Leadership From the Inside Out is a program for individual leaders or leadership teams with a growth mindset and a desire to develop the hardest leadership skill of all – the soft skills of leading people. Leaders need tactical leadership skills of course, but the make or break of any leader is how they communicate and listen to understand, and manage the human dynamics of teams.
As specialists in the change process we know changing a belief, attitude and behavior takes time for reflection and practice. Henry Ford was known to say ‘thinking is the hardest work or all, which is why most people don’t do it’. Our design breaks the material into 8 modules delivered one or two days each 4 – 6 weeks over 10 months. Each participant is paired with a reflection and practice partner for regular practice and peer coaching between sessions.
“This course saved us thousands of dollars – I might even say millions. ”
President of a global company
Course Content Overview
True leadership is only possible by communicating and relating to people. Transactional Analysis is a psychology of individuals and business systems that helps leaders bring out the best in themselves and others.
Most of us have never had an opportunity to learn a cohesive yet practical psychology of human behavior. Yet it is the single most important knowledge effective leaders need. You will be taught many elements of the model of Transactional Analysis that gives insight and practical tools to turnaround even the most challenging situation and create the outcome you want.
So much of what drives decisions and behaviors are “under the surface”. Your freedom to trust or not, feel confident with strong minded people, being straight in how you communicate (or beat around the bush) were formed long before you became a leader – shaped from your earliest experience in a system, the family system you grew up in. It is proven scientifically that if a person doesn’t believe something is possible, they cannot actually see reality/factors that in fact make it possible. A fixed and rigid mindset can be seen in elementary school age children or younger. Help yourself and others loosen their grip on rigidly held beliefs is possible if you have the knowledge to know how.
You will learn why you operate as you do. If your role requires successful relationships, this program is for you. It is especially appealing to those looking for the logic behind what people do and tools for how to be more effective thinkers, communicators, and coaches. All behavior, even the downright dysfunctional, makes logical sense once you understand the back story of their earliest experiences.
Each module of Leadership from the Inside Out builds on the previous one. The concepts use simple language to describe complex human processes. There will be examples and case studies that make the material come to life. Each participant contributes their own experiences to be analyzed and understood through a new lens. You will discover why things went well so it can be repeated with intention. And you will learn why things went poorly and what can be done to get back on track. Every situation offers a lesson to be learned. See more details on each module in the sections below.
Upcoming Dates
Cohort 6: June 1, 2021 – December 15, 2021 SOLD OUT
- June 1 & 2, 2021
- June 22
- July 20
- August 17
- September 21
- October 26
- November 23 & 24
- December 15
Cohort 7: June 3 – December 14, 2021 – SOLD OUT
- June 3 & 4, 2021
- June 23
- August 5 & 6
- September 22
- October 27
- November 25 & 26
- December 14
Cohort 8: October 28, 2021 – March 15, 2022 – Accepting Registration
- October 28 & 29, 2021
- November 17
- December 13
- January 14 & 17, 2022
- February 15
- March 18
- April 28 & 29
Cohort 9: January 2022 – September 2022
- January 26 & 27 2022
- February 11
- March 16
- April 25 & 26
- May 31
- June 14 & 15
Specific Course Objectives
- Learn how and why, when ‘things go wrong’, they go wrong at the beginning.
- Learn the psychological hunger in all of us, why so many corporate cultures are starving their people and how to know if you are one of them. Your metrics tell the story if you know how to read between the lines.
- Become aware of the unconscious models (from your past experiences and even your childhood) that have informed your leadership style. Strengthen those that work, and become aware of those that don’t. With the awareness gained in this program, options for change become possible with confidence to forge a new approach.
- Communicate with influence, listen to understand, negotiate with integrity.
- Learn to interrupt your cycle of distress based on a specific model of personality adaptation that describes your strengths in leadership and predicts your blind spots that drives behaviours and compromises your effectiveness under stress.
- You will learn coaching skills that builds the capacity of your team. Applying the material even more deeply from last month, you will recognize in yourself and others the early warning signs that lead to failure and learn to interrupt the negative spiral and re-establish effectiveness. NASA has used this model with its astronauts to save lives and their investment.
- Self-awareness is the secret sauce to exceptional leadership that creates psychological safety so essential for innovation and creativity. The entire program develops your awareness of self and others and how individuals and teams function well – or not.
- Approach decision-making with greater clarity and confidence.
- Uncover the components of your fear of failure and impostor syndrome and learn how to change these debilitating beliefs.
- Negotiate courageously without ‘psychological gamesmanship’
- Learn how to influence and be influenced by ‘the other’ even when they are very different in culture, attitudes, and beliefs from your own. People often think others share their same world view which causes all sorts of conflict and misunderstanding. Diversity is key to success factor in all teams and organizations and this program helps participants uncover their unconscious bias and enables them to value diversity.
- There are specific ways to change one’s heart and mind – Transactional Analysis concepts teach ‘how’ to be emotionally aware of one’s self and make a positive impact on others. This is emotional intelligence and resilience in action.
- Be a leader who coaches skillfully to develop a leaders’ mindset within their teams.
