Virtual Offerings
Remote work is here to stay.
The Centre has compiled a suite of virtual offerings to support your remote learning needs. Click on each of the services to the right for additional information.
Webinars
How to Lead a Virtual Team: Tips & Strategies for Working Remotely
It’s hard enough to lead your people when you see them on a daily or weekly basis. Leading teams in a virtual environment is qualitatively different, creating both opportunities and challenges. In this webinar, participants will learn more about the psychological differences between working in a co-located space vs. working in a virtual environment, e.g., “psychological gaps”: created when teams work virtually. We’ll discuss ways to address common issues such as isolation, trust, ambiguity and overwhelm, and learn strategies for bridging these psychological gaps. Key takeaways include specific tips and best practices in the areas of communication, technology, team-building and leadership.
Leading Your Team Through Crisis: What Your Employees Need from You
In times of uncertainty, humans need to feel secure. Based on a landmark study of “what followers need”, Gallup research tells us that we look to our leaders to have four core needs met: Stability, Compassion Trust, and Hope. It is critical that people leaders know how to shift from meeting employees’ “business as usual” needs during times of crisis and lean in to what employees need right now. This webinar will help leaders define the four needs of followers, learn why these needs are important and how to take simple actions to provide these for your team. Practical tips and best practices will empower participants to bring greater stability, trust, compassion and hope to employees, increasing confidence to apply new insight immediately.
Strengths-Based Leadership: Leveraging Talent to Drive Performance
Research demonstrates that individuals who are working to their strengths are six times as likely to be successful in their roles and three times as likely to say they have a high quality of life in general. But in a conventional world that leans toward fixing weaknesses, how do you build upon what you already do best? This webinar will reveal the science of Strengths and provide you with high-level clues to help you begin to uncover, articulate, and leverage your natural areas of talent in order to maximize performance. Participants will gain a basic understanding of Strengths-based development and insight into what great leaders do differently to drive their teams to excellence. Learn how to focus on what you do best in order to maximize personal effectiveness, both for yourself as a leader and for the people you lead.
Maximizing Well-Being at Work:
Contrary to what many people believe, well-being isn’t just about being happy; there is a growing body of research identifying five key elements that help us to THRIVE, at work and at home. This workshop will explore the fascinating research behind these five well-being elements: Career (our professional or life purpose), Social (the quality of our relationships) Financial, Physical, and Community. Most importantly, we’ll help you understand how these five elements interact, and identify some specific steps you can take to maximize these elements in all aspects of your life.
Managing Fear and Anxiety Related to COVID-19 (Appropriate for all-hands meetings)
This 45-minute webinar is designed for all employees, and looks at some of the common emotional and cognitive struggles, fears, and reactions to the COVID crisis, and provides ideas for coping with recent stay at home orders, and for many, adjusting to the demands of working from home for the first time. Topics include:
- Understanding our reactions as they related to loss of certainty, loss of control and loss of connectedness with others.
- Understanding our “threat response” and its impact in the workplace.
- The potential impact of the current crisis on job performance and cognitive/emotional functioning.
- Coping strategies, including adjusting expectations to meet the new and evolving demands of family, society, and the workplace.
- Ideas for maintaining team connectedness and productivity.
Managing Others Effectively and Compassionately During COVID-19
This 45-minute webinar is designed for managers, supervisors, and other organizational leaders to examine specific challenges to managing teams while working remotely. Using an established organizational change model, this program provides context for how various employees and managers may be adjusting to working remotely and provides practical ideas for maintaining group productivity and cohesion while working from home. Topics include:
- Stages of Change/Adjusting to Work from Home: Alarm, Acclimate, Accept and Activate©.
- The importance of self-care, empathy and flexibility in managing others during this challenging time.
- Communication with your team.
- Using group goal setting, structure and regular meetings to stay on track.
- Ideas for virtual team building.
- Transitioning back to the office environment.
