The Global Leadership Cohort

• 79% of employees will quit their job due to lack of appreciation from leaders.
  
  
• 69% of millennials believe there is a lack of leadership development in the workplace.
  
  
• Just 5% of companies have integrated leadership development in their organizations.
  
  
• 83% of enterprises believe it is important to develop leaders at all levels of a company.

Source: Trompenaars Hampden-Turner: Culture for Business

What people are saying about the GLC in 2024:

“This was the best professional development opportunity I've taken at the college. It was a deep dive into the complicated world of leadership. I've always felt that leadership is about dichotomy and this class allowed us the opportunity to explore that idea.”

“I thought the Cohort was very well done. I truly believe that every leader at MC should be required to take the cohort before they all become leaders”.

“The Cohort opened my eyes to true leadership and how to be successful as a leader”.

“GLC gave me the opportunity to reflect on my professional practice and to expand my contacts within MC, as well as being exposed to fresh organizational development. The group was well-selected. Herb Stevenson's presentations were very insightful. Richard has been an excellent facilitator and resource for us.”

“The structured delivery of the Cohort content provided multiple opportunities for me to reflect on the major themes of the course, both within sessions and between them. When my own in - session reflection was supported by table mates' coaching, I developed a deeper understanding of the themes, and of the ways I could apply them to my work at the College, and beyond”.

• October 29 (full-day) - Cultural Competence, Leadership and Dilemmas
• November 19 (half-day) - Managing Diverse Teams and Competing Interests
• December 3 (half-day) - Values to Behaviors – Building a Team Charter
• January 14 (half-day) - Cross Cultural Communications and Decision-Making
• February 4 (full-day) - Organizational Culture and Managing Change
• March 4 (full-day) - Leadership and Coaching
• April 1 (half-day) - Leading Meetings and Hybrid Teams
• April 22 (full-day) - Servant Leadership in Practice
• May 6 or May 7 - Synthesizing Workshops
• May 27 - Make-up day for canceled class (if necessary)
• June 6 - Project Presentations - Graduation

For more information, contact Richard Forrest, Training and Development Coordinator, at 240-567-2267. Use Workday to apply and register. Class days vary so please check calendars carefully. Full-day classes run from 8:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., and half-day class times are from 8:45 am to noon.

**Attendance is mandatory at the first class.

Please register in MC Learns to obtain an application.

Class 1: October 29, 2024, 8:45 am–4:15 pm, MK 122 
Facilitator: Richard Forrest

Cultural Competence, Leadership and Dilemmas

Working with colleagues from different backgrounds is as simple as being willing to accommodate new approaches to your routines and behaviors. The adage ‘Go along to get along’ can carry us far. However, when you move from brief interactions to working closely with individuals from different cultural backgrounds, you can experience tensions, misunderstandings, and frustrations that impact performance and morale. What skills, knowledge, and abilities are needed to work effectively in multicultural, dynamic, professional organizations?

The inability to recognize problems that stem from cultural differences as cultural differences is central to the challenge of working in a multicultural environment. Once differences are recognized and respected, we must act in a way that leads to positive and desired change. Reconciliation of differences is a process of creativity and new thinking that leads to innovation and desired change. The final step is to implement reconciled solutions and monitor impact. 

In this foundation class, we cover the core teachings of Trompenaars Hampden-Turner, which provide the basis for assessing and developing our intercultural competency. We use a diagnostic to determine and compare cultural orientations and gain awareness of ourselves, teams, and organizational challenges. The class concludes with a THT Dilemma Reconciliation Process activity.

Upon completion of this class, you will be able to:

• Demonstrate awareness of the 4 Rs of intercultural competency:
  • Recognition
  • Respect
  • Reconciliation
  • Realizing
• Compare and contrast your Individual Cultural Profile (IAP surveys) with others
• Assess cultural orientation differences using Trompenaars’ 7 Dimensions of Culture
• Better understand how culture is involved in work issues and to resolve
• Practice the dilemma reconciliation process (DRP) in both theory and practice

Pre-Class Required Reading

Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden Turner “Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business, 3rd Edition, 2012, Nicholas Berkely Publishing – Pages 1 – 16.

