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This highly interactive program is conducted virtually using the Adobe Connect platform. It is designed to equip virtual teams with the critical skills and tools to enhance their leadership and team effectiveness.

Because today’s teams are dispersed geographically, sustaining high-performance levels, continuously improving, and staying “engaged” is incredibly challenging. In addition, while the attributes of high-performing teams are the same for all types of teams, several vital distinctions must be considered for virtual teams to achieve high performance. These include challenges to focus and flexibility, using technological tools, and engaging virtually, given the lack of “live” face-to-face interaction on virtual teams. This program equips team leaders and members to accelerate performance in the virtual environment.

In today’s organizations, work gets done through teams. You are not likely to succeed unless team members are aligned, accountable for one another’s success, fully engaged, and competent to act. But no team can operate at peak performance from Day One, though you can accelerate the process. This highly intensive and interactive two-day program is exclusively for entire teams and is designed to quickly move your team to high performance. Team members will learn to diagnose their team’s behavior by mastering the “Team Development Wheel.” This will enable them to assess the team’s “as is accurate,” identify the blockers preventing them from attaining peak performance, and develop a shared understanding of—and commitment to—a game-changing strategy for team success.

This hands-on program deals with structured exercises and “live” team issues. Participants will begin redefining their business relationships and ways of working individually and as a team.

This program is designed to help senior leaders throughout an organization develop to their full potential by allowing them to take responsibility for their growth and development. As organizations attempt to green the next generation of leaders in times of significant constraints, this program equips future leaders to take command of their careers and develops bench strength throughout the organization.

Guttman’s self-coaching approach allows organizations to develop talent continuously while setting the organization up to win big in the future. A self-coaching program is a cost-effective way to develop talent.

Participants will be introduced to Guttman’s dynamic 7-step self-coaching process. They will learn and apply each step, from determining their self-coachability to setting their Intention, from soliciting and analyzing feedback to developing an action plan and tracking progress. This will give them a clear, proven pathway to personal and professional success.

Based on the executive-coaching model that Guttman has used with senior managers for more than 30 years, the process has been adapted for anyone who wants to take his or her career to the next level. The self-coaching process is featured in the book Coach Yourself to Win by Howard M. Guttman.

For managers, one of the most difficult challenges is resolving “people problems,” especially when a direct report’s performance is off the mark. The search for cause often devolves into pointing the finger at the employee; rarely does the manager hold up the mirror to reflect on his or her performance or to look for causes of underperformance that lie in the work environment.

This session introduces participants to a systematic process for finding the causes of performance deviations and planning for corrective action. For performance issues that require employees to change their behavior, managers will gain the coaching skills to become adept at having difficult conversations with employees.

This highly interactive session combines concept briefings, practical exercises, and hands-on application. Participants will come away able to coach effectively; contract with employees for creating goals and changing behavior; and, when needed, involve HR in the process.

Doing what you always did gives you what you always got. And that’s no longer enough in today’s business world, where the bar is continually being raised. An organization’s ability to adapt, innovate, and anticipate requires it to be peopled, on all levels, with creative thinkers.

The inability to unleash your potential creative hinges on how you view yourself. This program starts with the premise that everyone can come up with original, innovative ideas and combine existing ideas in fresh ways.

We’ll begin by examining the assumptions you make about what creative thinking is and what blocks it. We read the self-limiting stories that hold you back and how to replace them with confidence-building strategies to increase your ability to innovate. Whether predominantly left- or right-brained, participants will be better able to access their latent creativity and tap into the other, less-used side of their brain. Through a series of experiential and engaging exercises designed to take you out of your comfort zone, you will begin to approach reality in an entirely new and different way.

Concept briefings by the program facilitator will introduce thought-changing techniques. Then, you will practice and apply these to on-job situations requiring creative solutions. You will be introduced to a pragmatic, creative process: a step-by-step approach for guiding participants to greater creativity, from idea incubation and generation to planning actions that can be taken daily to open up the imagination within.

Leaders are paid to get results through others. But how can a leader ensure that their direct reports are willing and able to give their best? Faced with greater-than-ever workplace diversity—age, gender, race, values, and much more—today’s successful leaders have learned to adjust their behavior to elicit the best performance from everyone around them. They are “player centered,” zeroing in on each team member to determine which leadership behavior works best and with which individuals and varying their interactions accordingly.

