On-demand Transform course catalog

Leading an organization through any change, big or small, is a challenge. Leaders who try, with the best of intentions, to lead transformational change get rejected by the system and pushed aside. In this course, we explore the Adaptive Leadership framework & equip learners to weather the storm of change in their organizations, develop strategies to lead confidently forward and enable their teams to thrive.

Learning Outcomes:

• Examine the difference between leadership and authority.
• Compare and contrast adaptive challenges and technical challenges.
• Learn how to lead adaptive change by depersonalizing conflict, regulating the heat, and creating a holding container for change to occur.
• Apply the Adaptive leadership framework to get your team unstuck and moving forward.

Cultivating Relational Mastery is a core practice of our Best-Self Management philosophy, where every employee demonstrates genuine care about their team members. Managers will learn to ensure their team feels seen and heard in order to support their growth and performance. In this course, participants will learn foundational skills for effective relating and for creating and sustaining psychological safety to build strong professional relationships and creative, innovative teams and organizations. They’ll also learn the practice of the Best-Self Kickoff to build sturdy relational foundations.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the relationship between psychological safety and high performance.
• Gain strategies to increase psychological safety in their workplace relationships.
• Apply the Best-Self Kickoff to strengthen relationships with employees.
• Gain awareness of relational energy and its implications for strong relationships and performance.

In this Kickoff course, participants will learn the foundations of the Best-Self Management philosophy, the “why,” and the science behind several of the keys to thriving and human potential. Understanding these concepts will underpin the skill sets managers will be developing throughout the Manager Accelerator. In particular, managers will learn how and why understanding and consistently incorporating these keys to thriving and human potential creates the foundation for highly engaged, high-performing teams and organizations.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the relationship between individual thriving & organizational performance and engagement.
• Identify strategies for creating wellness for themselves, in their relationships, and in their work culture.
• Create a learning goal (or self-development objective) to define how they aim to grow as a leader.

A feedback culture is foundational for any team to grow, adapt, and perform. Managers will gain a comprehensive understanding of feedback and its importance in team performance and engagement. Learn about the power of preparation and different dimensions of feedback. Explore ways to identify and address biases that may distort perceptions and hinder objectivity. Address the emotional challenges of feedback and learn how cultivating a growth mindset leads to more effective feedback.

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn practices that normalize and integrate continuous feedback as an aspect of team culture.
• Identify biases that distort our perceptions, and learn how to minimize them for fairer feedback.
• Practice making specific and observational statements instead of judgments.
• Help yourself and your team be more receptive to feedback

In today’s global workforce, diversity is a competitive advantage. In this course, managers will learn a shared language to more effectively talk about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. They will get a chance to explore aspects of their own identity a necessary element in Being and Becoming their Best. Finally, they will learn how to bring inclusion into meetings in order to tap into the power of collective intelligence.

Learning Outcomes:

• Develop definitions for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
• Understand how DEIB impacts employee engagement, performance, and innovation.
• Identify important aspects of their own identity.
• Gain strategies to demonstrate inclusion and build psychological safety in team meetings.

In this course, managers learn about delivering positive feedback effectively. They begin by understanding the power of positivity and why it’s so crucial to intentionally create positivity in our team cultures at work. Then, there will be opportunities to practice specific skills such as effectively recognizing and encouraging people.  Managers will dive into a practice called strength spotting, the process by which we call out and reinforce people for their individual strengths and the impact of those strengths.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the negativity bias and the value of implementing a higher positivity ratio in feedback.
• Gain strategies to provide feedback to build strong relationships (eg. Strengths-Spotting, Active Constructive Responding).
• Understand the value of continual and strategic encouragement.

This course focuses on learning evidence-inspired practices to facilitate better conversations by sharing what you saw, heard, or noticed without layering judgments, assumptions, and inferences. Managers will learn the skill sets needed to deliver constructive feedback and redirection required for mindset or behavior change. They will practice the 15Five Best-Self Feedback model aimed at creating a safe and productive feedback conversation.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand how requesting feedback creates psychological safety.
• Gain strategies to receive feedback well.
• Gain strategies on how to give Feedback for Redirection (eg. observations, Non-violent Communication).
• Gain strategies for making agreements towards new action.