Suggested Reading

1. Herb Stevenson, “Global Inclusion: the mandate for successful organizations” from Plummer: Handbook of Diversity Management 2nd edition (to be published).

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Class 2: November 19, 2024, 8:45 am–12:00 pm, MK 122 
Facilitator: Richard Forrest

Managing Diverse Teams and Competing Interests

Teams have greater problem-solving power potential than individuals acting alone, and highly diverse teams have even greater potential to tackle complex problems than homogeneous teams. However, leading and influencing diverse teams of experts, without the right tools and knowledge, can be risky, resulting in mediocrity, or worse, in disappointment, frustration, and criticism.

This class seeks to deepen our ability to use the 7 Dimensions of culture to recognize and reconcile diverse orientations in teams and problem-solving.

We will use THT diagnostics to identify a range of workplace issues and dilemmas brought on by the diversity of our group. After identifying some key business issues, we will use the 7Ds to gain insights from our teams and apply the Dilemma Reconciliation Process to increase our wholistic problem-solving skills.  

At the end of this class participants will:

• Have a deep understanding of how group diversity leads to differences in shared problems
• Be able to formulate strategies to recognize differences in how shared problems exist and lead teams through a dilemma reconciliation process (DRP)
• Reflect on their own self-development needs in areas of global leadership competency

Suggested Reading

1. Erin Meyers, The 8 Keys for Managing Multicultural Teams

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Class 3: December 3, 8:45 am-12:00 pm, MK 122
Facilitator: Richard Forrest

Values to Behaviors – Building a Team Charter 

This half-day workshop focuses on how shared values are interpreted differently and what leaders can do to create a sustaining intact team using a unique tool called the V2B Team Charter.

In this class, we engage in a rich dialogue and critical look at organizational values and the behaviors we believe represent those values. We will align business issues in the context of solving problems with values and behaviors, and identify clear targets and challenges within our teams. As we move to create a charter with supporting values and behaviors to guide our teams, we will also identify steps needed to implement and live the charter. This ensures that we create a model and a tool that can be used to decide on actions and responsibilities in ongoing team meetings. The Team Values to Behavior Charter helps us to realize desired values and thus purposely add to our culture by embedding appropriating behaviors in our teams.

In creating a Team Values to Behavior Charter, participants will be equipped with the knowledge and experience to introduce this tool for use in their teams.

At the end of the class, participants will:

• Understand the process and purpose of defining values and behaviors
• Have created a team charter
• Recognize the potential use of the charter for sustaining desired behaviors and realizing desired change in their own team.

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Class 4: January 14, 8:45 am-12:00 pm, MK 122
Facilitator: Herb Stevenson

Cross Cultural Communications and Decision-Making

Cross-cultural dynamics are often overlooked and misunderstood in the workplace. There are few organizations not comprised of multiple nationalities and therefore multiple cultures. However, most organizations (and therefore supervisors) do not delve into these diverse factors to discover the rewards of acknowledging and incorporating these dynamics into their supervisory skills. Moreover, we rarely understand how to engage the cultural differences that can be constructive instead of just accepting them as painful conflicts.

In this workshop, the focus is on how to develop constructive conversations through dialogic engagement. First, you examine conflict from a personal perspective by defining it as two opposing ideas attempting to occupy the same space at the same time, often however, without engaging each other. Second, you draw on concepts from crucial and difficult conversations to understand how to focus on the quality of engagement instead of our imaginary stories of what could go wrong. Third, you expand the conversation through understanding your personal intercultural conflict style, wherein the awareness of differences begins to shed new light on how to engage instead of how to make stories about each other that create disengagement. Combined, this process supports more effective feedback processes and performance evaluations.