This program discusses the four basic leadership behaviors:

• Prescribing
• Directing
• Coaching
• Instructing
• Collaborating
• Partnering
• Inspiring/empowering

Participants will assess their leadership behavior, identifying which behavior comes most naturally to them and probing why that choice may not be optimal in every situation. They will learn how to use the “Leader/Player Wheel,”: a dynamic model that enables leaders to effectively diagnose the needs of their players and then adjust their leadership behavior accordingly.

Decision making: These two words are among the most important in the leadership lexicon. Bad decisions cast a shadow over organizations and those that run them. Effective decisions move an organization forward, create opportunities and growth, and are at the heart of high-performance leadership.

This program is a rigorously “how-to” learning experience that enables participants to master the decision-making fundamentals. Participants are introduced to the Guttman seven-step process for making decisions, practice the strategy on case studies, and then apply it to “live” decisions they are currently making or recommending.

In an age of data overload and increasing complexity, having a typical, step-by-step process for organizing information; asking all the key questions; and assessing outcomes, alternatives, and risks is essential. Participants come away with a common language and systematic approach to decision-making, including identifying desired results, generating and assessing possible options given those outcomes, and then considering potential risks—the latter being the most frequently overlooked aspect of decision-making.

“Effective Decision Making” goes beyond how to “make” decisions per se and transfers the Guttman Decision Protocol for Implementation, which includes issue identification and prioritization, determining levels of decision-making involvement, and selecting the best decision-making mode: unilateral, consensus, or consultative.

This breakthrough leadership development program is based on Guttman’s years of experience working with generations of leaders in organizations of every size and type across the global landscape. We have structured an integrated, best-practices learning experience with five core GDS leadership programs, an upfront organization assessment to ensure relevance and cultural fit, and post-program performance measures.  We then field-tested the program over many years.

The process begins with a needs assessment in which we probe the leadership-related issues confronting the organization, both currently and shortly, the capabilities needed to achieve success, and the skill gaps and developmental priorities. The findings allow Guttman consultants to tailor each building block—and to reconfigure the building blocks themselves—to meet specific organizational objectives.

Each of the five building blocks focuses on mastering a core team leadership capability: influencing—engaging others to move in the desired direction; conflict management—working through issues in a way that builds relationships and accelerates results; developing high-performance leaders—enabling leaders to assess the strengths of team members and vary their leadership behavior accordingly; leading high-performance teams—driving up results by structuring teams for high performance from day one.  And, lastly, managing performance—enabling managers and employees to work together as partners to raise productivity and business results significantly.

While “Enhancing Leadership Effectiveness” offers a robust leadership development experience when embedded directly into business units and functional groups, it is ideal for those corporate universities seeking to go beyond standard, ad hoc training programs to offer a more strategically focused, results-based approach to building the leadership capability of current and emerging leaders everywhere in an organization.

The program consists of five one-day programs, delivered at phased intervals over six months:

• Managing Conflict
• Influencing Others for Results
• Developing High-Performance Leaders
• How to Lead Your Team
• Managing Performance

After each building block is completed, participants return to the workplace with specific objectives and assignments intended to enrich their mastery of the subject matter and embed newly acquired capabilities into their leadership behavior. Pre- and post-program assessments monitor progress and behavior change.

In the words of sports great Casey Stengel, “It’s easy to find good players; getting them to play together is the hard part.” Working in teams doesn’t come naturally for most people, whether in sports or business. In business organizations, the difficulty is compounded by the fact that, traditionally, employees have been rewarded for their contributions to the organization.

As more organizations have shifted to the team model, and more and more work gets done by teams—whether cross-functional, cross-regional, or global—the ability to lead a team effectively and efficiently is at a premium. But becoming a high-performance team leader doesn’t come naturally, at least not for most managers. Nor is the traditional route to team leadership—technical proficiency and functional expertise—an adequate training ground for learning how to work through others to get results.

It is an acquired capability that involves mastery of the critical elements necessary for team leadership and success. “How to Lead Your Team” is designed to transfer that capability.

