Zenger Folkman provides microlearning experiences to allow organizations and their leaders to develop key behaviors demonstrated by highly effective leaders. The experiences offered by Zenger Folkman leverage the same research, leadership framework, and strengths-based development methodology as The Extraordinary Leader development experience. They focus on leadership capabilities that are critical—as the way we work is constantly being redefined. Experiences include a self-assessment, feedback report, and development guide. They may be customized to the audience and include a planning conversation with the facilitator.
In times of heightened stress and uncertainty, people need to trust their leaders more than ever. However, understanding how to earn or establish trust perplexes many leaders.
Zenger Folkman’s research reveals three leadership behaviors that form the foundation of trust. Leveraging the results from their self-assessment, participants learn how they can increase trust for themselves and their teams and utilize development tools to create a plan to raise the level of trust they establish with others.
Our working environment is changing by the minute. Leadership speed is fast becoming a required skill for today’s highly effective leaders. Research shows that a leader’s ability to execute fast and execute right dramatically improves an organization’s results.
Leaders learn the key behaviors that will help them navigate the demand for greater agility, innovation, and pace. In addition, they take a self-assessment to identify their personal preferences across three spectrums directly correlated to leadership speed and receive a development tool to help them lead with speed.
(Coming soon)
According to our research, the one skill that has the most impact on leading effectively during times of change or challenge is the ability to communicate powerfully. Most leaders are good at keeping those they lead informed. But there is an enormous difference between leaders who simply inform others and those who communicate powerfully.
Leaders take a self-assessment to help them understand their natural inclinations when it comes to communicating with others. They learn the five behaviors that will significantly improve their ability to communicate with impact and receive a development tool to help them create an action plan to communicate powerfully now.
In today’s complex environment, leaders must boldly step forward with a willingness to take on new goals, challenge standard approaches, and push boundaries. Our research has identified the balance of behaviors that highly effective bold leaders use to influence others.
Leaders learn a simple, practical approach to improve their ability to effectively influence others. They take a brief self-assessment and receive development tools to help them understand the specific steps they can take to lead boldly as they face uncertain times.
In our current environment, leaders may find themselves pushing others to achieve the results necessary for the organization’s success. However, the research is clear. The ability for leaders to pull others towards the goal is the supreme leadership capability. Inspiring and motivating others is the best leading predictor of employee commitment and satisfaction during times of tranquility or crisis. Yet, it is the behavior that leaders struggle with most.
Leaders take a self-assessment to understand their natural inclination for pushing or pulling others. They learn the ten behaviors that highly inspirational leaders use to motivate others. Using a research-based development tool, they create a personally relevant plan to improve their ability to inspire those they lead.
During times of change or challenge, leaders who are highly resilient not only survive, but thrive amidst a constantly shifting landscape.
Participants receive personal insights on how they currently approach their work and are given specific, data-supported ways to develop this skill. They leave the session with a individualized plan focused on improving leadership resilience.
If you asked 100 leaders if they possessed racial, age, gender, or other bias, how many would answer yes? Zenger Folkman’s research shows that 25% of leaders are completely unaware of their blind spots.
Participants learn the five critical skills that do the most to help leaders improve their ability to convey that they value diversity and seek to genuinely include others. They are given specific insights to create a development plan to facilitate improvement.
Rapid change often exposes the vulnerabilities of leaders and organizations that lack agility. Agile leaders can thrive even in quickly shifting and unpredictable circumstances. Learning agility is the key competency that separates those who are successful from those who are still struggling to adapt.
Participants learn new ways to navigate a changing environment and the four skills to successfully advance one’s ability to respond to change. They also discover new ways to navigate a changing environment.
Strategic thinking is an essential component of leadership—and one of the most difficult competencies to acquire.
Participants are shown compelling data that shows strategic thinking as a critical competency for long-term career advancement. They are also asked to consider why strategic thinking is critical for their functional role today. They receive personal insights on how they currently approach their work and are given specific, data-supported ways to develop this skill. Participants leave the session with a individualized plan focused on improving this key leadership competency.
Every CEO wishes for more collaboration in their organization. At the same time, many of their managers complain that they are overwhelmed with poorly planned meetings, ineffective group events, and a never-ending stream of emails asking for information and assistance. Instead of synergy, these organizations get dysfunction.
Zenger Folkman measures each participant’s tendency to act independently or interdependently, and offers four companion behaviors that enable leaders to work more collaboratively. Each participant creates a personal development plan for improvement.
What do great problem solvers do differently? This complex skill is almost always ranked by leaders as one of the top four most important leadership skills. With focus in the right areas, this is a skill that can be developed.
Participants examine the skills associated with problem solving, and learn the steps to ferret out problems and analyze issues. The optimum steps in the solution process are revealed and a process for creating a development plan is introduced.
Evidence shows that employees are more highly engaged and satisfied when they are working on challenging assignments. Despite that, some leaders seek to protect their employees from difficult projects. Other leaders challenge employees to do more and tackle lofty stretch goals. Can leaders create too many stretch assignments? Does it matter if the goal is set by the group, rather than by the leader alone?
Setting goals can be as challenging as meeting them. Participants learn the advantages and complexities of seeking high development targets. They analyze the barriers organizations and managers experience and discover the four skills research shows helps leaders to successfully establish stretch goals. They leave with a focused development plan for improvement.
