Essential Leadership Training: What to Consider and How to Choose
My leadership blog is all about helping current and emerging leaders learn how to transform difficult conversations and dysfunctional workplace relationships into positive and productive ones.
Essential Leadership Training: What to Consider and How to Choose
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Simply making the decision — the commitment — to transform a dysfunctional workplace relationship is a crucial first step in making it happen. But that alone isn’t enough.
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Are you fully prepared for your IRONMAN adventure race in workplace relationships?
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This coming weekend, my wife, Jen, is participating in her first adventure race, Storm the Trent. She’s teaming up with her best friend, Jenn, and their team name is “The Two Jens”.
/
While that may not be the most creative team name, it certainly is accurate.
/
The race, billed as a beginner’s event, consists of 25 km of mountain biking, 6 km of trekking and 9 km of canoeing. In miles, that’s roughly 15½, 3¾ and 5½, respectively.
/
My take is that perhaps they call it a “beginner’s event” because they don’t expect anyone to actually finish; I have my doubts that I could. However, that is the one goal that my wife has in this race: to finish … or, perhaps, simply to survive.
/
There’s a specific collection of equipment and supplies that are mandatory for all race participants: some of which my wife already had, such as 6 Band-Aid brand bandaids (has no one ever required 7?); some of which she’s borrowing from Jenn, like a good bike; some of which she’s gone out to buy, such as a new bike helmet (who knew those things expired after 5 years?).
/
Here’s my 3-step summary of her preparation plan:
/
She committed.
She signed up, she paid the entry fee, she said “damn the torpedoes – full steam ahead!”
/
She did some homework.
She read about what was involved, gathered what equipment she would need and reviewed the map.
/
Well …
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k5hWWe-ts2s" width="420" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe>
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What’s missing?
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Training
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The extent that Jen has trained for this event has indicated one thing for certain: her legs work. The reason for this is that she spends most of her waking hours attending to a demanding, full-time managerial job and at least equally demanding role as the mother to two, young children and the husband to yours truly. And she does an outstanding job on all fronts.
/
So the fact that Jen hasn’t done any focused training for her arduous journey ahead is completely understandable. After all, even if she comes back all battered and bruised, barely able to walk and swears that she’ll never do anything like that ever again, who cares? After all, the stakes aren’t high.
/
In my view, she’s already victorious.
/
But what if it wasn’t an adventure race she was embarking on?
/
What if her commitment was to transform a dysfunctional workplace relationship that she’s been suffering through?
/
That’s a different story.
/
/
Failing to achieve that goal
to transform that relationship has
very serious implications in 4 areas:
Personal
Chronic stress that poses major risks to your health and lowers your professional effectiveness.
Career
Underperformance hinders your career advancement.
Team
Strained group dynamics kill productivity.
Organization
Reduced effectiveness and profitability.
/
How to Train:
/
After you’ve made the commitment to transform a difficult workplace relationship, by all means, do some reading on the subject.
/
And then consider this …
/
Reading about how to do well in an adventure race and listening to someone tell you how to do well in an adventure race, is not the same as training for one.
/
Theory is important but it can only take you so far.
Training requires practice.
It’s getting your butt out on the bike, running the trails and paddling the canoe.
Then, come race day, your body and mind will be prepared — and you’ll be able to react effectively to whatever you encounter.
/
How to Choose the Right Leadership Training:
Decide what’s essential to your leadership development.
/
I firmly believe the most essential type of leadership training and development — for just about everyone — is learning how to create and maintain positive and productive workplace relationships, to be able to transform difficult conversations and dysfunctional workplace relationships into positive and productive ones.
/
If you’re not sure about this, explore my other blog posts and webpages and/or do some of your own research. In the end, you may decide this is what you need or you may not.
/
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Choose a well-designed program and well-qualified facilitator.
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Learning these essential leadership skills requires a program that effectively blends and leverages both theory and practice.
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Choose a program that is designed and delivered by a leadership development specialist with unique experience and skills in this niche area.
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If all of this leads you to me, that’s fantastic — I can’t wait to help you out!
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If your search leads you to someone else, that’s fantastic, too! My only wish is for your growth and success as a leader.
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Have a productive and enjoyable day.
