Overview of Community Leadership Institutes & Leadership Seminars
Leadership and System Change
Effective leadership is critical to successful community change. Too often, communities embark on a change process with the goal of enhancing services and supports to groups in need, only to look back after a period of time and wonder, “How did this become so difficult? Why has there been so much turmoil and pain over the seemingly simple goal of making life better for people?”
We in the public sector are expected to lead change, but rarely are we given the tools to ensure the success of our efforts. We only have to look at our colleagues in the corporate sector to see the methodical preparation of leaders to understand, manage and even thrive in a “change environment.” Like them, we need to learn to successfully manage the change process as we realize the goal of comprehensive community-based systems.
What is a Community Leadership Institute?
In Community Leadership Institutes, participants explore themselves as leaders, learn current theory and practice of leadership, work on a current leadership challenge and create a commitment to action. The three to five-day intensive trainings are intentionally limited to less than 80 participants, contributing to a collegial, personalized experience. They bring together a faculty of seasoned leaders who use a variety of didactic and experiential techniques to provide participants a full range of learning opportunities.
A significant part of each Institute is spent in small groups, where each group member presents his or her leadership challenge and receives input from others in the group. In addition, a typical Institute day is spiced with short lectures, discussion of specific leadership issues, small group work and exercises that stimulate learning and discussion.
What You Will Gain from the Institute
- A clear sense of yourself as a leader
- An understanding of the theory, practice, and language of leadership
- Tools to enhance your ability to move communities and organizations forward
- Techniques to take care of yourself in your role as leader
- Strategies to inspire action and manage the tension of change
- New perspectives and insights on your leadership challenge
Who Should Attend?
Leaders, managers, practitioners, parents, and advocates in the public and not-for-profit world who want to understand and help lead system change efforts in their communities.
Key Institute Topics
- Creating a shared vision
- Anatomy of change
- Creating Successful Teams for System Change and the Courage to Make it Happen
- Leadership styles and choices
- Formal and informal leadership
- Ethics in leadership
- Information as power
- Thriving in chaos: building a toolkit
- When Leadership and Information Meet: Great Things Happen!
- Culture and Diversity in Leadership
Through new learning, personal reflection, practicing skills and peer support, participants will undertake a personal learning journey and become the leaders that move communities forward in health and strength through the chaos of change.
Regular Fee $695, and Groups of four or more $595. Limited to 80 participants. For questions or more information call: Gary De Carolis - 802-863-9132 or e-mail at gary@centerforcommunityleadership.com.
Leadership Seminars
Culture and Diversity in Leadership
This special day-long seminar will help to deepen the learning, expand the knowledge and enhance the leadership skills of participants, regarding their efforts to develop more effective working relationships with the diverse cultures in their communities. The seminar will present experiential material, exercises and assessments designed to identify the strengths and challenges of participants, related to working and partnering with culturally diverse populations and organizations, and will provide tools to address achievement and growth in this critical area of their work.
Leadership - Policy Development and Sustaining Change
This full day seminar will examine why policy is necessary, what forms policy can take to support the work of system change and address various strategies that can be used to accomplish policy development. Participants will also be able to examine their current policy development strategies that they currently are undertaking and receive both peer and facilitator feedback.
The Science and Art of Grant Writing for Leaders
This half-day workshop will provide concrete, practical guidance for preparing successful grant proposals. Participants will learn how to organize their proposals, find and use pertinent data and facts, and make your proposal stand out in a crowd. We will discuss strategies to fully meet common grant application requirements, the importance of overall appearance, how to avoid common errors that doom many proposals to the round file, and some key "tricks of the trade."
