5 Ways Organizations are Utilizing Leadership-in-a-Box?

The need for quality leadership development has never been higher. We're seeing this dynamic play out as organizations struggle to engage and retain workforces with shifting needs and priorities. It's all most leaders can do to keep up themselves, especially with understaffed teams.

When we launched Leadership-in-a-Box? (or "LB"), we noted that the world didn't need just one more leadership development organization. There were plenty already. But organizations did need one that addressed three of their fundamentals needs in a fresh new way:

• "Ridiculously practical" for leaders - We committed that our workshop-style programs would last only 60 minutes and focus on immediate skill development. We like to say that someone who goes through an LB program in the morning can apply the skills that afternoon.
• Easy for facilitators and coordinators - We essentially wanted LB to be like pushing the "Easy Button" for every single person involved, especially the organizers. (We like to say that while leaders are our consumers, HR & Executive teams are our customers we must delight.)
• Scalable pricing - One of the challenges with many leadership programs is that the more successful they become, the more they cost. Because budgets are usually fixed, administrative teams have to decide who is included and who gets excluded. That model didn't work for us! So we determined from the beginning that everyone in the organization would get to participate in Leadership-in-a-Box? with no incremental "per-person" cost.

So we created Leadership-in-a-Box? as an off-the-shelf program option, complete with ready-made workshop presentations (for in-person and virtual), facilitator support, handouts, assessments, videos, articles and discussion guides.

It's been special to see how hundreds of leaders in many organizations have benefited from Leadership-in-a-Box? in such a small time. While we certainly recommend best practices for using our programs, it's been special to see the wide variety of ways organizations have chosen to put them to use.

Here are the top five ways organizations are using Leadership-in-a-Box?.

1. Enterprise Leadership Programming

Every organization needs to begin their leadership development journey somewhere. Many times, they realize the business is outpacing their talent capabilities, and they need to get started right away! Many clients gravitate toward Leadership-in-a-Box? because it's so quick and easy to implement.

These clients typically select a bundle of LB programs that match the priorities of the organization with the needs of the individuals at the executive, mid-level and frontline leader levels. One utilities company opted to launch their new initiative by having each leader attend a program workshop every other month, beginning with our most popular topic Accountability. In between workshops, they would meet to debrief their progress, compare action steps and use our discussion guides to reinforce their engagement.

2. High Potential Initiatives

While enterprise programs usually involve all (or most) leaders in an organization, high potential initiatives usually run on a calendar cycle and require selection or sponsorship to participate. They typically receive extra budget and administrative support and the best ones involve executive sponsors for each cohort.

One large insurance company utilizes Leadership-in-a-Box? as the content partner for their high potential program of about 70 emerging leaders. Their HR team works with the business to select participants each year. The HiPo participants attend one workshop each month, delivered by an internal facilitator who has been prepped by our LB team. In between workshops, the participants share what they are learning (as well as their action steps) with their assigned mentor and peer group.

3. Regional-Specific Support

Many organizations operate with a decentralized talent agenda for a variety of reasons. Sometimes business units or regions have different development needs, which make it challenging to consolidate efforts.

One national healthcare organization selected a bundle of Leadership-in-a-Box? programs based on the top development needs across the organization for use by each regional team and business unit just-in-time - an every individual can access the development content as well.

4. Leadership Conferences

One of the great things about Leadership-in-a-Box? is that it's available for every employee in the organization at no additional cost. (That's as scalable a pricing model as we could come up with!). This means many organizations sometimes have a primary intended use but include additional uses as well.

One growing healthcare organization partnered with Leadership-in-a-Box? with the intent to use the content for enterprise leadership programming (#1), but the dynamic head of HR selected our Leading Change program (our second most popular program behind Accountability) to feature at their Annual Leadership Retreat. She gave the presentation to 60 of the organization's top leaders. One of the commitments from the leaders was that each business unit's administrative leader and physician leader would complete the Leading Change worksheet together before initiating organizational changes to ensure commitment and alignment with each other.

5. Facilitated Sessions

One of the benefits of Leadership-in-a-Box? is that anyone in the organization can facilitate a one-hour workshop. Typically, the presenters are members of the talent team, HR, educators or enthusiastic team leaders. This drastically reduces the expense of reserving an outside facilitator for each session.

That said, clients often request that our team provide the facilitation, either to supplement their understaffed talent team or to accelerate their speed to proficiency. We're happy to accommodate these requests and enjoy the opportunity to interact with the leaders in their organizations.

If your organization is building leadership development from the ground up - or if you need a refresh - we'd be happy to share a demo and find the "best fit" option for your team. If you contact me, I can get the process started.

More than anything else - let's support our leaders as we build strong teams who will solve our society's challenges together!

Here's the 2 minute video from our Giving Feedback Program: Just-in-Time Feedback.

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About Nathan

Nathan Magnuson the founder of?Leadership-in-a-Box?, a corporate training company with 60 minute leadership programs that are engaging, easy to facilitate, priced to scale and?"ridiculously?practical."

Nathan spent 12 years working in talent development leadership roles at Fortune 500 organizations such as Accenture, HCA Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare and MASCO before launching Leadership-in-a-Box. He's also a military veteran and author of?Stand Out!?and?Ignite Your Leadership Expertise?and over 300 articles posted on his website?NathanMagnuson.com?and in various leadership publications.

You can follow Nathan on?Facebook,?Twitter,?LinkedIn?or on?his website.