We begin by examining why great business teams outperform others and the pivotal role of great team leaders in shaping a group of individuals into a goal-driven, aligned entity focused on achieving team wins. We introduce the “Guttman Team Development Wheel” and review the four stages of team development and the specific strategies that team leaders must adopt to manage players through each step, ultimately taking the team to Stage 4: High Performance. During this highly experiential session, participants will take a close, introspective look at their leadership behaviors, examine how they may be inadvertently sabotaging team performance, and then be introduced to—and practice using—the tools needed to plot a path toward the highest level of team performance.

This integrated, 360-degree program is designed to equip senior-level leaders with the full range of strategic, operational, and interpersonal capabilities needed to show powerfully and excel in today’s organizations.

To compete effectively at senior levels, leaders must think incisively about their organization’s future direction: to ask the tough questions and understand how strategy drives operational planning and decision-making. They must be fully evolved; high-performing players can build high-performing teams and possess the savvy and interpersonal skills to shape and influence outcomes across organizational boundaries, especially in highly matrixed environments.

Mastering the full range of these capabilities cannot be done in a single session or with an ad hoc selection of program offerings. For this reason, we offer a 12-month career-building experience with a carefully designed curriculum.

This in-depth development combines ongoing assessment of each participant’s leadership behavior and progress, hands-on learning led by expert facilitators, peer-to-peer interaction and cross-fertilization of ideas and experiences, and optional one-on-one coaching.

Each workshop is limited to 12 participants who meet in two-day sessions four times during the program year.

Participants must be in a senior leadership position to qualify for Leadership at the Top. They must also have time to participate in all four quadrants of the program.

The curriculum begins with assessing participants’ leadership behavior, including strengths and areas for improvement. Before the first session, those attending the program will be asked to complete a leadership inventory, which has been designed specifically for senior-level leaders. This instrument enables participants to profile their leadership skills/behavior accurately and provides essential guidance for program facilitators, ensuring that program content meets participants’ needs.

Leadership at the Top is divided into four quadrants:

Quadrant 1:  Leading for High Performance
Quadrant 2:  Leading High-Performance Teams
Quadrant 3:  Leading by Influencing Across Your Organization
Quadrant 4:  Leading Strategically

Following each Quadrant, participants return to their organizations guided by specific objectives and assignments intended to reinforce and extend their learning; ongoing assessments will monitor progress.  Coaching and consulting support are provided through the Guttman Leadership Institute to work individually and organizationally to enhance continuous learning and development.

This 12-month, integrated program is designed to equip senior-level women leaders with the full range of strategic, operational, and interpersonal capabilities needed to excel in today’s organization. The in-depth development experience combines ongoing assessments; hands-on learning, led by senior experts, during and in between sessions; peer-to-peer interaction; structured in-company mentoring; and individual coaching.

The Guttman Leadership Institute’s recognized leadership and organizational development expertise ensures that participants will quickly and effectively optimize their leadership talent and acquire the capabilities needed to meet future challenges.

Each program is limited to 12 senior-level women leaders who meet in two-day sessions four times during the program year.

To qualify for this program, participants must be in a senior leadership position within their organization. They are also required to participate in all four quadrants of the program.

The curriculum begins with “you” as a leader: Where you’ve been, where you are now, and where you want to go. Participants will assess their leadership behavior, identifying strengths and improvement areas. This creates a development roadmap for participants and our facilitators.

LEAP for Women is designed exclusively for senior-level women leaders. It provides a unique, supportive learning community in which successful women leaders can sharpen their strategic, operational, and interpersonal leadership capabilities, learn from experienced consultant-facilitators, as well as from other participants, and bridge the learning/doing gap through structured interim assignments, one-on-one coaching, and structured sponsorship and mentoring.

This in-depth development experience combines ongoing assessments; hands-on learning, led by senior experts, during and in between sessions; peer-to-peer interaction; structured in-company mentoring; and individual coaching.

Like the LEAP Program for men and women, LEAP for Women provides deep grounding for advanced leaders covering three core areas: strategic decision-making, team and organization development, and interpersonal dynamics.