In this course, we explore some of the most challenging and powerful aspects of feedback and what techniques result in healthy & high-performing teams. Participants will learn about the importance of recognition for boosting motivation and encouraging positive behaviors. They'll also learn how to create psychological safety when giving feedback, including a framework to help you handle difficult conversations with confidence and constructive action. Finally, discover the power of coaching as a leadership skill to help team members in their growth and development.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand and combat ‘negativity bias’ with the practice of strengths-spotting to build a positive feedback culture.
• Create the conditions for a psychologically safe conversation by identifying triggers and learning practices to restore safety.
• Gain techniques for having difficult conversations with empathy and constructive action.
• Develop coaching skills, including the use of open-ended questions and deep listening

As a manager, goals are a powerful mechanism for motivating your people and aligning your team to accomplish extraordinary results for your organization. This course equips managers with the skills to create impactful goals to motivate their team and drive towards measurable outcomes. Participants will learn to design inspiring goals, support their team in executing and progressing towards them, and foster a culture of autonomy matched with accountability.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand how a personal growth mindset impacts learning and performance.
• Identify their own intrinsic and extrinsic motivators.
• Gain strategies to set effective SMART goals, OKRs, Breakthrough Goals, and Learning Goals.
• Identify common challenges in goal setting.
• Gain strategies on how to set context, motivate, and make agreements for goal progress.
• Understand the importance of aligning individual goals with department goals.
• Gain strategies for weekly prioritization (eg. deep work, navigating whirlwinds).
• Gain strategies to support team members in re-goaling when priorities shift.

Many people spend 50% or more of their work time in meetings, yet 92% of employees consider meetings to be unproductive. In this course, we explore how to run an effective meeting by evaluating common meeting facilitation mistakes and identifying strategies to lead common meeting types. Finally, learners will audit their meetings to identify inefficiencies and make changes for higher levels of productivity.

Learning Outcomes:

• Evaluate the 12 components involved in leading effective meetings.
• Apply best practices to hold effective meetings for the most common meeting types.
• Audit current meetings processes to identify inefficiencies and create a plan for meeting facilitation improvement.

Forbes reported that 25% of all professional worker jobs are now remote. While the COVID pandemic pushed many companies to remote or hybrid work, this part of the way we work is here to stay. As a result, teams are drawing from the best of the best around the country or even the globe. The skill level and the diversity of thought are a competitive advantage. In this course, managers learn to sharpen their skills for managing and coaching individuals from different locations, outside of their company’s headquarters location.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand new theories around global leadership, DEI&B and more
• Adopt best practices for leading inclusive meetings with multilingual teams
• Examine the presence of cultural dimensions in the workplace
• Increase leadership competencies for leading globally

As a leader, 1-on-1s are one of the most important tools in your leadership tool kit to keep your people engaged, productive, and high performing. In this course, we’ll start by talking about the importance of having a one-time kickoff meeting at the start of your working relationship, before you even begin your continuous 1-on-1s. And then we'll go into what a successful 1-on-1 framework looks like. We’ll discuss how to prepare for your 1-on-1 meetings and how essential it is to relate and connect personally.

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn effective frameworks to guide 1-on-1s.
• Gain strategies for building strong relationships during 1on1s (relating, psych. safety, role clarity).
• Gain strategies for leading continuous and effective dialogue during 1-on-1s (goals, feedback, growth, actions).
• Understand how to utilize asynchronous check-ins to supplement 1-on-1s.

Coaching really matters when it comes to producing higher levels of performance and engagement on your teams. It also has the power in deepening your connection with your people both personally and professionally. This course is designed to give you some powerful and actionable insights into how to become a better coach. These lessons will be dissecting what it means to go from a Manager to a Coach, and the shift in thinking and approach that is required for you to become a truly effective coach to your people.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the directive, situational and non-directive approaches to leading people.
• Gain strategies to apply non-directive coaching (eg. open-ended questions, active listening).
• Gain and demonstrate coaching competencies through mock peer coaching exercises.

Goals exist in a changing world. Effective managers are not only skilled at setting goals, but in consistently managing goal progress over time. In this new course, managers will learn how to establish a conversational cadence for discussing goal progress as a team. They’ll also learn how to address and resolve roadblocks collaboratively, lead retrospective meetings to surface wins and learnings, and ensure goal-setting improves each cycle.

Learning Outcomes:

• Develop a structured team progress meeting plan to track goal progress effectively.
• Learn how to personalize your communication for different stakeholders and leaders.
• Apply the Fierce Conversation model to collaboratively address roadblocks and expedite progress.
• Conduct “retrospectives” to celebrate wins, learn from challenges, and rally team members around new goals.