Writing for the Public
Writing for the Public is a 90-minute webinar introducing participants to the principles of modern, plain language for their on-the-job writing. The training provides tips to ensure emails, letters, memos, and web pages can be understood easily by the reader. Participants will focus on writing with accuracy, conciseness, inclusivity, and emphasis.
At the conclusion of the webinar, participants will be able to
- Change their document’s reading level based on their reader’s needs
- Craft sentences that are clear and concise
- Write using inclusive language and an effective voice.
Webinar Agenda:
Put Yourself in Your Reader’s Shoes
- Understand the Needs of Your Audience
- Match Your Document’s Reading Level to Your Reader’s
Use Short, Simple, and Familiar Words
- Avoid “Impressing” Your Reader With Vocabulary
- Select the Correct Word for Accuracy
- Define Technical and Legal Terms
Be Clear
- Concrete vs. Abstract Language
- Strong vs. Weak Verbs
Limit Sentence Length
- Eliminate Meaningless Words
- Avoid Redundant Words or Phrases
Include All Members of the Public
- Develop for the “Eye” of the Reader
- Write Consciously Using Inclusive Language
Consider Your Voice
- Using Active vs. Passive Voice
- Enhancing Tone of Voice
Microlearning Videos
Short-term-focused learning content – also known as microlearning – is an excellent way to supplement traditional training programs and to increase overall learning and application of content.
Working and Leading Remotely (Telecommuting Series)
Due to the impact of the COVID-19 virus across the United States, individuals and teams are transitioning to remote work at unprecedented rates. The Centre has designed two microlearning videos to support both leaders and individuals in managing this transition successfully. These videos are each under 10 minutes.
- “Working Remotely” – designed to help individual contributors understand why transitioning to a remote work environment can be challenging and how they can take the lead in creating the structure and support they will need to be successful.
- “Leading Remotely” – designed to help leaders understand what is shifting as they transition to leading a remote team and how they can support their employees in transitioning to remote work successfully.
Alumni “Refresher” Videos
The Centre is in the process of designing and developing a series of microlearning videos focused on key topics, tools, and techniques covered in the Centre’s Supervisor and Management Academy programs. These microlearning videos, which are all under 10 minutes, have been designed specifically to help alumni of training academies quickly reconnect and engage with important leadership topics and consider new opportunities for application. This series of videos covers select topics from the academies (e.g., decision making, conflict, coaching, etc.) and can be provided as a package or individually. Reach out to learn more about the videos.
Customized Content
If you have ideas for specific microlearning content that would help support your employees, please reach out to us about designing customized content to meet your needs.
Monthly Virtual Team Sessions
How does a team maintain stamina after making a dramatic shift to a new normal? How does a leader nurture staff members and provide a boost to morale so that burn out does not surface? Delivering consistent support around resiliency, self-care, and mindfulness practices is key for long-term success in times like these.
The Centre has designed a series of monthly virtual sessions to support leadership teams as they continue to tackle new challenges and changing objectives. These sessions cover a variety of timely topics to keep teams thriving and can flex from a couple months up to six months as teams transition now and into the new normal. Here are a few examples:
Building Resilience and Managing Stress in Times of Uncertainty
This session focuses on supporting leaders and teams cultivate characteristics and skills so they are better able to adapt to stress and adversity, are less likely to experience burnout, and increase their resilience to change. We utilize the Hardiness Resilience Gauge in three areas: Challenge (seeing change and new experiences as opportunities to learn and develop), Control (believe in one’s ability or influence in events and outcomes), and Commitment (see the work as interesting, meaningful, and having purpose).
Leading with Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence (EI) accounts for upwards of 50% of workplace success. Leaders at all levels require more than ever to connect with others and inspire action to achieve results. Self-aware leaders are better positioned to successfully lead their teams and in ways that demonstrate exemplary interpersonal skills and flexibility. A personalized EQ-i 2.0 report provides a baseline to guide self-and-team development and is a powerful tool to engage your team, deepen collaboration, and act in authentic and empathetic ways.
