Senior leaders navigating organizational change and uncertainty require practical tools to thrive during turbulent times. This course strengthens emotional intelligence, develops executive presence, enhances change leadership capabilities, and provides conflict management strategies essential for leading organizations through transition. Participants gain practical frameworks for understanding leadership fundamentals and team development while mastering skills and practices critical for success in today's dynamic business environment.
The curriculum addresses leadership during turbulent periods, emotional intelligence and leadership roles, development of executive presence, situational leadership approaches, change dynamics and response tools, team building and trust development, and appreciative inquiry practices. You will examine how your personal attitudes, values, and beliefs influence organizational performance. Additionally, you will strengthen critical thinking and decision-making processes while learning to build resilience, overcome setbacks, and maintain your executive trajectory in rapidly changing, high-pressure leadership environments.
Target Audience:
This program is designed for individuals at the GS 13-15 level, participants in agency leadership development programs, and SES members seeking additional or refresher training in executive leadership competencies.
Course Eligibility:
This course is most beneficial for leaders who have held leadership positions for five years or more, providing the context and experience to maximize learning value.
Core Learning Outcomes:
- Explain the Office of Personnel Management Executive Core Qualifications and associated competencies
- Identify significant leadership accomplishments that demonstrate your achievement or problem-solving
- Describe the Challenge, Context, Action, Results model, and apply it to document your accomplishments
- Match your documented accomplishments to Executive Core Qualifications through identified competencies
- Develop your accomplishment into a compelling narrative that fully demonstrates the qualification
- Discuss leadership competencies demonstrated through your documented accomplishments
- Organize an accomplishment using the structured model and connect it to an Executive Core Qualification
- Write your narrative story based on your structured outline, conveying how the underlying competencies were applied
Detailed Course Modules
Module 1: Climate Setting and Course Overview establishes course objectives, participant expectations, creates a collaborative learning environment, and begins discussion of essential leadership concepts.
Module 2: Leading in Turbulent Times defines executive survival and its importance, explores the Executive Survival Framework examining self, others, and environment, identifies survival characteristics and political competence behaviors, and includes self-assessment exercises.
Module 3: Emotional Intelligence applies Goleman's emotional intelligence framework and Rational Behavior Therapy, practices self-regulation and social awareness through case studies, and applies emotional intelligence to team conversations and performance discussions.
Module 4: Executive Presence defines and assesses executive and leadership presence, explores presence behaviors using the PRES model, and practices authentic expression and behavioral adjustments to strengthen presence.
Module 5: Change Dynamics examines the executive role in organizational change initiatives, applies concepts from Bridges' Transition Model and Kotter's change methodology, and identifies leadership pitfalls and transition strategies.
Module 6: Situational Leadership applies Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership framework to assess team needs, identify personal leadership style through assessment tools, and practice adapting leadership approaches in group decision-making scenarios.
Module 7: Conflict Management examines personal conflict management style through structured assessments, explores emotional and interpersonal dynamics during conflict, and applies learned techniques through case studies and scenario debriefs.