You will complete the program better equipped to meet today’s executives’ complex demands and overcome the unique challenges facing senior-level women leaders.

Each program is limited to 12 senior-level women leaders who meet three times during the program year.

To qualify for this program, participants must:

• be a senior-level woman leader
• be nominated by their organization
• have the support of their organization for structured sponsorship and coaching
• have the time to participate in each of the three modules and complete interim application assignments
• join in each of the three leadership development modules and complete temporary assignments

The curriculum begins with “you” as a leader: Where you’ve been, where you are now, and where you want to go. Participants will assess their leadership behavior, identifying strengths and improvement areas. This creates a development roadmap for participants and our facilitators.

The GLI Leadership Effectiveness Acceleration Program for Women is divided into three leadership development modules:

Module 1: Developing Your Leadership Brand, Leveraging Your Influence, and Managing Conflict
Module 2: Leading Your Team for High-Performance
Module 3: Making Strategic Decisions

Following each Module, participants return to their organizations guided by specific objectives and assignments intended to reinforce and extend their learning; ongoing assessments will monitor progress.

In addition, LEAP for Women provides a structured mentoring program with on-site support; a world-class GDS leadership coach; ongoing research-based insights into women’s leadership issues and trends; and access to a network of peers to exchange ideas and experiences.

Leading in today’s business environment requires many skills not taught in business school. As organizations strive to develop their “bench strength,” they must ensure that the next generation of leaders has all the skills needed to take over the reins when the time comes.

Attendance at the Guttman “Leadership Excellence” program will give the next generation the skills they need to become high-performance leaders. The comprehensive capability development program comprises six modules, offered at phased intervals.

We begin the program by interviewing the organization’s senior executives to learn which key leadership skills they consider most important. We also ask them to rate the importance of each skill to effectiveness at their level. Next, for each of the key skills, we ask these senior executives to rate the capability of candidates for the “Leadership Excellence” program. Working with the senior level, we then create a plan for each of their reports to close the gap in each skill area.

The planning begins with a meeting between each participant and his/her supervisor, in which goals and measures are set. Then, we formally launch the program with a two-hour overview of senior executives and their reports who will be attending the program. A few days later, we hold a half-day “Senior Executive Round Table,” at which “Lessons from the Top” are shared, and the 360-degree assessments and feedback process they will go through are explained.

At the end of this round table, participants are given a case study to work on in teams before they attend the first capability development session. Also, before the first session, participants solicit 360-degree feedback on their current skills in these critical areas and, with the help of their supervisors, analyze the findings.

Approximately one month after the round table, participants attend the first session, our two-day program on “Managing Conflict and Influencing Others for Results.” One month later, each participant attends a one-hour individual coaching session with a Guttman coach. This is followed soon after by the second capability development session, “Developing High-Performance Leaders.” The final capability development session, “Strategic Decision Making,” is offered between one and two months later.

The program concludes one month later with a wrap-up session at which participants demonstrate their new skills in presentations to peers and managers and plan the resolution of compelling business issues using these skills.

During the five-six-month program, participants’ progress is measured in several ways:

• Between sessions: Participant/supervisor meetings measure progress against the set goals.
• During each session: We assess the quality of presentations they make to one another.
• During the final session: We assess the quality of their presentations to senior executives.
• Six months and one year later: Focus groups are held with participants to determine whether or not they are using the skills and, if not, why not.
• Six months and one year later: Colleagues and supervisors are interviewed to determine whether or not participants’ behavior has changed since attending the program.

Strategic thinking, planning, decision making, financial understanding—these and other “hard” skills are the competencies on which leaders have traditionally been judged. In the last few decades, however, businesspeople have understood that there is another dimension to successful leadership: building solid working relationships within teams and with all those critical to your success. This entails more than intellectual prowess; it requires high emotional and Social Intelligence.

On the intellectual level, team members may agree with and respect their leader, but if they don’t “resonate,” it is doubtful that they will ever fully support or be inspired by their leader’s vision and goals. And, in today’s matrixed business world, we all need to collaborate with people from other functions over whom we have no positional authority. Success requires building, sustaining, or rebuilding trust and establishing strong connections based on mutual respect and understanding with team members and functional colleagues.