Managing performance is a manager’s primary responsibility, but how does one effectively manage the performance of various individuals to create the most engaged and high-performing team? In this course, managers will become familiar with the blueprint of continuous performance management. They will gain strategies to fairly and objectively measure and assess performance and to have growth-based conversations with their people.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the value of clear agreements for fair reviews (company compensation policy, performance agreements).
• Identify common biases that impact performance reviews.
• Gain strategies to fairly assess performance (results, competencies).
• Gain strategies to have strengths-based growth and development conversations (eg. bi-annual, separate compensation conversations).
• Gain strategies to lead action planning conversation (eg. coaching up, coaching out)

In current times, “burnout” has become a blanket term to describe many experiences at work. But what is burnout? And how do we prevent it? In this course, managers will explore the stress landscape and learn how certain types of stress may lead to burnout. They will be able to define and identify symptoms of burnout as well as the causes that may be present in the workplace. Finally, they will learn about their responsibility in preventing burnout on their teams and gain strategies to keep their team members healthy and engaged.

Learning Outcomes:

• Gain awareness of inequities involved in workplace stress.
• Understand the distinction between eustress and distress & their implications for burnout.
• Identify the leading symptoms of burnout.
• Gain strategies to prevent burnout for themselves and for their team members.

In this course, we’ll talk about where OKRs come from, a little bit about the history of this practice, and what makes an OKR. What does it stand for? Why does it matter? Managers will get into the mechanics of how to write an objective that is impactful and key results that are measurable. This course hits on the pitfalls of objectives and key results, especially when you're starting out. Finally, we're going to talk about how to check in on OKR progress, particularly in your one on ones or your team meetings.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand how aligned & transparent goals lead to engagement and high performance.
• Gain strategies to create effective Objectives and Key Results.
• Identify potential pitfalls in setting effective OKRs.

Feedback is most effective when it considers and adapts to its audience. In this course, we’ll explore additional ways to hone the practice of feedback specific to different working relationships and scenarios. Learn how to have critical conversations whenever conflict arises, while creating regular space for peer and upward feedback. Participants will also discover methods for bringing a deeper cultural awareness to their conversations which involve feedback.

Learning Outcomes:

• Use a conversational framework specifically for addressing and resolving conflict with coworkers.
• Share wins, challenges, and learnings as part of a group peer feedback practice.
• Discover how culture can influence preferences for feedback.
• Learn and apply practices that help to identify and honor differences in feedback needs.

Skills Covered:

• Going Direct: Resolving Tensions with Coworkers
• Peer Feedback that Strengthens Your Team
• Reducing the Fear Factor of Upward Feedback
• Giving Feedback Across Cultures

In today’s work environment, remote work continues to be on the rise. Companies are becoming more flexible with their work-from-home policies as well as tapping into a distributed network to secure top talent. How do managers effectively manage these remote or dispersed teams? In this course, managers will explore the value of connection & collaboration in a remote environment and learn tips and tricks to build trust & create processes that will ultimately lead to psychological safety and innovation.

Learning Outcomes:

• Gain strategies for building trust remotely.
• Gain strategies for managing performance remotely.
• Gain strategies for collaborating remotely.

Clear expectations are the most basic and fundamental employee needs. Role Clarity is a key mechanism for creating the psychological safety required for innovative, nimble teams. In this course, participants will understand their responsibility to ensure clarity around roles and responsibilities. They will gain strategies to help their teams create clarity in project-based roles as well as in their role on a greater team or within the greater organization.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand how role clarity and psychological safety affect performance.
• Gain strategies to create effective role and performance agreements.
• Learn frameworks that clarify and align teams on project-based role clarity.

In this course, gain insight into understanding motivation, cultivating a belief in achievability, creating SMART Goals & OKRs, and implementing focused strategies with measurable progress.

Learning Outcomes:

• Develop the ability to articulate and clarify personal and organizational goals, understanding the intrinsic motivations that drive commitment.
• Learn the importance of strategic planning, time management, and breaking down big goals into manageable steps for efficient and focused achievement.
• Understand SMART Goals and OKR goal-setting methodologies to foster alignment and collaboration within teams

As a leader, creating goals for your team is just the beginning of achieving them. In this course, you will learn how to take what they’ve identified as essential success measures within goals and move towards execution with their team.

