Leadership Training Program Details

Leadership From the Inside Out is a leadership training program for individual leaders or 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 behaviour 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 – as individuals and teams. Transactional Analysis is a psychology of individuals and business systems that leaders can use to foster creative solutions, and create alignment for the most important and best decisions possible – especially under challenging circumstances.

Most of us have never had an opportunity to learn the cohesive and practical psychology of human behaviour. Yet it is the single most important knowledge leaders need. You will be taught many elements of the model of Transactional Analysis that gives insight and practical tools to turn around even the most challenging situation and create the outcome that is good for the people and of course for your bottom line.

So much of what drives decisions and behaviours are “under the surface”, hidden from your conscious awareness and therefore are assumed to be the only or the ‘best’ option. Often those decisions are not in your best interest. For example: to trust or not, to hold your ground or give in, to communicate directly or beat around the bush, to speak up or stay silent. Many of the typical ways you (or anyone) approaches people and problems were formed long before you became a leader. Your attitudes and behaviours were shaped by your experience in your first system – the family system you grew up in. A fixed and rigid mindset can be seen in elementary school-age children or younger. This program will help you loosen your grip on rigidly held beliefs that inhibit creativity and change, and your capacity to lead with flexibility and resilience.

In this leadership training, 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 gives you the tools to be more effective thinkers, communicators, and coaches. All behaviour, even the downright dysfunctional, makes logical sense once you understand the back story of one’s earliest experiences. This builds empathy for yourself and others, from which the essential bonds are formed that is the backbone of high-performing leaders and teams.

Each module of Leadership from the Inside Out builds on the previous one. The concepts use simple language to describe complex human processes – those on the inside of us all that are the hidden drivers for what others experience in the way we relate, communicate and lead. 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.

Specific Course Objectives

• Trust is the bedrock of successful teams, not to mention a joyful life. This complex topic will be explored throughout the program. You will learn how to change whatever isn’t working for you with people and problem-solving. Change needs self-awareness, awareness of others and trust.
• Learn why things go well – and repeat.
• Learn how and why, when things go wrong they usually go wrong at the beginning.
• Learn the components of successful beginnings and avoid surprises.
• Learn about psychological hungers and the starvation rampant in too many businesses and organizations. Is yours one?
• Learn about the template of your past that informs how your today’s approach to life, relationships and work may be impeded. Even if your childhood experiences are long gone from your conscious memory, many are alive and challenging your current life. The awareness you gain in this program helps you see options for approaching opportunities, challenges and issues never before dreamed possible. If your organization is family-owned or operated, this program is most definitely for you.
• Communicate with influence, listen to understand and negotiate with potency and integrity.
• Learn to interrupt your cycle of distress that causes you to over-react, make mistakes, blame others or manipulate your way out of it. . We teach a specific model of personality adaptation that describes your strengths in leadership and predicts your blind spots. Learn how to interrupt yourself when you are taking a nosedive.
• You will learn coaching skills that build the capacity of your team. Applying the material even more deeply from the last months, 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 investments.
• Psychological safety is essential for innovation and creativity. You will participate in creating it for yourself and others in the program and learn – from the inside out – how to create it at your workplace.
• You will approach decision-making with greater clarity and confidence.
• You will uncover the components of your fear of failure and impostor syndrome and learn how to change these debilitating beliefs.
• You will negotiate courageously without ‘psychological gamesmanship’
• You will understand diversity from the inside out. Learn how to influence and be influenced by ‘the other’ even when they are very different in culture, attitudes, and beliefs from your own. This program helps participants uncover their unconscious biases 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’.

Participants engage in peer coaching between modules to anchor their development and hone their understanding and application of the leadership concepts. In addition, there are online coaching sessions and case studies from participants’ situations that make learning come to life.

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 behaviour and team dynamics that are the big picture of the human behaviour roadmap: making agreements, the power of recognition in creating healthy cultures, decreasing stress and increasing 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 behaviour. 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 you the power to create a future of your choice.

You will learn the components of human personality and recognize when each part is in the driving seat of your life and your leadership and headed for a crash or a win.

Module 3: Impactful Communication

What we believe is how we communicate. You will learn 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 big picture of effective communication but many practical tools for how to talk so people will listen and how to listen so people will talk. Communication is the lifeblood 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. You already have experienced these negative behaviours in everyday 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 formula to change your life.

Module 5: Personality Adaptations and interrupting your predictable stressed reactions

Adaptive styles from this model give leaders insight on how to successfully establish rapport, focus, make insightful decisions, and recognize when you are about to sabotage themselves and others. Unlike other personality profiles, you do not fit into a box. This researched and validated model describes your ‘whole self’ and the six says we all have learned to adapt in ways that compromise our authenticity and competence. To be fully yourself, sharing your own thoughts and feelings, desires and ambitions, opinions and experiences is no small feat. Since childhood, we have learned the rules of the family that may not actually serve us in having a successful and joyful life at work and in personal relationships. This module integrates all the previous models in a comprehensive and holistic way. You will change the way you coach, lead team meetings, manage your stress, and understand the stress of others. You will know deeper aspects of ‘who you are’ and ‘how you got here.

Module 6: 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 past participants 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 its 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 are delivered in person, except when COVID restrictions require online training.

Total investment in each participant is $12,000 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

Total instructional hours -70. Material presented in a monthly session spread out over 8 – 10 months. Participants receive a Leadership from the Inside Out Certificate at the completion of the course issued by The Change Institute.