Below are articles and news bulletins about Leadership in general and of course Harris Leadership in particular. Come back often to hear about the latest from Harris Leadership.
May 2010
One Day Workshop
Did you know that 30% of your employees are "ACTIVELY" DISENGAGED per a recent Gallup survey?
One key factor is conflict between the four generations now in the workforce. Learn how to dramatically engage ALL generations, increase communication and reduce misunderstandings and conflict by attending.
Learn strategies for dealing with engagement, recruiting, retaining and motivating, using the generational differences in positive ways because different generations care about different approaches to the same problem.
Benefits to your organization:
• Employees Engagement Increases
• Identify Succession Planning Strategies
• Understand how to retain the knowledge of the Traditionalists (ages 64+) before it is too late.
• Identify ways to keep Boomers (ages 46-64) engaged now that they may not be able to retire as planned and find new ways to position them effectively.
• And much more
Please click here for more of what you will learn and for pricing and details.
To register for the workshop please click here.
January 2009
Recession Proof Your Business and Outperform Your Competition
Join us at the Lodi Chamber of Commerce on January 22 and 29, a two-part series, to learn how to respond to the challenges that face business at this time.
Here are just a few of the benefits that will keep you outperforming your competition in this two-part series:
- Leverage your strengths to be more productive
- Identify your specific stressors
- Realize how your customers make buying decisions and sell accordingly on a person-to-person basis
- Decrease miscommunication
- Discover how to anticipate and minimize conflict
Please click here for more of what you will learn and for pricing and details.
November 2008
DID YOU KNOW-People are interrupted on an average of 6 times per hour! So who is in control of YOUR time?
The economy is creating a highly competitive job market . If you are not focused and in control of your time, priorities and goals, your competition may leave you behind.
HERE IS THE SOLUTION!!!
Harris Leadership Development, in conjunction with the Lodi Chamber of Commerce, presents a workshop on Time Mastery. We know your time is valuable so we have split the 4-hour workshop into two separate sessions for your convenience: December 4 and December 11, 2008. Here are just a few of the benefits that will keep you ahead of your competition:
• Learn your #1 time-wasters
• Discover how to be goal driven instead of crisis driven
• Uncover 6 ways to say "no" and stay focused
• Realize how to determine priorities based on results
Please click here for more of what you will learn and for pricing and details.
Below is a comment from a prior attendee of our Time Mastery workshop
"Through Harris Leadership Development's training process, our organization has experienced valuable change .... time mastery component opened the door to major department change."
Gloryanna Rhodes, Executive Director, Head Start Child Development Council
September 2008
The Generation Connection: Bridging the Gap. A one day workshop on September 11, 2008 at the Courtyard by Marriott, 1720 Sisk Road, Modesto, CA. Here is what you will learn:
- How generational differences cause miscommunication
- Distinguish how values, cultural influences, work styles and career expectations influence communicating to different generations.
- Examine what shaped the formative years of each generation and how this affects your work environment daily
- Identify who the generations are, what shaped them and why that is important to you
- Recognize "generation" hot buttons
- Explore what creates the generational gaps and how to bridge them
- Adapt your sales approach to meet the needs of different generations for your competitive edge
Please click here for more of what you will learn and for pricing and details.
To register for the workshop please click here.
Below is a comment from a prior attendee of our Generations workshop
“Our experience with Harris Leadership Development with their Generations Workshop was delightful, fun, educational and inspiring. We have, and are, implementing the results of the effort. We started out our generation workshop effort with a great team and ended it with an even better appreciation for the special people who work here and make this agency a success."
Andy Chesley, Executive Director, San Joaquin Council of Governments
July 2008
Harris Leadership Development (HLD) hits another home run at the IIMC international conference in Atlanta. Teaching their signature Improved Listening Strategies: Did I Hear You Correctly? workshop at the 2008 conference, HLD facilitated this workshop for the advanced academy pre-conference session. Here are just a few of the satisfied participants and how this valuable session effected them:
“Even before we got to Atlanta this session began with a “Personal Listening Profile.” I must say that I was rather skeptical. Did I go into this session thinking I that I would gain much? Not really…Moreover, while it was interesting, it seemed like it might be somewhat fluffy—lacking substance. In the written form, it was hard to relate it to practical application. In fact, I was very wrong, because in terms of communication skills, this is one of the best classes I have ever taken.”
Peggy Hawker, City Recorder/Special Projects Director, City of Newport, Oregon
“As a board member for IIMC and as a presenter this year myself, I rated your workshop in the top two sessions."