Leading Mindfully at the Edge of Uncertainty
Leaders face unique pressures today and often in turbulent environments. Upwards of 35% of leaders now report being chronically stressed. Personal distraction and lack of team alignment causes all sorts of performance leakage. Mindful leadership is about being able to direct attention in ways to promote exemplary listening and communicating skills, connecting with others and forging powerful relationships, managing stress, and moving from reactive to responsive mindsets. This timely and unique program offers everyday tools that will have an immediate effect on how you lead and get the culture moving in the right direction.
Virtual Leadership Forums
Building Resilience in Times of Change and Transition
People today are experiencing extremely high levels of stress in the workplace. Organizations are trying to do more with less, furthering the increase in employee workloads with no end in sight.
In fact, leaders are discovering the impact of pushing themselves and their teams harder than ever: health and well-being suffer. As a leader, you need to learn how to ensure both high performance AND sustainable well-being for yourself and your people.
This virtual session is for leaders at all levels and is based on 30 years of research explaining how some people are able to operate under high levels of pressure and still avoid stress. In this program, leaders will learn the Challenge of Change method and how they can use it to build individual and organizational resilience for the long term. Pressure is inevitable, yet stress is something individuals create.
Takeaways:
- Understand the difference between pressure and stress
- Learn how stress is created and how resilient people avoid it
- Learn how you can lead in a way that builds resilience for your team
- Learn a process for building long term resilience
- Learn a set of tools that you can apply immediately to both work and personal life
Leading Right Now
This two-hour session tracks emerging best practices for leading during upending change. Leadership scholar-practitioner Dr. Keren Stashower has been advising managers in multiple sectors as they work their way through the challenges facing us during this time. While we can’t predict what the future will hold, we can form our responses in ways that shapes who you and your team will be on the other side. This session includes real-time approaches and practices that can help maintain cohesion, breed confidence and support long-term organizational spirit, morale and productivity.
Employee/Manager Coaching Support
Employee/Manager Coaching Support
We can offer 1:1 coaching support for employees and managers who may need specific support as they adjust to work from home requirements. Coaching support can address various topics, such as:
- Stress management
- Time management
- Challenges in working from home
- Creating structure and routine to enhance job performance
- Communication skills within and between teams
- Self-care
- Managing change
- Job performance and productivity issues
Virtual Peer Support Groups
Virtual Peer Support Group for Mid-Managers
This program provides learning, connection, and support. Participants meet on a monthly basis virtually to build on leadership topics and how to be most effective in their roles. Individuals create a sense of community and a supportive network in the organization by sharing insights, dialogue, and ideas. Sessions can be supported by a Centre consultant or a rotating group leader will be provided a guide to lead the group through discussions and learnings. These groups offer cross collaboration and networking connections. During these times of isolated work environments, don’t miss the opportunity to experience powerful relationship building.
Facilitated Leadership Offsite: Making This Disruption Productive
Facilitated Leadership Offsite: Making this Disruption Productive
COVID-19 forced all organizations to transition quickly. As a result, your organization is working on the front-line or is settling into virtual day-to-day work or maybe a combination of both. Regardless of your current situation, all organizations have been disrupted from our normal processes for engaging with one another and are now faced with the next phase of economic recovery and potentially longer-term physical distancing. It would be a miss to not productively plan for this next “first” in our history. This facilitated workshop promises to:
- engage your leadership team to learn from what has worked and what hasn’t worked to pull useful tools into the future,
- determine appropriate community outreach and plan for economic recovery,
- dialogue about the truly crucial services and discuss how to meet other needs or demands,
- plan out next steps to engage with your workforce to evaluate the morale and decide on communication strategies to engage appropriate stakeholders (e.g., employees, union) in the next steps, and
- determine your next steps (and associated policies and practices) for an ongoing remote workforce.
The specific format (virtual or in-person), length, and focus of the leadership offsite will be determined through conversation with each client.