For organizations to be successful, leaders must have the skills to help people reach their full potential. Today’s employees want opportunities for growth earlier in their careers.
Participants discover the five researched behaviors that empower leaders to develop others. They are presented with three data-driven approaches for developing others and take a self-assessment to discover which of the three approaches is a good fit for their development style. Then, using our unique guide, they create an action plan focused on developing one of the five crucial behaviors.
We spend a third to half of our waking hours each week at our job. The workplace, whether at home or in an office, is a critical place for developing meaningful connections. Our data shows that leaders who excel in specific areas can develop more positive relationships and, in turn, significantly improve employee engagement, retention, and discretionary effort.
Leaders assess their strengths and approach to connecting with others. They discover what exceptional relationship-builders do. And they create a development plan selecting from a precise set of strength-building behaviors that are proven to improve relationships.
Initiative is the force that pushes you to persist in the face of inertia and difficulty and see your project or idea through to a successful conclusion. It’s the spark that great leaders know how to ignite in themselves and others. It spurs productivity and drives results. Every team and organization benefits from leaders who know how to inspire initiative.
Participants assess their personal initiative barriers and growth opportunities. They learn about the research we’ve gathered on expanding initiative. Finally, they put together a plan for utilizing six strength-building behaviors to develop initiative.
New processes, ideas, methods, and approaches are critical to the continuing success of any organization. Organizations need innovative leaders who recognize the importance of fostering a culture from which innovation emerges. Indeed, peak levels of innovation are dependent on the quality of leadership in an organization.
Leaders complete a self-assessment that identifies their preferences and effectiveness at innovation. They learn the five strength-building behaviors for innovation, receive a development guide, and create an action plan for targeted growth in these areas.
What drives a leader’s productivity and ability to achieve exceptional results? Research from over 100,000 managers revealed that this skill was at the top of the list of critical competencies for direct reports, and the behaviors directly correlated with effectively getting things done. These behaviors allow leaders to increase their focus, clarify priorities, and ignite their initiative.
In our assessment, participants analyze their preferences for balancing relationship building and achieving results. Next, they discover our research that identifies the six strength-building behaviors that empower leaders to successfully drive for results. Finally, they receive specific insights to create a development plan to facilitate growth in this area.
Leaders set the tone that defines the ethical culture of their workplace. But integrity and honesty are traits that often go unnoticed, so how can we draw attention to and emphasize these skills? Our research reveals how to utilize proven behaviors to shape the kind of character that can transform any workforce.
Participants analyze their own code of ethics and learn how to lead by example while encouraging others to do the same. They discover our researched strength-building behaviors that empower integrity and honesty. Utilizing personal results from our Consistent Behavior Index, each participant receives specific insights to create a development plan to facilitate growth in this behavior.
In a time rife with shortages, the most critical one of all has emerged: human energy. After years of turbulent work environments, burnout is high, and well-being is essential. Organizations don’t just need productive employees; they need them to thrive.
In this session, leaders discover the research insights behind the root causes of quiet quitting. They also understand the leadership behaviors that can motivate and energize their workforce. Leaders complete the Discretionary Effort Index self-assessment. With their personal assessment results and development guide, they create a plan to cultivate specific leadership skills focused on supporting the type of career growth within their teams that encourages engagement, productivity, and well-being.
As individuals move up the chain of leadership, they cannot leave behind the technical skills that got them there. Indeed, a leader’s ability to retain expertise fosters greater trust, speed, and good judgment. But how can leaders leverage their technical expertise to help them become Extraordinary Leaders?
In this session, leaders learn how to leverage and utilize their expertise in leadership roles. They complete the Technical Preference Self-Assessment to identify specific strength-building behaviors that can boost their expertise to higher levels. Participants then use our unique guide to create an action plan to develop and improve one of the five crucial behaviors.
Organizations want bold leaders who willingly take risks but, of course, they are counting on them not to fail. Taking big risks can lead to great rewards, so it pays to develop the skills that strengthen the success and stability of the risks you take.
Leaders complete a self-assessment to understand their willingness to assume risk. They discover the strength-building behaviors that build the confidence and skills to improve risk-taking. And they create a development plan for targeted growth in these crucial behaviors.
Most organizations face the choice of “change or die.” The fact is that seven of every ten companies have experienced significant shifts—such as serious downsizing, explosive growth, or a merger—in the last two years. Leaders are responsible for leading change initiatives but often lack the formal preparation or skills to facilitate change in their organization.
In this session, participants discover how to overcome inertia using the strength-building behaviors that empower them to be effective champions of change in their leadership roles. They receive a development guide and make an action plan for focused improvement.
Studies of the past decade show customer satisfaction has dropped dramatically while demands have increased. Balancing the growing requirement for external focus while managing internal organizational needs is challenging. So, how can leaders sustainably improve their connection to customers and create an experience that inspires loyalty?
Leaders assess their ability to connect with customers’ needs and competition in the outside world. They discover the five strengths that empower leaders to meet customer demands and maintain loyalty and create a development plan to balance their internal and external focus effectively.
Your decisions are the building or stumbling blocks of your career. Because of this, many people tend to avoid making difficult decisions. Our research shows that there’s a powerful correlation between decision-making and the ratings of overall leadership effectiveness.
Participants assess their strengths and approach to making decisions. They are shown research on how their decision-making process impacts their direct reports. Participants receive a development guide and create an action plan based on the strength-building behaviors proven to help leaders make decisions more effectively.