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— Brie
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Blog Post
Essential Leadership Training: What to Consider and How to Choose
/
Simply making the decision — the commitment — to transform a dysfunctional workplace relationship is a crucial first step in making it happen.
But that alone isn’t enough.
/
Are you fully prepared for your IRONMAN adventure race in workplace relationships?
/
This coming weekend, my wife, Jen, is participating in her first adventure race, Storm the Trent. She’s teaming up with her best friend, Jenn, and their team name is “The Two Jens”.
/
While that may not be the most creative team name, it certainly is accurate.
/
The race, billed as a beginner’s event, consists of 25 km of mountain biking, 6 km of trekking and 9 km of canoeing. In miles, that’s roughly 15½, 3¾ and 5½, respectively.
/
My take is that perhaps they call it a “beginner’s event” because they don’t expect anyone to actually finish; I have my doubts that I could.
/
However, that is the one goal that my wife has in this race: to finish … or, perhaps, simply to survive.
/
There’s a specific collection of equipment and supplies that are mandatory for all race participants: some of which my wife already had, such as 6 Band-Aid brand bandaids (has no one ever required 7?); some of which she’s borrowing from Jenn, like a good bike; some of which she’s gone out to buy, such as a new bike helmet (who knew those things expired after 5 years?).
/
Here’s my 3-step summary of her preparation plan:
/
1. She committed.
She signed up, she paid the entry fee, she said “damn the torpedoes – full steam ahead!”
2. She did some homework.
She read about what was involved, gathered what equipment she would need and reviewed the map.
3. Well …
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k5hWWe-ts2s" width="420" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe>
/
What’s missing?
/
Training
/
The extent that Jen has trained for this event has indicated one thing for certain: her legs work.
/
The reason for this is that she spends most of her waking hours attending to a demanding, full-time managerial job and at least equally demanding role as the mother to two, young children and the husband to yours truly.
/
And she does an outstanding job on all fronts.
/
So the fact that Jen hasn’t done any focused training for her arduous journey ahead is completely understandable.
/
After all, even if she comes back all battered and bruised, barely able to walk and swears that she’ll never do anything like that ever again, who cares? The stakes aren’t high.
/
In my view, she’s already victorious.
/
But what if it wasn’t an adventure race she was embarking on?
/
What if her commitment was to transform a dysfunctional workplace relationship that she’s been suffering through?
/
That’s a different story.
/
/
Failing to achieve that goal to transform that relationship has very serious implications in 4 areas:
Personal
Chronic stress that poses major risks to your health and lowers your professional effectiveness.
Career
Underperformance hinders your career advancement.
Team
Strained group dynamics kill productivity.
Organization
Reduced effectiveness and profitability.
/
How to Train:
/
After you’ve made the commitment to transform a difficult workplace relationship, by all means, do some reading on the subject.
/
And then consider this …
/
Reading about how to do well in an adventure race and listening to someone tell you how to do well in an adventure race, is not the same as training for one.
/
Theory is important but it can only take you so far.
Training
requires
practice.
It’s getting your butt out on the bike …
Running the trails …
and paddling the canoe.
Then, come race day, your body and mind will be prepared — and you’ll be able to react effectively to whatever you encounter.
/
How to Choose the Right Leadership Training:
Decide what’s essential to your leadership development.
/
I firmly believe the most essential type of leadership training and development — for just about everyone — is learning how to create and maintain positive and productive workplace relationships, to be able to transform difficult conversations and dysfunctional workplace relationships into positive and productive ones.
/
If you’re not sure about this, explore my other blog posts and webpages and/or do some of your own research. In the end, you may decide this is what you need or you may not.
Let go of the idea that somehow this problem will go away by itself. Dan Rockwell 
This is a fixed belief that leaves no room or hope for change. This isn’t about forgetting the person’s destructive behaviour, it’s about removing a road block to changing that behaviour.
It’s extremely doubtful that you have an employee who wakes up each day with the express intention of wreaking havoc at work. Most commonly, toxic behaviour is a symptom of emotional pain. I’m not talking about being all “touchy-feely” just for the sake of it — this is pragmatic: problems that are rooted in emotional distress require empathy and compassion to address them effectively. You have to decide to care about getting this person to a better frame of mind.
