Thank you for joining us for the final week of our CrossLead: Multi-Team Leader program!
We appreciate everyone’s participation, and hope you all learned techniques and tactics to leverage with your teams. Please join us in our CrossLead Community on LinkedIn clicking here to request to join. We will approve requests as quickly as possible.
Congratulations to all of those who received the CrossLead: Multi-Team Leader certification! For instructions on how to add to your LinkedIn profile or share as a post on LinkedIn Click Here.
The first module of the CrossLead: Multi-Team Leader program will consist of the following presentations: “CrossLead Overview” and “Lead Like a Gardener.”
CrossLead Overview: This introductory module describes the practical experience of transforming a large, bureaucratic organization into an adaptable network of high- performing teams. This segment will frame the limitations of command-and-control leadership styles and offer a compelling case for change.
Lead like a Gardener: In today’s complex world, traditional management practices hold organizations back from unlocking their full potential. The role of leaders must shift from chess masters who carefully plan and execute every move to gardeners who cultivate an environment of continuous growth and self-sufficiency.
The second webinar in the CrossLead: Multi-Team Leader program will cover the following topics: “Agile Planning” and “Prioritization.”
Agile Planning: As President Dwight D. Eisenhower once famously said, “Plans are worthless, but planning is indispensable.” This segment emphasizes the role of planning in an agile enterprise and provides techniques for creating and managing flexible strategic and operational plans that enable companies to experiment and pivot towards their goals.
Prioritization: Focus is a key differentiator for both individuals and organizations; having just a few top priorities outperforms a long list every time. Multi-team leaders are regularly tasked with prioritizing limited resources across disparate groups. This segment will provide an overview of both organizational and individual prioritization, offering tangible frameworks for managing both.
The third module of the CrossLead: Multi-Team Leader program will cover the following topics: “Organizational Learning” and “Team Coaching.”
Organizational Learning: In a complex and uncertain world, no team can expect to always “get it right” the first time; instead, success will be a process of trial-and-error, and the teams who learn the fastest will lead the pack. While some learning occurs naturally across teams, there are several lightweight processes that teams can adopt to accelerate their learning rate.
Team Coaching: Leading an agile team requires a shift from “managing” to “coaching.” Leaders are responsible for building the supportive environment their teams need to thrive, and for addressing performance gaps when they arise. This segment focuses on four specific coaching skills: active listening, demonstrating empathy, delivering feedback, and resolving conflict within and across teams.
The fourth module of the CrossLead: Multi-Team Leader program will take place on a Wednesday, due to election day taking place on the Tuesday of that week. This session will consist of the following presentations: “Growth Mindset” and “Empowerment by Design.”
Growth Mindset: A growth mindset believes that abilities can be improved over time and not fixed at birth. While seemingly simple, shifting to a growth mindset has many positive benefits for leaders: it helps them see feedback as an opportunity rather than a threat and focus on overcoming rather than avoiding challenges. This segment focuses on cue recognition of fixed and growth mindsets within yourself and teammates.
Empowerment by Design: Leading an agile team or a team of agile teams requires that leaders always ask one question: What stops my team from doing the best work of their lives? Removing impediments is one of the essential responsibilities of agile leaders. This segment will focus on identifying systemic barriers to progress and designing habits to reinforce empowerment.
The fifth and final module of the CrossLead: Multi-Team Leader program will consist of the following two segments: “Self-Awareness” and “Summary: Commitments.”
Self-Awareness: Self-awareness is frequently identified as one of the most important skills for career and leadership success. While moderating one’s behavior was necessary for command-and- control settings, it is uniquely critical in agile environments where leaders’ influence outweighs their formal authority. Students will walk away from this segment with practical techniques for improving their self-awareness.
Summary: Commitments: The final module will recapitulate critical learnings from the prior nine modules and share how the students have applied the lessons in their leadership roles throughout the program’s duration. Students will leave the module with tangible examples of how the program’s content has been leveraged by peers to improve their teams’ performance and a personal list of commitments that, as a leader, they plan to uphold after the program.