The Boston Global Leaders Programme

This day introduces core management functions and distinguishes them from leadership, while exploring foundational skills required for modern management practice. The topics covered will include:   

Defining the Unique, Essential and Noble Functions of Management

• Clearly Differentiating Management from Leadership
• Rediscovering the Critical Importance of Effective Management: Traditional vs. Contemporary Views
• Inappropriate Metaphors of Managers: The Need to Change Mind-sets
• The Key Management Functions: The Q-OPD Full-Range Management Model©

The Four, Over-arching Core Skills for both Managers and Leaders

• Developing Personal, Social and Organisational Awareness
• Tailored, Multi-channel Communication
• Powerful and Targeted Influence and Persuasion
• Emotional Intelligence (EI) & Political Intelligence (PI)

This day focuses on directing operations, delegating effectively, and solving problems using rational, creative, and soft‑system approaches. The topics covered will include:   

Operationalising & Directing

• The Manager’s Crucial Operationalisation Remit
• Translating the Strategic Plan into an Implementation Plan
• Powerful Processes to Direct Your Staff
• Using Goals, Objectives, Outcomes and Behavioural Metrics

Delegating & Problem-solving

• The Delegation Imperative: Making Yourself Dispensible, Creating New Leaders and Succession Planning
• Relinquishing Authority and Responsibility: Setting Your Staff-up for Success
• Creative, Rational and Soft-system Problem-solving Approaches
• Deciding between Alternative Solutions whilst considering the Operational and Political Dimensions of Your Actions

This day covers resourcing, supporting and monitoring team performance and capability development.
The topics covered will include:   

Resourcing & Supporting

• Identifying the Resources Available to Your Staff and Using Them to Develop their Capability
• Selecting Staff for their Talent and Potential
• Supporting Your Staff: Engagement and Empowerment
• The Five Essential Support Needs of Your Staff to Ensure their continuing Discretionary Effort

Monitoring & Controlling / Coordinating

• The Essential Nature of Monitoring and Controlling
• Soft and Hard Processes: Individual Development and Goal-achievement
• Deciding on Your Key Metrics: ‘What you measure is what you get!’
• Designing Monitoring Systems / Performance Dashboards

This day explores feedback, reporting, and redirecting behaviours, and how managers can act as catalysts for organisational engagement and strength. The topics covered will include:   

Feeding Back / Reporting & Redirecting

• The Value of Timely, Relevant, Actionable Feedback
• The 3 Feedback Principles and Structuring Motivational, Developmental and Critical Feedback
• Re-directing Behaviours and Setting-up Positive Responses
• Harnessing the Power of Activators, Behaviours and Consequences

The Manager as Catalyst

• Understanding and Appreciating the New Management Paradigm
• Using the Gallup Q-12 to Powerfully Manage your Staff
• Playing to your Staff’s Strengths and Helping them Manage their Weaknesses – as a Team
• Managing Employee Aspirations by Helping them Find their Ideal Roles

This day focuses on personal career planning, identifying values and motivators, and building a strategy for managerial career advancement. The topics covered will include:   

Managing Your Own Career as a Manager

• Planning in the Emerging, New Employment Reality: The Changing World, Workplace and Corporate Governance
• Identifying Your Specific Career Anchors: What you are good at? What you value and what motivates you?
• Constructing Your Personal Career Advancement Strategy
• Prioritising and Engaging in the Important Career Advancement Activities
• Becoming Politically Adept

This day focuses on differentiating leadership from management and understanding core leadership styles and behaviours. Participants explore transformational leadership and political awareness as foundations for influence. The topics covered will include:

• Recognising the Differences between Management and Leadership
• Appreciating the Five Essential Leadership Approaches and Corresponding Styles
• Displaying Transformational Leadership Behaviours
• Comprehending the Corporate Governance Responsibilities of the Board
• Demonstrating Ethical Behaviour, Living Your Values and Maintaining Your Personal Integrity
• Developing Your Political Awareness and Mastering the Five Core Political Skills

This day develops insight into workplace psychology to improve communication, influence, and team dynamics. Participants explore mindset, emotional behaviour, and cultural evolution in organisations. The topics covered will include:   

• Using Personality Insights to Communicate and Influence Others Better
• Displaying Personal Power and Self-confidence in All Situations
• Optimising the Development and Management of Teams
• Evolving Organisational Cultures and Applying the Neuroscience of Change
• Managing Your Own and Others’ Attitudes, Emotions, States and Behaviours
• Understanding the Nature of Organisational Psychopaths and Limiting their Detrimental Effects

This day focuses on strategic thinking and planning frameworks for effective organisational direction. Participants explore strategic elements from planning to execution and monitoring. The topics covered will include:   

• Understanding the Five Elements of Strategic Management: Strategic Thinking, Planning, Implementation, Monitoring and Emergence
• Competitive Positioning: The Five Processes that Populate a SWOT Analysis
• The Value of Scenario Planning in Designing Detailed Stories Around Different Possible and Plausible Futures You Might Be Faced With
• Using the Balanced Scorecard to Create a Strategy Matrix, Strategy Map and an Implementation Plan
• Prioritising Your Initiatives, Filtering Them and Balancing Your Portfolio
• Implementing and Monitoring the Plan and Utilising Emergent Trends

This day explores different kinds of innovation and how leaders can apply them to grow and evolve their organisations. Participants examine lateral thinking and innovation growth strategies. The topics covered will include:

• The Four Kinds of Innovation: Disrupting vs. Transforming Businesses
• Using Lateral Thinking Techniques to Increase Creativity, Innovation and Inventiveness
• The Nature of ‘Innovation-driven Growth’: ‘disruptive’ (stealthy) vs. ‘sustaining’ (incremental) innovations and ‘Low-end’ vs. ‘new-market’ footholds
• Product / Service Performance Trajectories and Customer Demand Trajectories
• Succeeding as a Disruptive Innovator / Defending Against a Disruptive Challenger and Ensuring Your Organization is Capable of Disruptive Growth
• Common Pitfalls in the Application of Disruption Theory and Its Incorporation into Wider Strategic Planning

This final day develops executive presence and communication impact as key differentiators for senior leaders. Participants explore gravitas, appearance, and high-impact communication techniques. The topics covered will include:   

• Appreciating the Need to Display Executive Presence and Its Relationship to Organisational Politics
• The Three Dimensions of Executive Presence
• Displaying Gravitas, Charisma, Impactful Communication and An Appropriate Appearance
• Specific Challenges Faced by Female Leaders and Managers
• Chairing Effective, Efficient and Satisfying Meetings
• Researching, Designing and Delivering Compelling and Memorable Presentations