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Increase Your Leadership Capacity

Our Leadership Labs and Workshops give individuals, teams, groups, and organizations new tools and models they can put immediately into practice.

Leadership Labs and Workshops

Coro Northern California (Coro) would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with your organization to provide an introductory, half-day (3.5-hour) leadership development lab in person or virtually. We look forward to providing your team members with an opportunity for leadership and professional development and team building. 

Below, we outline six potential topic areas for your consideration. Any of these options will also include components to deepen connections among the participants and foster a network of peer support across the organization.

Leadership Lab Option 1: Maximizing Your Leadership Potential 

Key Results:

  • Strengthened ability to facilitate, manage, and participate in effective meetings and team-based projects.
  • Greater self-awareness and skill in acknowledging, checking, and communicating one’s assumptions.

Competencies:

  • Outcomes-based leadership practices using a framework for balancing and discussing both outcomes and process when in meetings.
  • The ability to identify one’s own assumptions and test others’ assumptions using the “Ladder of Inference” tool and a related framework for balancing inquiry and advocacy.

Activities:

  • Discussion of the characteristics of “good/productive” and “bad/unproductive” meetings, and the introduction of a Coro tool called OARRS (Outcomes, Agenda, Roles, Responsibilities, Summary). The group will then plan an upcoming meeting using OARRS and have a peer-based discussion about the challenges and opportunities using OARRS.
  • An interactive activity introducing the “Ladder of Inference” tool and a reading/discussion on the concept of balancing inquiry vs. advocacy when checking one’s own or other’s assumptions.

Leadership Lab Option 2: Adaptive Leadership Approach

Key Results:

  • Shared understanding of the adaptive leadership framework and how to apply it as tenacious problem solvers.
  • Practice using inquiry to better identify challenges and coach peers to examine problems in new ways.
  • Deepened connection to a cross-functional team of peers.

Competencies:

  • Awareness of distinctions between technical problems and adaptive challenges.
  • Capacity to ask open-ended questions that yield a better understanding of problems.

Activities: 

  • Introduction to and facilitation through the peer consultancy protocol. Participants will work in small groups to practice addressing an adaptive challenge using inquiry.

Leadership Lab Option 3: Effective Feedback and Communication 

Key Results:

  • Increased self-awareness regarding how we disclose information about ourselves to others.
  • Increased skills related to providing and receiving verbal feedback and holding difficult conversations in a constructive way.

Competencies:

  • Greater self-awareness.
  • Deepened understanding of how to work collaboratively with others.

Activities: 

  • Explore tools and mental models for giving and receiving feedback and apply them to participants’ understanding of themselves and how others see them in a professional context.
  • Practice using inquiry and active listening as crucial self-management skills.

Leadership Lab Option 4: Interpersonal Leadership Styles

Key Results: 

  • Increased understanding of one’s own leadership styles (via power, activity, and relationships) and the impact different styles have on the quality of relationships and personal and team performance. 
  • Insight and strategies into how you can adapt your style situationally to meet the needs of others.

Competencies:

  • Greater self-awareness.
  • Deepened understanding of how to work collaboratively with others.

Activities:

  • After completing the Interpersonal Leadership Styles survey, participants will engage in small group discussions regarding their styles and the opportunities to flex their styles in the team for improved communication and understanding.

Leadership Lab Option 5: Mutual Gains Negotiation

Key Results: 

  • Increased understanding of the negotiation process and ability to create and consider mutual-gains negotiations.
  • Shared understanding of the differences between positions and interests, and how to apply this framework when negotiating.

Competencies:

  • Greater communication skills.
  • Greater capacity to negotiate from a non-adversarial position for mutual gains.

Activities:

  • Review key components of mutual-gains negotiation.
  • Small group exercises to practice and role-play mutual gains negotiation turns and tactics.
  • Practice identifying participants’ interests and the interests of others.

Leadership Lab Option 6: Values Clarification and Activation

Key Results: 

  • Increased ability to know and name your core values.
  • Shared understanding of how you live your values as a leader and how others embody their values as leaders.

Competencies:

  • Deeper self-awareness and clarity on what you value
  • Capacity to understand multiple perspectives on values 
  • Deepened connections to fellow participants

Activities:

  • Values clarification exercise that results in each participant identifying and defining two core values that motivate them in their daily lives and as leaders.

Leadership Lab Option 7: Facilitating Effective Meetings

Key results:

  • Strengthened ability to facilitate, manage, and participate in effective meetings.
  • Greater ability to develop consensus and engage all voices.

Competencies:

  • Awareness of distinctions between running and facilitating meetings.
  • Ability to design and convene a meeting with purpose and clarity for participants.
  • Increased skills related to steering conversations to stay on topic while allowing for meaningful dialogue.
  • Ability to facilitate consensus and group decision-making processes.

Activities:

  • Participants will be introduced to a framework for designing and facilitating effective meetings and will have the opportunity to apply this framework to an upcoming meeting (or revisit a past meeting).
  • Participants will be introduced to a couple of decision making tools to support effective meetings.

Virtual Meetings:

  • Strengthened ability to facilitate, manage, and participate in effective meetings and team-based projects online.
  • Greater ability to develop consensus and engage all voices in virtual meetings.
  • Learn outcomes-based leadership practices using a framework for balancing and discussing both outcomes and process when in meetings.
  • Increased collaborative decision-making skills.

Problem Solving/Negotiations: 

  • Increased understanding of everyday negotiation opportunities for creative problem solving.
  • Shared understanding of the differences between positions and interests, and how to apply this framework when negotiating and problem solving.
  • Greater communication skills.
  • Greater capacity to negotiate from a non-adversarial position for mutual gains.

“Although this lab was about leading effective meetings, I had never thought about what it meant to be a good participant of a meeting. Will definitely bring that back to my organization.”

“My life is full of meetings. Now more than ever, I have to strengthen my facilitation skills. I’ll definitely use Coro tools and techniques often.”

Organizational and team Leadership Labs and customized trainings are available, upon request.

Interest Form

Fill out our interest form and we’ll contact you about a Leadership Lab training.

Coro Leadership Labs Offerings

Questions & Contact

Cliff Yee
cyee@coronorcal.org