Upon completion of this class, you will be able to:

• Understand most conflicts are polarized views that can be managed.
• Examine conflict as two opposing and competing logical views that fail to engage and understand the other
• Manage important conversations with greater confidence and effectiveness
• Explain where cultural differences in communications exist and improve engagement by combining effective feedback processes that are in-line with performance objectives.

Assessments Required to complete Intercultural Conflict Style (online or paper) prior to class

Supportive Reading

1. Crucial Conversations, Grenny, et al.
2. Change Your Questions, Change Your Life, 2016. Marilee Goldberg
3. Stevenson, 2018. Global Inclusion: The Mandate for Successful Organizations

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Class 5: February 4, 8:45 am–4:15 pm, MK 122
Facilitator: Richard Forrest

Organizational Culture and Change

Change should not be brought forward for the sake of just making a change. Organizational Change is better understood from the perspective of recognizing where we are and identifying what we want to do differently or improve. The role of ‘corporate/organizational culture’ in the change process is integral to making change happen. How people react at times of change is strongly tied to organizational culture, which is an often overlooked (or weakly understood) dynamic that is firmly situated in the following:

• Power and control dynamics
• Tasks and relationships
• Vision and Mission behind the change the story
• Acceptance and Rejection forces
• Leadership

In this class, we will look at how values, (and associated behaviors) norms and expectations differ across an organization, and what that means when managing at a time of change.

Using the results of our Corporate Culture Profile diagnostic we will examine the four archetypes of organizational culture to understand how differences in hierarchy, tasks and relationships impact our behaviors and expectations.

By the end of this class, you will be able to:

• Distinguish your ideal organizational culture in the context of your existing work culture
• Examine the importance of Values and Leadership in creating organizational culture
• Apply the four Quadrant Model to understand differences in organizational culture and systems
• Recognize sources of organizational cultural tension in the context of differing values and behavior expectations

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Class 6: March 4, 8:45 am–4:15 pm, MK 122
Facilitator: Herb Stevenson

Leadership and Coaching

High performing organizations have traditionally used coaching to support key individuals and teams at times of major change. Increasingly, the practice of ‘coaching at work’ has become an effective leadership practice to help others develop and improve how we lead in business. In this class we will learn essential coaching skills, practice have coaching conversations, and engage in activities to build our leadership coaching skills.

Upon completion of this class, you will be able to:

• Follow a process of ‘coaching at work’ that supports thinking through goals, obstacles, and options can lead to desired change.
• Differentiate between managing for performance and coaching for performance, and when to use the different approaches.
• Be introduced and practice essential coaching skills of ‘embodying a coach mindset’, Listening and communicating effectively, and evoking awareness in coaching conversations.
• Experience a number of coaching sessions as ‘coach’ and ‘coachee’. 

Supportive Reading

1. The Extraordinary Leader (2009) John H Zenger and Joseph Folkman McGraw Hill
2. Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Second Edition Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, et al.
3. What you need to know about coaching, Stevenson http://www.clevelandconsultinggroup.com/articles/coaching-services
4. Ladder of Inference Stevenson

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Class 7: April 1, 8:45 am-12:00 pm, MK 122
Facilitator: Herb Stevenson

Leading Meetings and Hybrid Teams

In a virtual world, the rules of engagement have changed. It is common to have meetings with offsite attendees in multiple locations and multiple countries. In the past, these meetings occurred as teleconferences, which prevented participants the ability to develop face value. In addition, meetings were often reporting of data instead of engaging all participants. The rise of cost-effective video conferencing has altered this process such that virtual meetings can be as effective as in-person meetings. Moreover, enhancing meeting effectiveness occurs when participants understand the purpose/intent of the meeting, and know how to focus their attention on each agenda item.

In this workshop, you apply learning from the Intercultural Conflict Style Assessments. In this way, you deepen the understanding of cross-cultural dynamics that need to be included in your awareness of virtual meetings. You participate in a conversation of how to engage individually and cross-culturally while in a virtual setting. You determine how to focus the meetings through indicating your intent (i.e. meeting-leader-intent) for the agenda items: Decision! Consultation! Operating Execution Update! Informative!

