Details

Through the program Leading Teams for Growth and Change, participants will actively explore the distinctive leadership strategies, structures and skills required to lead teams to, and through, change and growth. Leaders may inadvertently, or by choice, overlook role and relationship issues, leading to the unintended result that their recommendations and leadership activities are often less than successful, if not completely detrimental. Using a participative process and problem-solving framework that includes in-class case analysis, small group discussion, and an actual outdoor rowing experience, participants have the opportunity to:

• Develop strong and sustainable leadership and teambuilding capabilities.
• Experience the not-so-secret steps to take a team to the highest level.
• Learn how to harness individual and team strengths with the strengths of others across the enterprise.
• Understand the interaction between leadership and team performance.

Participants will spend half of their time in a classroom setting, actively engaged in case discussions, simulations and role plays and team exercises that highlight the challenges of teamwork. The remainder of the time will be spent experiencing leading teams and how teams work through hands-on rowing.

The Rowing Experience

The program seamlessly integrates an on-water rowing experience that reinforces and allows for the practice of in-class and small team exercise learnings. Darden is partnered with Gold Medalist Dan Lyons to deliver this dynamic experiential learning opportunity. No rowing experience or specific athletic ability is required.

Just as in building and on-boarding a team in a business or for a project, in the rowing experience — learning the culture/terminology, understanding the roles, experiencing input and providing coaching and direction — the quality of the team’s response is highly dependent on the timeliness of the direction received from the leader. Input from team members and, in a business context, external input from customers — all need to be listened to, heard and processed in a timely manner for expected results to be achieved. Receiving well-timed information is crucial to a team’s performance. The extraordinary leader ensures that feedback reaches the entire team and each individual team member in time to make adjustments and corrections. Often feedback is received too late to have any practical value in the moment. The techniques ascertained in the rowing experience can be directly correlated to the in-class learnings and applied with immediacy upon return to the workplace. This learning experience culminates in a full racing shell competition. Through the rowing application, individuals and teams will receive real-time constructive communication that can instantaneously affect the outcome of the ‘race.’

The fee covers all program materials, program-related meals and housing in a private room at the Inn at Darden for the specified program dates.

Audience

• Directors with accountability for enhancing the effectiveness of their firms.
• Division and unit managers.
• Executives who need to work collaboratively to foster innovation and change.
• Mid- to senior-level managers responsible for growth, and who are in need of a better leadership skillset.
• Project managers seeking to broaden their team leadership skills, thereby improving their project management processes and techniques.
• Those responsible for improving enterprise-wide performance.

Participants Say…

Benefits

• Build a culture that promotes change and growth — a culture where these shifts do not cause hiccups in performance and effectiveness.
• Clearly visualize and communicate goals to teams and organizations.
• Develop new insights on what it takes to successfully lead others.
• Explore new and innovative ways of generating commitment, loyalty and pride from each team member.
• Experientially examine leadership and team building through the rowing exercise.
• Help team members develop creative solutions and view workplace challenges as opportunities.
• Realize how coaching works and builds teams.
• Understand methods of listening to the team and successfully offering feedback.

This program counts as one week toward earning a Certificate of Specialization.

Topics

• Coaching for Exemplary Performance
• Creating a Culture for Paramount Team Functioning
• Bridging Differences in Teams
• Diagnosing and Remedying Team Dynamics
• Learning the Right Lessons From Your Team Experiences
• The Roles Collaboration and Teamwork Play in Change and Business Growth
• The Leadership Secrets for Inspiring Teams
• How Individual Strengths Blend Into Team High Performance

Participants will spend half of their time in a classroom setting, actively engaged in case discussions, simulations and role plays and team exercises that highlight the challenges of teamwork. The remainder of the time will be spent experiencing leading teams and how teams work through hands-on rowing.  

Special Features

Experiential Learning: An experiential format is incorporated to create a deepened learning experience around leading teams and team building in times of growth and change. Participants will spend half of their time in a classroom setting, actively engaged in case discussions, simulations and role plays and team exercises that highlight the challenges of teamwork. The remainder of the time will be spent experiencing leading teams and how teams work through hands-on rowing.

Faculty

Lynn A. Isabella
Associate Professor of Business Administration

Daniel K. Lyons
Guest Contributor; Founder and President of Team Concepts, Inc.