Leading with Emotional and Social Intelligence is designed for teams of every type to raise team members’ emotional competency and performance and for individuals seeking to increase their ability to work effectively with others.

The program utilizes the latest ESCI (Emotional and Social Competency Inventory) assessment instruments provided by Korn Ferry. We begin by raising participants’ awareness of the 12 Emotional and Social Competencies that differentiate outstanding from average performers, then helping them identify their current level of proficiency in each. With input from the facilitator and fellow participants, each attendee will develop concrete plans to increase Emotional and Social Intelligence in his or her development areas. The session provides opportunities to practice these new skills.

An added benefit: The emotional and Social Intelligence breakthroughs that participants make during this program will significantly impact all aspects of their professional and personal lives.

Change is about going from here to there. Sounds easy, but navigating the space between the two is rarely straightforward. “Managing Change” provides the road map to cross the challenging terrain between the current situation and the desired future.

Change can be disorienting, especially when it is poorly communicated and not understood. This program provides the key questions that participants need to ask to gain clarity and demonstrates how to integrate the answers into a purposive way forward to “there.” The discussion emphasizes organizational and personal preconditions for success in managing change.

Change begins with the individual. People typically go through several transitional phases when faced with both an ending and a new beginning: the four “Ds”—disorientation, disidentification, disengagement, and disenchantment. During the program, participants complete a self-assessment exercise to determine their phase and how they can move beyond the “Ds” to align with and even embrace change. They also assess which Nine Key Competencies for Dealing with Change they already possess and which they need to acquire. The program zeros in on the causes of change resistance and outline individual, team, and organizational strategies for dealing with them.

In today’s organizations, most work gets done by cross-functional teams. Leaders and members of high-performance teams need a new set of conflict management and influencing skills to succeed in this new work environment.

Based on over 30 years of experience managing conflict at all organizational levels, this program presents a powerful and unique process that enables participants to deal with interpersonal conflicts—one-on-one or in teams constructively—and organizational conflict—whether rooted in cultural processes or structure.

The ability to influence others up, down, and across the organization is also essential for success in today’s organizations. Influencing others is a learnable capability acquired through mastering a systematic process, which is what this program transfers. You’ll learn a step-by-step approach for sizing up situations and people, employing the right influencing strategy to excel, and persuading and engaging others while maintaining solid interpersonal relationships.

As organizations become increasingly matrixed and global, the ability to influence others has become a must-have for leaders. When working across functions and geographies, leaders are often expected to produce results through people over whom they have no direct authority. How can you become a powerful influencer across your organization which commands respect without commanding it? And one who can turn your agenda into theirs by gaining the commitment of others rather than forcing compliance?

This interactive session probes the dynamics of power and organizational politics. Participants will examine how they show up to others.

They will learn to become more agile in their interpersonal relationships, able to employ the full range of influencing behaviors that will enable them to project a new, more powerful image. They will learn how to take the measure of critical colleagues—potential partners, fence-sitters, and adversaries—and frame strategies for positioning their ideas and plans for maximum acceptance by each group.

For many supervisors, performance management means dispensing the dreaded annual performance rating, the results of which often determine merit raises and promotability. It is not an especially practical approach for many reasons, including:

• Performance feedback is typically a once or twice-a-year activity that has a little positive impact on the results you get from your employees.
• Supervisors often find it challenging to set measurable performance goals, provide constructive feedback, and give employees the support they need to develop and improve their on-job performance continually.
• Employees may find it challenging to receive constructive feedback and are not clear about the accountability they have to partner with their supervisor to manage their own performance effectively.

“Optimizing Your Performance Management System” is designed to help managers and employees work together as true partners to create high-performing individuals and organizations. This program describes performance management as a year-round, joint effort between manager and employee to manage employee performance. One of the program’s unique features is that it provides parallel capability-development tracks for both managers and employees. Each session begins by having participants examine the performance management system currently in place in their organization. How is it structured? What actions are required by supervisors and employees to make it successful?