The final focus is on how to maintain face value by reaching out to touch virtually. Acknowledging that the lack of face-to-face communication has affected the quality of relationships, you explore how to maintain face time value virtually.

Upon completion of this class, you will be able to:

• Describe the essential elements needed for a successful virtual meeting
• Differentiate meetings in terms of their purpose and intent, allowing you to plan for certain outcomes in terms of participation and follow-up.
• Point-out cross-cultural insights that aid us in having a meaningful and engaging on-line meeting
• Discover ways to use a more high touch approach with high tech communications aimed at improving the face to face virtual experience.

Supportive Readings

1. Ladder of Inference. Stevenson
2. Behavioral Elements of Trust
3. No More Pointless Meetings: Breakthrough Sessions That Will Revolutionize the Way You Work Martin Murphy (2013) AMACOM

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Class 8: April 22, 8:45 am–4:15 pm, MK 122
Facilitator: Richard Forrest

Servant Leadership - Mindset and Practice

What is leadership? No subject in business is written on more than leadership. Yet, age old questions persist as the models are predominantly culturally biased and bi-polar. Most American models promote the importance of vision as a characteristic of a leader, while competitive models argue that it’s about execution. Whereas for others, it’s about courage, only to be thwarted by the need for caution. In some cultures, like France, it is about being male, while Chinese models proclaim the effectiveness of yin yang, Mao and Tao. All these approaches are fine when operating in a vacuum of cultural sterility, however with our world becoming a global village, cultural mixing has upended the strength and truth of any one model.

“Now more than ever a leader’s capacity to both direct the organization and its people, while at the same time work in their service is being recognized as vital for creating a sustainable organization in a globalizing world” (Trompenaars, 2024).

In this class we will revisit and build on the Trompenaars Hampden-Turner key concepts covered in the cohort. Our focus is frame ‘culture’ and examine the way in which the 7 dimensions affect behavior and business. We will contrast traditional leadership models with servant leadership to discern how a reconciling mindset serves as a model that is effective across all cultures. In the class we will assess our leadership style, and explore the Seven Meta Dilemmas of Leadership through case study examples.  

Part of our goal is to examine multiple ways that leadership is involved in bridging the differences between cultures and in the process identify what behaviors are involved by leaders and needed by those around us. We will use the 7 dimensions to give insight to the ways in which cultures are different and apply the DRP to resolve issues by integrating different viewpoints to strengthen your ability to lead others and across the organization.

Objectives:

• To develop an understanding of the strength of servant-leadership as both a mindset and practice
• Help gain insight into your leadership skills and approach by applying key THT learnings, models, and tools.
• Raise our competence and capacity to deal with complex cross-cultural issues
• Reflect on personal goals and professional development
• Clearly identify a work dilemma pertaining to your role at work, and describe opposing positions from foreground and background perspective
• Demonstrate integrative thinking
• Increased ability to help others elicit dilemmas through various techniques

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Class 9: May 6 or 7 (Participants sign up and attend three hours of time in one of the dates), 8:45 am–4:15 pm, MK 122

Synthesizing Workshops

Participants attend a three-hour synthesizing workshop from which they present well-defined drafts of their final projects with their peers for purposes of feedback and refinement. Preparation and explanation of this workshop will be discussed in previous classes and communications.

At the end of this class, participants will:

• Analyze their final project and thesis with feedback from peers
• Judge the state of readiness for final presentation
• Be better prepared for presentation of the final project. 

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Class 10: May 27, 8:45 am–4:15 pm, MK 122

Make-up day for cancelled class

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Class 11: June 6, 9:00 am – 4:15 pm, MK 122

Project Presentations – Graduation

Information and explanation of Final Projects for GLC will be introduced in Class 3 “Values to Behavior – Building a Team Charter”