Higher Ground is the place to explore your unique edges, lean into who you are and understand new ways to bring out your magnificence.

Tomi Bryan and Judy Johnson of Leadership Worx are your trusted guides for this unique leadership experience, the first in a series, to take place on Thursday, April 18 in Greensboro, NC.

Learn more and register now.

Rob Kramer

Rob writes, ”In this age of diverse, innovative, and knowledge-based workers, contemporary tools are needed to retain current talent and develop future leaders. Coaching has emerged as a primary instrument for this need. The challenge lies in how it is applied. Oftentimes traditional formalized coaching, used during performance reviews or as a means to give corrective feedback, is met with resistance by the very people it is intended to help.

When released from its conventional use, however, coaching becomes an easily accessible tool to catalyze individual and organizational performance. The framework outlined in Stealth Coaching provides an informal, everyday process to use in daily conversations where real work occurs: between meetings, when people drop by the office, during lunch, or in the hallway. Being stealthful transforms coaching into an effective method to use routinely with staff, peers, and even superiors. Leaders cannot afford not to add this important tool to their toolbox.”

Published just last month, the book is available on Amazon here.

Read more about Rob here.

Maggie W. Dunn serves AvoLead clients as an executive coach and team facilitator. Her areas of expertise include executive leader assessment and coaching, change leadership and building leadership teams. Read more about Maggie here.

Susan Hodgkinson is Principal of The Personal Brand Company^® which she founded in 1994. She serves AvoLead clients as leadership development expert, award-winning executive coach and professional speaker. Learn more about Susan here.

Julianne C. Wright serves clients as an organizational and leadership development consultant. Her areas of expertise include leadership training, facilitation, executive coaching and assessment. Meet Julianne here.

AvoLead is proud to welcome Maggie, Susan and Julianne. Their talents and those of the entire AvoLead team are instrumental in our mission of building hall of fame leadership.

Where: Discovery Learning, Inc. · 431 Spring Garden St. · Greensboro, NC 27401

PressTime® immerses a team of leaders into the challenge of operating a business threatened with loss of market share. It explores effective leadership on dimensions of both cognitive and emotional intelligence. It deals with strategic planning and implementation as well as self-awareness and reflection.

Learn to facilitate the world’s best simulation! PressTime® certification will allow you to take this powerful simulation into any organization to build skills in planning, execution, decision making, collaboration and feedback with a strong emphasis on people capability and engagement.

As a bonus, trainers will also receive certification in Decision Style Profile®. Certification is required for use of both products.

Agenda:

Day One: Jan. 15 – 5:00PM – 7:00PM Introduction/DSP/Dinner

Day Two: Jan. 16 – 8:00AM – 5:30PM PressTime/Large Group Debrief

Day Three: Jan. 17 – 8:00AM – 5:15PM Small Group Debrief/Integration/Facilitation

Day Four: Jan. 18 – 8:00AM – 3:30PM Facilitation Practice/Q&A

One Time Introductory Cost of $2700 includes: Facilitator Guides, PT Team Facilitator Quick Guide, Access to proprietary PressTime Software, DSP PowerPoint, Access to DLI’s Online Assessment Center, DLI Website Listing. (Standard cost $3800).

Click here for more information and registration.

Rather than seeing large companies as the problem, Anthony cites several case studies as evidence that, “although it might seem counterintuitive, large companies are where the innovation action will be.” He describes some of the advantages that giants like Syngenta, IBM, Unilever and Medtronic have over start-ups in championing innovation today. He also discusses the role of what he terms “corporate catalysts,” mission-driven leaders motivated by the desire to solve big — often global — problems.

Read Anthony’s thought provoking post and the complete article here.

What are your thoughts? Where do you see innovation taking place now and in the near future? And, how can we prepare leaders to become corporate catalysts?

IBM had face-to-face conversations with 1700 CEOs from 64 countries. The company wanted to gain insight into how CEOs are responding to the complexity of increasingly interconnected organizations, markets, societies and governments.

The key finding: CEOs must encourage their employees to act like children.

Carl, Friend of AvoLead, Duke Professor, Creative Populist and author of the book, Welcome to the Creative Populist Revolution, reminded us that one of the 4 behaviors creative populism urges us to practice is being playful. The recent IBM study validates that well. The study also revealed that today’s CEOs are thinking more like entrepreneurs. Learn more about Carl and Creative Populism here.