Because meaningful goals are key to the success of any performance management system, we next focus on transferring to both groups a set of capabilities that will enable them to create clear, measurable goals. In an initial two-day session, managers practice writing such goals for their employees; in a half-day program, employees learn to draft their own goals, which they will share and discuss with their supervisor back on the job to align with them on performance expectations.  In a second follow-up training session nine months later, supervisors will prepare to conduct practical year-end performance discussions with employees. This “just-in-time” approach for supervisors gives them the skills they need at the point in the performance management cycle so that learnings are fresh and immediately applied.

And because so much of the success of a performance management system depends on the dynamic between managers and employees, both groups will be introduced to and have an opportunity to learn and practice the interpersonal skills they need to become performance-management partners: active listening, assertion, coaching, resolving differences, giving and receiving feedback.

Flawless project implementation. It’s a tough challenge, given the need to work across national boundaries and functions under severe time and budget constraints. In today’s business world, there is no safety net. Projects must be delivered on time, on budget, and goal. “High-Performance Project Implementation” prepares leaders and members of project teams to achieve those results.

Our approach aligns and develops the three foundational elements required for flawless project implementation: project leadership, team behaviors, and project processes and capabilities. We go beyond one-dimensional interventions that focus on capabilities, tools, or methods. As a result, leaders and players can transform their project teams into high-performing entities that routinely exceed expectations.

“High-Performance Project Implementation” is rigorously results focused. Project management is not a result; it is a process. We prefer to keep the focus on implementation, which is a result.

During the program, participants begin to work on actual projects: setting project objectives, developing working project plans and schedules, delineating responsibilities, creating protocols for team issue resolution and team behavior, and acquiring the capabilities they will need to continue implementation back on the job.

Strategy is more important than ever in a world where change is the new regular. It provides a compass point for making the critical product-, market-, and resource-allocation decisions that drive the business.

In “Strategy Formulation and Implementation,” participants will be introduced to Guttman’s disciplined process for setting strategy—whether for the enterprise, business units, or functions—and linking it to business operations.

By the end of the session, participants will have a solid grasp of what strategy is and what constitutes the critical elements of a strategic framework. This will enable them to set a strategy fully confident that they have touched all the bases.

Strategy is first about taking stock. Participants will learn how to conduct a thorough Situation Appraisal of the current product and market landscape, the competitive picture, internal strengths and vulnerabilities, and potential external threats and opportunities. They will leave the session knowing how to establish a solid strategy baseline. The session develops a clear, specific strategic vision with this information. Participants will learn the key questions to ask to set strategy, establish competitive differentiation, and make the best choices for optimizing scarce resources.

Strategy is also about making key choices relating to produces, markets, key capabilities, and financial expectations. This session provides a disciplined, step-by-step process for making key decisions, including considering risk factors. In addition, participants learn how to structure the involvement of others to ensure full commitment.

For the strategy to be effective, it must be implemented. What key elements must be in place for a strategy to take hold? What are the key alignment levers that drive implantation? What are the implications of alternative strategies on organizational structure, processes, capabilities, and culture? And how best to identify the barriers to success? “Strategy Formulation and Implementation” guides answering these questions.

A key objective for the session is to have participants develop a first-draft strategic plan for setting strategy, whether at the corporate, business unit, or functional levels.

Successful negotiation is more about mindset than muscle. Suppose you approach negotiation as a winner-loser, zero-sum game. In that case, you might ink the deal but don’t count on it being implemented—especially if the support of your “adversary” is required. Consider negotiation a win-win process, and both sides will walk away from the table eager to go from discussion to positive action. But attitude is not enough. Negotiating is a capability that requires a keen understanding of strategy, tactics, human dynamics, and information requirements. Whether your job requires negotiating internally, with other managers and departments, or externally, with clients, vendors, and legal representatives, this program will provide you with the range of win-win mindsets, the core capabilities to excel as a negotiator, and a proven process to ensure that you—and your counterparts—leave the negotiating table as winners fully committed to the outcome.

The program begins with an introduction to the most common negotiating styles. These serve as a template that enables participants to assess their negotiating style and that of the individuals on the other side of the table. The GDS five-step negotiating process—preparation, strategy setting, tactics, closure, and follow-up—will be explained and illustrated, and participants will practice applying the method to various situations.