From fleshing out strategic initiatives using team input, to identifying dependencies and constraints to reduce roadblocks early on. Participants will learn how to get stakeholder alignment for goals, while considering values alignment to minimize unintended consequences.

Learning Outcomes:

• Develop skills to translate goals into actionable plans through engaging team brainstorming.
• Master the identification and management of dependencies and constraints in project goals.
• Acquire techniques for creating consensus and buy-in among key stakeholders
• Understand the crucial link between goals, values, and ethical behavior, ensuring responsible leadership.

A focus on career growth is one of the most effective ways to help individuals and teams to thrive. In this course, participants will learn how to identify, cultivate, and leverage their strengths, values, and passions to ultimately build an aligned vision for their career growth. Applying these skills to their own growth will inform their ability to support growth conversations with their employees.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the importance of supporting the use of strengths at work.
• Identify top strengths, values, and passions and apply them to your role/work.
• Gain strategies to lead strengths-alignment discovery and career growth planning conversations with their direct reports.

Work Groups. Collaboration. Teamwork. On average, over 40% of an employee's workday is spent working in teams. However, a recent study showed that 72% of employees report having at least one “horrendous collaboration group experience.” In this course, we discuss and evaluate the elements necessary for successful team collaboration.

Learning Outcomes:

• Identify the team roles that you play the most often as well as roles that may be missing from your current teams.
• Compare communication styles and gain strategies for effective communication with other styles.
• Implement a collaboration plan to aid in solving relevant team problems.

One of the greatest hesitancy people face is the need to ask someone else to do something for them. In this Luminary lesson, Ann Herrmann-Nehdi provides practical insights into overcoming hesitations around delegating tasks. Emphasizing clear expectations, effective communication, and understanding the delegate's perspective, shares essential steps to streamline the delegation process. She stresses the importance of delegation becoming a straightforward and successful endeavor, benefiting both the delegator and the delegate.

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn how to set clear expectations with your teammates and direct reports
• Improve in understanding the perspectives of delegates
• Discover ways to streamline delegation by focusing on clarity and effective communication.

In this Luminary lesson, Marshall Goldsmith emphasizes the importance of delegation effectiveness rather than simply delegating more. He introduces a practical approach that includes open dialogues with direct reports to identify areas where managers can either let go or become more involved. By focusing on delegation that suits each situation and seeking feedback from team members, leaders can enhance their delegation skills and become more effective leaders.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the concept of delegation effectiveness and why it's crucial for effective leadership.
• Learn practical techniques for engaging in 1-on-1 dialogues with direct reports to assess delegation needs, identify areas for improvement, and enhance leadership effectiveness through delegation.

In this Luminary lesson, Dr. Rick Kirschner emphasizes the crucial role of trust in effective persuasion and introduces the concept of blending as a powerful tool for building it. Blending, the act of reducing differences and signaling similarity, is a key factor in effective communication. Dr. Kirschner delves into the visual, vocal, and behavioral components of blending, providing practical insights on how to align with others to foster cooperation and trust in various interpersonal situations.

Learning Outcome:

• Learn how blending, the act of reducing differences and signaling similarity, is a key factor in effective communication and influence.

In this Luminary lesson, Jan Ferri-Reed discusses Patrick Lencioni's Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team model and provides three ways to build the foundation of trust in teams. Her focus is on the critical role of trust in building cohesive and high-performance teams, as highlighted by Lencioni's research. She emphasizes the importance of getting personal with team members, modeling the way, and being confidently vulnerable as effective strategies for fostering trust.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand why “getting personal” with team members is important for team cohesion and performance.
• Learn why confident vulnerability is an effective strategy for fostering trust.

Almost always, communication is an area that can use improvement. Dr. Ellen Burts-Coopers outlines the elements of effective communication within and without teams.

This Luminary lesson focuses on the importance of situational communication, adapting your message based on stakeholders and content.

Learning Outcome:

• Learn how to tailor your approach to be more immediate and supportive, based on the significance of what you’re sharing and how it will affect your audience.

In this Luminary lesson with Dr. Ellen Burts Cooper, she explores trust as the cornerstone of high-performing teams.

Dr. Cooper explains the three crucial types of trust—confidence, contractual, and communication—highlighting their impact on team dynamics and the high costs of low trust, including diminished morale and increased turnover. With an emphasis on transparency, she outlines key components of trust, urging teams to establish a culture of integrity, shared goals, and mutual decision-making for a foundation of trust that fosters productivity and collaboration.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the different types of trust and how certain behaviors erode trust
• Learn how your role as a leader in making decisions for the benefit of the team creates trust in your leadership.