What are your thoughts? We’d like to hear from you.

Joanne McCree has joined the Board of Managers. In more than 20 years with IBM, she led in a corporation undergoing transformational change — cultural, strategic, product and business model. After creating her own executive coaching business in 2004, she joined AvoLead as a Senior Consultant last year. Learn more about Joanne here.

Chris Musselwhite also has joined the AvoLead Board of Managers. Involved in organizational and leadership development since 1972, Chris shares his wealth of experience in program development and delivery, in the creation of numerous learning simulations and assessment tools and as founder, president and CEO of Discovery Learning. Read more on Chris here.

Timothy Stephens has joined AvoLead as a Senior Consultant. Committed to developing high performance teams in the public health, science innovation and other arenas, Tim coaches leaders and teams to better understand their roles and shared goals. As part of the AvoLead LHCS Program, Tim works with first responders and other key medical and governmental personnel on leading in high consequence situations. Meet Tim here.

We proudly welcome these distinguished professionals. Their leadership talents and skills will be called upon regularly as AvoLead continues to help leaders and their organizations navigate the waters of transition and change.

AvoLead® consultants and Friends of AvoLead were some of the fortunate participants. Read some of their comments here:

I volunteered for the supervisor role thinking that would be a great perch to watch the action unfold end to end. And it was! The simulation was masterful at so many things: seeing a system in action, watching people transform from responsibility to self and station to responsibility to the process and end product, the power of course correcting, the power of debriefing, and seeing in action how different types process change. I can’t wait to use the simulation with a client. — Tomi Bryan

I truly enjoyed an outstanding training but the people involved were the real value add. I am very excited about working with the AvoLead team! — Joe Carella

I had some very valuable personal and professional insights as a result of the Paper Planes simulation. My most important insight was that I should try to look at management with the more broad nuanced sense I expect of myself in analytical tasks. — Tim Stephens

The Paper Planes simulation was so much more than I expected. I knew we were going to fold planes and make them fly, but I didn’t realize the extent to which we would unfold our team processes and help our team soar. It was also a great opportunity to meet other professionals in the field and, especially, to work with the AvoLead team. — Suzanne Tofalo

The PPI experience was great! While I was not actively involved in making planes, my role as inventory clerk allowed me to view the roles involved in the process. It was interesting to watch the group dynamics in action. Most were out of their comfort zone in their respective roles. Of course, while we are not aware of our behavior, there were glimpses of behavior patterns that we all fall into when dealing with the unknown. PPI has endless applications and can be used with any group from young people to senior citizens, in all walks of life. While I didn’t get the opportunity to chat with Chris Musselwhite, his incredible vision to build such a dynamic simulation tool speaks to his leadership capabilities. And, the AvoLead participants were absolutely outstanding. I am ready to soar. — Judy Johnson

Joseph D. Carella is a senior consultant with AvoLead. His focus is to improve the performance of organizations, teams and individual leaders. Meet Joe here.

Senior consultant, Anne E. Doster serves AvoLead clients as an organizational effectiveness consultant, facilitator and executive coach. Learn more about Anne here.

A senior consultant with AvoLead, Anna Pool shares her passion for individual and organizational effectiveness through a powerful range of coaching skills and expertise. Read more about Anna here.

Experienced in working with leaders of all levels, Frank H. (Josh) Stroup serves AvoLead clients as a consultant and leadership coach. Learn more about Josh here.

Suzanne Tofalo serves AvoLead clients as an instructional designer and consultant. She has spent more than 20 years in the design, development and delivery of leadership training and development courses in a wide variety of curricula. Meet Suzanne here.

AvoLead is proud to welcome each of these outstanding professionals. We look forward to utilizing their talents to the fullest as AvoLead continues to help leaders and their organizations navigate the waters of transition and change.

Get certified now to use this powerful business simulation. Certification for product use will be required in 2012. Benefits of certification include: listing on DLI website, access to experienced simulation user group, receiving DLI referrals.

February 16, 2012
431 Spring Garden St, Greensboro, NC 27401

Register Now

Register online, by calling 336-272-9530, or by emailing smetzger@discoverylearning.com.

Cost

$350 pr $300 if registered before January 6

Agenda

• 8:30 AM to 9:00 AM – Breakfast
• 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM – Abbreviated Simulation Run
• 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM – Working Lunch
• 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM – Classroom Facilitation