Leadership Course Summaries

Executive Leadership

Adaptive Leadership

Don't Lose Your Balance
Executive Composure

Presentation Skills for Executives

Leading Change

Executive Retreats
Custom Designed Off Site Events

Influence Tactics Assessment (ITA)


 Adaptive Leadership

"Those who exercise leadership know that in reality, leadership is a dance with danger. You put your life, your career, and often your family at risk when you exercise leadership. You jeopardize everything. To be effective in exercising leadership, you challenge the status quo. You disrupt people's loyalties, and comfort. Leadership efforts are often met with resistance, undermining behaviors, and personal attacks. It is often easier to resist putting yourself in conflict by taking the easy road, one with no disruptions, playing it safe. There is no safe way to be an effective leader. Leadership is inherently risky. There are, however, methods leaders use to survive and continue to thrive, take risks and inspire others to achieve extraordinary results." -Ron Heifetz, 2002

Adaptive Leadership™ is a set of strategies and practices that help organizations break through gridlocks, accomplish deep change and develop the adaptability to thrive in complex, competitive and challenging environments.

Primary Objectives:

  • Identify the sources and forms of danger in leadership
  • Clarify the difference between authority and leadership
  • Provide diagnostic, strategic and tactical responses to leadership dangers
  • Offer strategies for staying healthy in your exercise of leadership
  • Give insights into our own leadership through self examination and the feedback of peers
  • Unique challenges to entrepreneurial leadership in the social sector
  • Learn from examples of bad leadership
  • Gain insights from public or nonprofit leaders


Don't Lose Your Balance
Executive Composure


The executive is expected to hold it together under pressure.  Getting knocked off balance during a crisis can derail your career.   Leadership is lost when the leader becomes overly emotional, defensive or withdrawn.

Don't Lose Your Balance is a highly interactive course that teaches composure.  It takes a look at high pressure situations and creates a series of approaches that help control the emotional response.  It gives you the tools to hold things together…no matter what.

Primary Objectives:

  • Identify individual triggers
  • Recognize when personality style becomes a liability
  • Customize solutions that match individual triggers
  • Practice in simulated environment

Presentation Skills for Executives

You are the one on stage.  All eyes are on you and the expectations are high.  The topic is extremely controversial within your organization and you must bring your audience together.  How are you feeling?

This program will make you effective both inside and outside your organization in a variety of formal settings.  Whether small group, large group, direct reports, bosses, or customers and regardless of the topic, you will learn to command attention and manage the group process.  With the help of video taping, you will learn how to maximize your strengths and over-come your weaknesses. 

Primary Objectives:

  • Looking presentable
  • Effective preparation
  • The non verbal side of presentation
  • Managing stage fright
  • Reading an audience and handling questions
  • Logistics and time management

Leading Change

In today's business environment change is constant.  The way leaders and companies respond to change however, varies greatly.  That response or lack of response can have a profound impact on a company's efficiency, productivity and ultimately it's success in the marketplace.

ILS utilizes two models to assess a team's readiness for change:  an individual model and an organizational model.  If leaders are expected to guide others through the change process, they must first understand their personal strengths and challenges regarding change.  With this awareness, leaders work through the organizational model to gauge the readiness of the organization to move forward with a change initiative.  Then the vision, incentives, resources, and action plans are developed to ensure successful navigation through the entire process.

ILS makes change a positive process for your organization, helping you move from good to great!

Primary Objectives

  • Assess individual response to change using The Change Cycle™
  • Build awareness of strengths and challenges related to change
  • Introduce organizational change continuum
  • Assess organizational readiness
  • Identify specific change initiative with action steps to insure success

Executive Retreats
Custom Designed Off Site Events

You pick the theme or focus; we'll customize the retreat experience to match.   We can design and plan your entire event or play a smaller role related to specific trainings for your team.   Regardless of your needs, we will add energy and motivate executives to new levels of vision for your organization.

Common themes include:

  • Strategic Planning
  • Ethics
  • Introduction of new training initiatives
  • Other related organizational topics

Influence Tactics Assessment (ITA)

This assessment is based on 30 years of research examining the behavioral strategies a leader uses to influence key stakeholders to a desired outcome.  An easy to understand and apply assessment, the ITA helps leaders assess their own influence behavioral preferences, learn new behaviors and apply them to their unique situations.  A guidebook accompanies the assessment to further assist leaders in applying their tactics to real organizational situations, helping them influence up, down and across.

Innovative Learning Strategies 10 College Ave. Suite 126A Appleton, WI 54911 920.993.4405

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