More than 100 participants from 35 different companies reconvened last week for the third quarter seminars of the Executive Leadership Program. Participants in the Engaging Leadership, Advanced Business Development and Strategic & Branded Executive courses came together to discuss and develop leadership skills needed for current and future roles.
The 2022 Executive Leadership Program, sponsored by GD Energy Products, prepares future leaders for the responsibilities they will face and the qualities they will need as they successfully advance in their organizations.
ENGAGING LEADERSHIP
The Engaging Leadership course allows exploration of the participants sphere of influence in their organization and understanding how to leverage that influence to create positive organizational change.
Participants discussed critical steps to delivering feedback and worked on practicing approaches to corrective feedback in various situations.
“The five steps really helped to prepare for the discussion and helps to make the corrective feedback discussion easier,” said one participant.
Other participants agreed that adopting this process would help deliver feedback that’s beneficial to their teams.
“It’s easy to deliver feedback, but the challenge is to develop the habit of delivering feedback though these five steps. As leaders we often focus on the telling, instead of the asking. That is a natural tendency to deliver what you need to instead of taking the time to be open and asking for the real feedback. It will definitely take practice to adopt these five steps and focus on the listening, as well.”
Program Participant
ADVANCED BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
The Advanced Business Development course helps participants develop the skills, behaviors and confidence to address client needs and develop long-term relationships while growing a business. The training gives participants a range of business development and sales techniques to adopt a confident consultative and solutions-based approach when selling.
In this latest session, the participants discussed the importance of managing objections by proactively identifying them and addressing them early in the conversation.
“Being able to communicate the full value of what the company is getting when they contract with your company is extremely valuable. Putting this value in real terms, putting a financial value to benefits so the client is able to justify the project to their bosses, is essential in closing a sale.”
Program Participant
STRATEGIC & BRANDED EXECUTIVE
The Strategic & Branded Executive course helps participants build their credibility, improve appearance, develop and solidify networking skills and enhances their ability to communicate effectively. The course is to develop participants executive presence, confidence and making a positive first impression.
The participants were asked to pull together short statements to describe their brand mantra by using great conversation starters and attention grabbers that garner interest, all key elements to the brand mantra goals.
Pat Lipovski, Founder & CEO, Envision Group, led the seminars with co-facilitators from Envision Group, a leader in corporate advising and coaching, as well as table coaches from Member Company representatives.
Participants from each track of the Executive Leadership Program are scheduled to join their counterparts from the other sessions at a quarterly networking event October 11 hosted by the Emerging Executives Committee.
Corry Schiermeyer, Senior Director Communications, writes about governmental policies for the Energy Workforce & Technology Council. Click here to subscribe to the Energy Workforce newsletter, which highlights sector-specific issues, best practices, activities and more.
