navigate a role they weren’t quite ready for or struggle to get up to speed without the experiences and skills to guide more complex teams and decisioning.
This Manager to Leader workshop introduces a playbook to help seasoned managers transition to confident leaders. It starts with guidelines to identify the skill sets a leader needs, the team dynamics they should develop and the relationships that they should leverage to gain confidence quickly. It’s a combination of awareness, best practices, new tools and coaching to set direction, align individuals to actions and drive teams to outcomes.
Content – Most listeners give a communicator about 30 seconds to set a message and direction for their storyline. An effective communicator learns how to format ideas to frame a message and set the structure quickly to keep the listener(s) involved. We teach how to organize a storyline, create a compelling message and leverage stories to be sure sound bites are heard and remembered.
Style – Personal style, is presence, the ability to engage an individual or a group from the start of a conversation. An effective communicator comes across as confident and credible, conveying a sense of commitment to their topic and a personal interest in connecting the topic to each listener. The SW&A approach to style teaches the intentional choices communicators make to deliver on those impressions.
Situational – While the tools stay the same, the situations don’t. Every communicator thinks about their audience differently from those who interact with small groups to those who deliver keynote speeches. They think about outcomes differently, too. From meetings that generate discovery to recommendations that gain approval. That’s why the third dimension of our work applies the fundamentals to specific situations. It helps a communicator shift from competence in their skills to consistent outcomes in their communication.