In this Luminary lesson, Professor Michael Roberto explains the importance of creating a climate where it is safe to express opposing views, challenge norms and admit mistakes. He explains multiple ways leaders can create psychological safety to improve communication and performance in their teams.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand what is meant by ‘Psychological Safety’ and why it matters
• Discover how active listening and owning one’s fallibility leads to higher levels of team safety
• Learn how to celebrate ‘courageous candor’ for when people bring forward opposing views to reinforce open communication.

In this Luminary lesson, Marshall Goldsmith challenges the traditional approach to employee engagement, highlighting the often overlooked aspect of self-engagement. He introduces six powerful active questions, starting with "Did I do my best to...," as a tool to take personal responsibility for setting clear goals, making progress, finding meaning, being happy, building positive relationships, and being fully engaged.

Goldsmith shares compelling research results demonstrating significant improvements in various aspects of life for participants who embraced this self-engagement approach, emphasizing its transformative impact by shifting the focus from external factors to personal accountability.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the distinction between passive and active questions in the context of employee engagement
• Learn how to foster personal accountability through the practice of self-reflection

As humans, we tend to focus our attention on what's wrong, rather than what's good in our lives. In this lesson, Author Mike Robbins explains the impact of negativity on our lives and strategies for increasing positivity in yourself and your team.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand what ‘negativity bias’ is and how to spot it in your own life and on your team.
• Learn practices for infusing positivity in scenarios where negativity is degrading team working relationships.

In this luminary lesson, Jason Patent, Ph.D. examines meeting dynamics and agenda-setting in organizations. He highlights the differences between task-oriented efficiency and relationship-oriented values. Dr. Patent provides strategies for each to bridge these differences and have more effective meetings.

Learning Outcomes:

• Gain insights into strategies that enhance engagement, foster collaboration, and streamline decision-making for more productive meetings
• Learn techniques to cultivate an energized and collaborative atmosphere to drive effective communication
• Understand meeting dynamics and identify key factors that lead to successful meetings.

Jason Patent, Ph.D. explores the dynamics of workplace conflict. He introduces the Inter-Cultural Conflict Style Inventory as a tool to understand and navigate conflict styles influenced by both culture and individuality. The ICS Inventory defines four conflict styles based on preferences for communication directness and emotional expressiveness. Dr. Patent provides valuable insights using the tool to recognize and appreciate different conflict styles.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the four conflict styles of the ICS Inventory tool.
• Identify your own personal preferences for communication directness and emotional expressiveness.
• Learn how to recognize and appreciate different conflict styles than your own.

Managing your emotions is critical when engaged in a difficult conversation. In this Luminary lesson, Communications expert Debbye Turner Bell explains how emotions can derail a conversation and provides strategies for practicing emotional intelligence to keep things on track.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand how to more effectively manage your emotions in the workplace
• Learn to understand the root of your emotions to express them in a productive manner
• Recognize and learn to avoid letting your emotions lead to bias

Jason Patent, Ph.D. explains that all of us instinctively craft narratives about people and situations. However, he stresses the value of seeking additional context and information to challenge these immediate judgments. Dr. Patent introduces the DIVE model as a tool for fostering inclusive and effective decision-making in diverse workplaces.

Learning Outcomes:

• Explore the 4 components of perception management and how to use them.
• Use the DIVE model helps you see and dismantle incorrect internal narratives.
  Practice a method to slow down and interrupt snap judgments which lead to harmful bias

Achieving project goals requires you to delegate properly. In this Luminary lesson, Dr. Scott Allen explores five steps that will increase your ability to delegate effectively and lead your team to success.

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn and understand how to use the GOALS framework to more effectively delegate
• Recognize common pitfalls of delegating ineffectively

In this set of Luminary lessons, Dr. Jeanne Porter King explores the dynamics of communication styles through Circle Communicators, champions of collaboration, and Triangle Communicators, proponents of individual effort.

Circle communicators thrive on the "we" for team cohesion, while Triangle communicators excel in direct communication and providing clear direction.

Learn to understand and embrace the strengths of both to navigate workplace influence without compromising cultural identity.

Learning Outcomes:

• Recognize and understand personal dominant communication style.
• Develop the ability to adapt communication style based on situational demands
• Learn to leverage both styles to foster effective collaboration