Leadership is a way of being; leaders today are required to think critically and lead strategically under pressure, all while engaging with softer people skills. Showing up as one’s Best Self as a leader today requires the ‘softer skills’ of self-awareness, empathy, a positive attitude, conscious communication, deep listening, emotional intelligence, vulnerability, an executive presence, and a confident composure (equanimity). In this session, you will be guided in:

• How to shift to a leader mindset and away from a manager mindset
• How to cultivate a more executive presence using body language and active listening
• How to quiet the inner critic and sense of imposter syndrome at the executive level
• How to constructively engage in conflict and feedback
• Ultimately; how to develop equanimity as a leader (keep calm and carry on)

Strategy is often misunderstood as a planning process rather than as a critical analysis of industry rivalry, competitive position, and relative performance. In this session, you will:

• Explore the context of modern strategy formulation
• Assess strategy versus planning and analysis
• Absorb the value of potential strategic frameworks 
• Embrace a comprehensive strategy to include enterprise-wide planning, compliance, project planning, budget, and resource allocation processes

In this practical session, you will understand and begin to apply best practices for enterprise risk management to meet modern regulatory standards including:

• A comprehensive risk identification method to assess all known risks and their severity to create a balanced Risk Register
• Determining who has ultimate risk authority in an organization; 
• Understanding ERM as a derivative of strategy and compliance, because all enterprise risks must be accepted, mitigated or transferred. These are enterprise choices
• Addressing emerging comprehensive risks, such as cybersecurity, as organizational and not technical risks

Digital Transformations are often the strategic goal of today’s organizations, but do we truly understand what that means? What is a transformation and what makes it digital? What are the great Digital Transformations and what can we learn from them? And what is the role of the modern CIO in transformations? In this session, you will:

• Understand the key concepts behind Digital Transformations and what makes them successful
• Understand your current and prospective roles in Digital Transformation and how an emerging Executive IT Leader can optimize their contributions

Whether a corporate board, the political leadership in government, or an administrative board in education, understanding their role and relationship to the rest of the organization is crucial to your executive success. What is the line between oversight and management? In this session, you will: 

• Understand the purpose and role of a board and its members
• Explore the connection between board oversight and organizational strategy
• Learn practical approaches to creating productive relationships with board members, and managing uncomfortable situations

In our increasingly digital world, corporate transformation has become a top business imperative across sectors. To succeed with the challenge, it is essential to work on three tightly integrated thrusts: Strategic/business planning & execution; Leadership & change capability building; and Culture change − which is the thrust around which everything else evolves. In this session, you will:

• Understand what it takes to transform an organization with nimbleness in the new normal
• Identify gaps in the ways your organization currently works on transforming itself strategically 
• Activate powerful levers for culture change available to senior executives
• Recognize the Top-5 symptoms of sluggish decision-making, and assess which ones are currently at play in your business
• Uncover the best decision-making model to drive agility
• Learn a proven strategy to develop nimble decision-making capabilities throughout the business while making actual decisions

You and your team will deliver your solution to a mock Board of Directors who will adjudicate your presentation. This session provides you with opportunities to integrate, practice, and demonstrate the insights you have gained in the program. This final session will run for 5 hours (3 hours of preparation and 2 hours for all groups to present).