Leadership Skills Academy Takes LVAIC Leaders to New Heights

July 18, 2018, @ 7:50 AM

In 2012, LVAIC partnered with the Center for Business and Industry at Northampton Community College to create a higher-education-specific program for developing management skills among LVAIC community leaders. This program was then known as the LVAIC Leadership Academy, and has since developed into a broader program now known as the LVAIC Leadership Skills Academy. This program teaches employees how to:

• transition from worker to supervisor/manager/leader of others
• manage work and people
• plan for achievement of results
• heighten self-awareness in order to effectively communicate with different personality types
• flex their management styles to the needs of individual team members
• resolve conflicts in order to focus on results and promote teamwork

This program includes the following courses:

Basic Management Skills

Your organization is counting on you to help the institution grow and remain healthy.  To do this, you must master certain basic skills in management — skills such as planning, problem solving, decision making, organizing human capital and work, meeting management deadlines, delegation, communications, and aligning your departmental goals with the goals of the institution.  This program teaches you how to master the fundamentals associated with leading employees and managing work.

Conflict Resolution Strategies

Working with others in formal teams or just informal interdependent groups has become an essential part of the way we do work.  As individuals find themselves in such situations, resolving conflict becomes a critical skill set.  This highly interactive workshop uses classroom discussion as the primary means to provide the learning experience and to practice the tools and techniques presented.  Participants will explore:

• the meaning of conflict
• the impact of conflict
• an assessment of one’s preferred conflict resolution “style”
• how to recognize and more effectively use one’s conflict resolution “style.”

Effective Interactions

Misunderstandings, conflict, and problems arise in the workplace more often from poor communication skills than for any other reason.  This program teaches employees how to understand the power of each and every communication and why effective interactions matter.  Employees explore the basics of communication and the way individuals communicate.  The program addresses the importance of active listening in any interaction.  The art of assertiveness is learned and practiced, and techniques applied.  Ineffective conversations are critiqued and analyzed, and a plan for building strong and effective conversations is developed.

Situational Leadership

While managers have searched for a “best” style of leadership, the evidence from research clearly indicates that there is no single all-purpose leadership style.  Successful leaders are those who can adapt their behavior to meet the demands of unique situations.  Situational Leadership is a method for participants to learn to use flexibility in their leadership in order to meet a variety of needs.  Through the use of lectures, videotape case studies, instruments and group discussions, participants will identify their own style and learn how to use it more effectively.

To learn more about the program, visit the Leadership Development Opportunities page of the LVAIC website.