Bernie White, IIMC Board Member, Sydney, NS, Canada
“Great session, exceeded my expectations!”
Achmat Ebrahim, City of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
“I registered for this course under false pretenses. My first choice had been to take the Athenian Leadership course…was not clear about how this was going to measure up to my first choice. I was pleasantly surprised…With an energy level that was unbelievable, this mother and daughter presenting team captured our attention and handed us tools to truly make our lives easier and our interactions more meaningful and less stressful….If this course is offered in the future it is one that should be promoted for it truly has made my personal and professional life less stressful.”
Sandy Harris, Town Clerk, Vernon, Vermont
May 2008
Harris Leadership Development returns as a presenter for the International Institute of Municipal Clerks annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia on May 18, 2008. Presenting their Improved Listening Strategies: “Did I Hear You Correctly?” seminar will give participants as far away as South Africa, an opportunity to examine the dynamic variable of listening, associated barriers and resulting message gaps that derail effective communication in this advanced seminar. Participants will incorporate new listening techniques by utilizing case studies and role play and be able to immediately use these techniques the next day.
April 2008
Lodi mother and daughter training firm help companies solve workforce problems
It happened again. You open the refrigerator door in the break room to grab your lunch, only to realize that someone (probably Bob from accounting) has eaten your sandwich. Steam pours from your ears, your teeth gnash and that vein in your neck throbs. Every conceivable curse plows throug h your mind's arsenal. It's enough to make you snap.
Hold on. Don't fret. Harris Leadership Development is here to say it will be OK. For seven years, the Lodi-based training and consultancy firm has been helping businesses open the lines of communication between employees and management.
Kathy Harris, a big personality in a petite package, has made it her goal to bring people together.
"We're dedicated to our clients," Harris said. "It's about bringing people together for the success of the company."
Harris Leadership Development was originally designed to help small businesses solve their employee issues with training used in Fortune 500 companies.
As the firm grew, larger companies began hiring them. Starting out in Manteca, they moved to Lodi in November of Last year. Harris' daughter, Traci Petitt, joined the firm 11/2 years ago as a full-fledged partner.
But that doesn't mean they restrict their services to the Central Valley. Harris and Petitt will go anywhere in the United States that they are needed. Next month, they will head to Atlanta to speak about their industry.
"It's interesting because we're dealing with human issues. Once people become comfortable (with our training), they open up," Petitt said.
Harris noted that the training and consultancy sees an 85 percent success rate. More often than not, when they return to a company it's for additional training — but not for the same issues as before. Harris went on to say that 70 to 90 percent of all inter-office communications are misunderstood or changed, which is what tends to cause the major issues, therefore they also teach listening strategies.
Another problem that many companies are beginning to run into is a multi-generational work environment.
As baby boomers inch toward a retirement age that seems to get further away these days, gen Xers are climbing up through the company and millenials (people born between 1982 and 2000) are beginning to enter the workforce.
"Traci is a gen Xer, and I'm a boomer. We drive one another nuts," Harris said, adding that the generation gap helps them to approach their training with a better understanding of the problems people face in the workplace.
There are sometimes four generations working together in one environment, and that can lead to misunderstandings and quite a different point of view, Harris points out.
Before going into a company to train, Harris Leadership Development will have clients fill out a 29-page online assessment to help Harris and Petitt determine what personality types they are working with and what kind of training will be necessary.
The training provided is tied to employee performance, which means that they look at how the office culture and the employees are connected. Harris and Petitt then try to change the office culture by modifying employees' behaviors and listening skills.
And it's not just employees and management that can benefit from the program. For the past four years, Harris Leadership has worked with the Lodi Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Lodi program. They have offered training during Dynamic Day in order to make each year's Leadership Lodi class more cohesive.
"Kathy Harris and Traci Petitt continue to present challenging and current programs to each year's class," said Shannon Fuson, the Leadership Lodi coordinator and administrative manager for the Lodi Chamber of Commerce. "I am consistently impressed by (Harris' and Petitt's) ability to enlighten a group of individuals to their own personal strengths, and create a cohesive team ready and excited to work together toward a common goal."
Harris and Petitt have been so impressed with the Leadership Lodi program that they spearheaded the same type of program in Manteca. They recently worked with the chamber there to create Leadership Manteca.
"Harris Leadership will take you to the bottom floor and then take you all the way back to the top," Petitt said.
And along the way, maybe Bob from accounting will stop eating your lunch.
Contact Business Editor Marc Lutz at marcl@lodinews.com.
Lodi News Sentinel
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