Participants engage in peer coaching between modules to anchor their development and hone their understanding and application of the leadership concepts. Professional coaching for individuals or teams looking to address strategy or execution or team challenge is an additional service, charges apply.
Module 1: The Road Map of Congruence and Authenticity
How we begin anything influences all that follows. When things go wrong, they go wrong in the beginning. This module demonstrates how to create commitment and clarity for everyone’s learning goals. You will clarify those specific aspects of your leadership you want to develop. Leadership is a big topic. We begin unpacking what in particular it means for each participant and what your organization needs from you in your leadership role.
You will learn three concepts of human behavior and team dynamics that are the big picture of the human behavior roadmap: making agreements, the power of recognition in creating healthy cultures, decrease stress and increase clarity of thought, scripts and the stories we tell ourselves (to our detriment).
Module 2: Transform Your Beliefs
How often do we take the time and space to consider in depth what we believe and value? In this module, we discuss our visions for the future and conduct an in-depth investigation of the beliefs that unconsciously drive behavior. It is the challenging and limiting beliefs we have about ourselves and about others that negatively impact how we lead. Living an examined life gives power to create a future of your choice.
You will learn the components of human personality and to recognize when a part in the driving seat of your life and your leadership and headed for a crash, or a win.
Module 3: Impactful Communication
On Day 3, we discuss models of communication styles that will forever change your understanding of just how come some people are powerhouse communicators and others aren’t. Attendees will garner not only an understanding of the bit picture of effective communication but many practical tools for how talk so people will listen and how to listen so people will talk. Communication is the life blood of effective leadership – learn how to do it authentically and with ease.
Module 4: Ending the Psychological Game
If you want to know just how to destroy a relationship, a company culture, a team, this is the module that teaches you how – and just how prevalent some of these negative behaviors are in every day life at work and at home. Participants immediately recognize the toxic interpersonal patterns we describe because they are all around us – Psychological Games. Once you know the formula, you have the secret sauce to effectiveness in all relationship dynamics.
Module 5: Personality Adaptations – Coach Yourself and Others for Highest Competence
Adaptive styles from this model give leaders insight on how to successfully establish rapport, focus, make good decisions, and be educated on exactly the process where success is compromised under stress. Unlike other personality profiles where you fit into a box, this researched and validated model gives you insight into your whole personality and the six says we all have learned to adapt our personalities in unhealthy ways under stress. We have all the adaptive styles some of the time – even though we have often narrowed now using only 2 or 3. The goal is to be fully yourself, not the mal-adapted version you have created since childhood. It’s time to really ‘grow-up’ and embody your full adult potency. As a leader, this is the training for why people behave as they do that isn’t taught in business school, or the school of life.
Module 6: Personality Adaptations – Manipulation, Skepticism and Withdrawing – the Unconscious Sabotage of Success
A continuing and deepening of the last module, participants learn how they think, feel and act when under the most stressful situations. These adaptations have a powerful influence for how people ‘do good in the world’, and predicts the dysfunction under stress that can lead to bankruptcy, lack of integrity, or serious harm to employees and stakeholders.
Both of these modules build coaching skills as both coach and coachee. So many leaders just want to ‘do it’ rather than develop others. Leaders gain skills and confidence in developing leaders through skillful coaching approaches.
Module 7: Reality Blindness and the Cure
Where do we actually learn how to think? Not what to think, but how to think about our thinking. This module builds the thinking muscle and has a matrix you will take into every important meeting. Determining what information is significant, whether the significance also presents a problem, establishes whether the problem has options for resolution, and who can actually implement the option.
Module 8: Putting it All Together
Participants connect and integrate all the concepts to create an ongoing plan for implementing targeted change. Participants will create and share their Personal Leadership Development Plan. By now, people recognize they are not alone in their desires to be the best of themselves – more often and with more confidence and ease. Everyone has a story, and that story has brought them to this moment, acknowledged for it’s value, and consciously archived. What brought us here, won’t get us there. The world needs autonomous leaders of the future, not ones limited by their past but free to create a better world, one business at a time, one life at a time.
Cost & Registration
Course capacity is 10-14 participants for personalized leadership development. Lorna Johnston is the main training provider. All modules delivered in-person, except when COVID restrictions require online training.
Total investment in each participant is $10,000 plus GST and includes tuition, peer coaching, psychometric testing and a $2,000 training manual.
Qualified organizations are eligible for the Canada Alberta Job Grant, which covers 2/3 of the cost of the program for eligible employees. Take advantage today!
Additional Details
The total instructional hours are 60 spread over 8 – 10 months. Participants receive a Leadership from the Inside Out Certificate at the completion of the course issued by The Change Institute and delivered to a worldwide ethical and professional standard by trainers who have internationally recognized credentials by International and European Transactional Analysis Associations for developing competence in leaders applying Transactional Analysis in their roles.
Past Cohorts
Cohort 1: September 2018 – May 2019
Cohort 2: May 2019 – February 2020
Cohort 3: November 2019 – August 2020
Cohort 4: November 2019 – September 2020
Cohort 5: October 2020 – May 14, 2021