2023 Day 2: February 3, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm

Our success in life is dictated by the quality of relationships we create. How much the more so for successful Nonprofit Leadership. Some leaders negotiate better quality outcomes than others do – they work with people rather than through people. Some leaders can hold deeper, more honest conversations that create a new level of connection and are able to transform people, situations and relationships. The nonprofit leaders who engage in high level communication, know themselves and have the ability to read others, ensure clarity over responsibility, define expectations and maintain high levels of accountability and performance. When leaders avoid important conversations – or, allow conversations to be hijacked – we let standards slip and give permission for unproductive behavior, stymied negotiations and mediocre performance. Leaders will:

• Utilize tenants of Emotional Intelligence to practice aligning words, emotions and body language through engagement exercises
• Explore six fundamental components of speech and identify them within the most common communication situations in the workplace
• Engage in a process of asking powerful (and different) questions as a foundational element of leadership and managing productive conversations
• Examine the Five Languages of Appreciation and apply its principles to the nonprofit work environment

2023 Day 3: February 24, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm

Learn techniques to engage any type of team and how to structure team processes for maximum team performance. At times, even the most talented teams slip into a funk or seem to “stall” on their performance level.  Whether your team is your peer leadership team, your direct reports or your board of directors, you will be called upon to steer your team back on track.  In fact, 80% of leaders experience some type of team failure and 74% believe their team’s operational excellence is the most important factor to meet organizational goals.  Leaders will:

• Complete Team Assessment prior to attending this session
• Receive results of a team assessment completed prior to attending
• Learn to identify dysfunction and pin-point the cause
• Identify essential components of well-functioning teams and explore strategies to intervene and re-build the team for higher performance
• Work with strategies to instill trust and foster collaborative goal setting

2022 Day 4: March 24, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm

One of the most powerful leadership postures is the ability hold on to the essential elements of an organization’s values and history, be in the present to address the current issues of the day and to dream for a better future.  Strategic thinking and planning give both content and structure to   diagnostic, dreaming and execution processes.  Learning how and when to mobilize stakeholders in this process is critical and all change efforts must be a shared responsibility to ensure success.  Strategic thinking and planning help institutionalize continuous learning and reflection and allow leaders and organization develop agility, adaption skills and greater capacity to experiment to reach new goals.  Leaders will:

• Investigate the definition of and interconnected nature of strategic thinking and planning
• Explore and play with a number of strategic thinking exercises with a focused goal
• Learn and experiment with a 7- step model of strategic planning which includes: Aspiration: Goal Setting, Continuity: Core Values of Organization, Logistics: Who, How, When, Data Mining: Collection & Analysis, Focus: Prioritizing Needs, Design: Action Planning and Sustaining: Re-invest to Eclipse the Current with the New
• Begin to identity a potential aspiration for strategic work within their organizations

Day 5: April 21, 8:30 pm – 12:00 pm

This session, led by Julie Clark,  BVU’s Vice President, Nonprofit Engagement, is designed as an interactive workshop that addresses the role of board and staff leaders in guiding and shaping a board to advance the organization to achieve full potential.  Topics typically covered include:

• The role of the board
• Best practices in governance (statement of expectations, accountability, board succession plan)
• Meeting management — what makes a good board and committee meeting; bad meeting
• Board communications – dashboards & consent agenda
• Succession Plan for Board Chair & board leaders