Advancing from an Operational Manager to a Strategic Leader

Learn to become an innovator, a persuasive player and a champion of strategic change. This seminar gives you the right practice to close the gap between where you are now and where you want to be. You'll conduct SWOT analysis, leverage key prospects for strategic opportunities and inspire risk taking and innovation.

Make your mark. This training course gives you the skills to add value to your organization and move your team forward decisively.

Who Should Attend

Managers with fewer than five years of management experience who want to move into a more strategic role.

How You Will Benefit

• Inspire and direct your team to greater readiness and competitiveness
• Use strategic thinking to add value to your organization by understanding the needs and expectations of your customers
• Anticipate and innovate strategies to link strategic vision to core capabilities
• Recognize opportunities to influence and create strategic alliances
• Use strategic thinking to identify key strengths and weaknesses in your work group
• Encourage and support risk taking and innovation at all levels
• Develop persuasive skills to sell your strategic ideas

What You Will Cover

Developing and Balancing Operational and Strategic Management Skills

• Establish a working definition of operational management
• Explore the key attributes of today’s strategic leaders

Creating a Strategic Frame of Reference

• Understand the key components of the strategic leadership model
• Develop a strategic leader’s approach for your own work environment

Understanding Your Current Operational Mission: Your Team, Your Customers and Your Competitors

• Strategic thinking: moving from a limited context to a broader view
• Understand how to apply a SWOT analysis to your team
• Create a mission statement defining the operational reality of your work group

Developing a Strategic Vision: Moving from What Is to What If

• How to identify priority issues to create your strategic advantage
• Encourage innovative solutions
• Prepare a draft of a vision statement

Making Your Vision a Reality: Influencing Key Stakeholders

• Develop their persuasive skills
• Explore a range of options for influencing others

Your Personal Plan: Developing and Selling Your Vision of the Future

• Communication strategies to sell your strategic plan
• Conduct key conversations to encourage innovation and risk taking

Course Outline

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Encourage All Managers and Employees to Think Strategically
• Encourage All Employees to Share in Developing and Working Toward a Strategic Vision of the Future for Their Organization to Be Successful
• Encourage Participants to Continually Ask Themselves, “What Can I Do to Contribute?” and, As a Work Group or an Organization, “Where Are We Going?”

LESSON ONE

Developing and Managing Your Operational Management and Strategic Leadership

• Define Operational Management
• Define Attributes of Strategic Leaders
• Determine How to Balance Your Skills
• Identify Your Current Skills

LESSON TWO

Creating a Strategic Frame of Reference

• Describe the Strategic Frame of Reference
• Define Key Outputs
• Develop a Strategic Leader’s Approach

 Understanding Your Current Operational Mission

• Clarify the Purpose of Your Work Group
• Draft a Mission Statement
• Create a SWOT Analysis

LESSON THREE

Developing a Strategic Vision: Moving from “What Is” to “What If”

• Assess Customer Needs, Wants, and Expectations
• Determine an Approach for Developing Customer Data
• Use an Importance/Performance Matrix
• Create Linkage Between the Mission and Vision
• Describe the Power of Vision

LESSON FOUR

Making Your Vision a Reality: Influencing Innovation

• Use Persuasive Skills
• Describe Influencing Options
• Assess Your Ability to Encourage Innovation
• Conduct Five Key Conversations

Your Personal Plan

• Complete a Strategic Frame of Reference
• Prepare to Communicate Your Mission and Vision Statements
• Identify and Practice a Key Conversation You Intend to Have Upon Your Return to Work
• Consolidate Your Personal Plan of Action