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The Program for Leadership
Leadership Skills Program Workshops
This list is representative of the types of LSP workshops offered. For the current list of workshops and bidding/registration instructions, MBA candidates should see Blackboard.
Ace the Case. Does the thought of case interviews make you sick to your stomach? Are you confused about how and when to apply frameworks? Do you lack the ability to quickly and coherently dissect a business problem and make recommendations?
This LSP helps you overcome those problems by outlining the frameworks you need to know and showing you how to apply them. It also introduces an integrated case-breaking system designed to make any case, from M&A to Marketing Strategy, easy. Students will also be given an opportunity to apply the system to a variety of cases and receive feedback on their performance.
Advanced Excel. This workshop intersperses timesaving tips, tricks, and shortcuts with several of Excel's most useful features and functions. The session is organized into three areas: Worksheet Features, Functions, and Analysis Tools.
Advanced Excel: Visual Basic for Poets. If you consider yourself an experienced Excel user, then you're ready to start programming in Excel using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). You will complete several hands-on exercises that introduce you to the Visual Basic Editor and the VBA programming language. You will record, play, and edit macros. When you record a macro, Excel converts your keystrokes to Visual Basic. You will add and configure Visual Basic and Form objects, like buttons and scroll bars, to make a worksheet more user-friendly.
Advanced Excel: Visual Basic for Programmers. If you consider yourself an experienced Excel user, then you're ready to start programming in Excel using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). You will complete several hands-on exercises that introduce you to the Visual Basic Editor and the VBA programming language. You will write Visual Basic code to create user-defined functions, which you will use in formulas. You will also write code to control the action of objects, like buttons and drop-down lists. You will learn how to manage code modules to use code with other files and become acquainted with key Visual Basic statements, objects, properties, and methods.
Advanced Teams. Ultimately, a leader's ability to galvanize co-workers resides in the ability to develop trust and confidence in the people and purposes of the organization. This course is designed to produce distinct skills and knowledge that apply directly to the leadership of teams. The course will provide leading-edge strategies, tactics, and insights into the development and management of teams. Participants will learn how to initiate teams, design team-building interventions, improve the performance of teams, and expand team-based work in the organization. They will also learn specific tools and techniques for developing and sustaining team effectiveness.
Best Negotiating Practices: Building Relationships & Trust. Whether you are negotiating with co-workers, bosses, subordinates, suppliers, or customers, you will negotiate almost every day of your life. This workshop will sharpen your ability to plan for negotiations, decide when to negotiate and when to walk away, negotiate when your opponent is tough or unreasonable, manage negotiations, and come away with "win-win" agreements.
This real-world program provides attendees with the skills needed to negotiate all elements of a successful agreement, including price, strategies, deadlines, deliverables/scope, resources, budgets, fees, priorities and performance standards with customers, partners, internal colleagues, and suppliers.
Building Interview Skills. Do you freeze in an interview setting? Have trouble organizing your thoughts and your story? This three-hour workshop will focus on techniques for getting over nervousness and polishing your ability to communicate under stress, by working on impromptu exercises and mock interview situations. Exercises will be videotaped and reviewed.
Building Rapport Through Applied Listening: Communication Strategies That Make an Impact. While business leaders consistently rate exemplary communication as the most critical skill for success, most MBAs put a premium on learning what to say, rather than how to hear. Listening effectively and intelligently allows us to better process information, assess underlying issues, and improve interpersonal relations. This dynamic workshop provides an opportunity to practice practical techniques, resulting in valuable insights for effective leadership.
Business Etiquette. We live in a very competitive society. When interacting with others, the first impression we give face to face, on the phone, or over dinner can make or break those relationships. More and more people are recognizing that they will never achieve their career goals if their bosses and customers do not see them as looking and acting the part. It is a difficult subject for today's executives, since most grew up in the "do-your-own-thing" generation. However, the business mood in many of today's industries has changed to a more formal and more mannerly style. This workshop helps people enhance their business etiquette and polish their professional image.
Business Strategy Laboratory: Defining and Operating a Sustainable Enterprise. Laboratories are routine in chemistry, architecture, engineering and art education. Perhaps because labs aren't standard in business coursework, they generally aren't part of sustainability training.
Within a Transformation Lab session, teams are formed which represent companies seeking a sustainable enterprise business strategy. Their common goal is to enable each firm to enhance its corporate citizenship profile while it conducts a profitable business. Individual team members take on executive management roles. Each team defines its own strategy to run its company in the context of life-like conditions such as time pressures, budgetary constraints, unpredictable stakeholder interventions, changing market conditions, and limited information. At the end of the decision cycle, participants sell their product in a dynamic market that allows companies to take market share from one another, and to record their decisions that result in P&L, balance sheet, and environmental reports.
By the Numbers: Targeting Customers that Count. The central focus of marketing is the consumer. How many consumers are there? What lifestyles are associated with various market segments? Which consumer markets are expected to grow over the next five years? If brand management or market research is in your future, then this class is a must.
"By the Numbers" will expose participants to key data sources from the Government and from marketing research firms. A combination of lecture and hands-on, this class will feature resources such as Choices 3 from Simmon's Market Research, the Consumer Expenditure Survey from the U.S. Department of Labor, Census of Retail Trade and Census of Population from the U.S. Census Bureau and market research reports from database vendors such as Euromonitor and Mintel.
Change Management Simulation. Business leaders everywhere now face the major challenge of initiating company-wide reorganization plans, responding quickly to competition, and establishing new products and markets. In today's business jargon, this capability is often referred to as the learning, agile, or resilient organization, meaning the ability and capacity to change and create change. In this workshop, you will learn change management principles for driving change (new strategies, organizational redesigns, systems implementations, etc.) through the system, and apply those principles in a computer-based simulation.
Coaching Skills for Leadership Success. There may be diverse opinions about what Leadership is, yet all experts agree that Coaching is an essential skill in every leader's toolkit. This course will offer you the opportunity to learn a simple but effective model that you can readily apply as formal or informal leaders, or even as project team members.
Conflict Resolution. In this workshop, you will learn how to communicate best when it matters most. This conflict resolution program gives you the tools to handle life's most difficult and important conversations skillfully, including giving feedback, resolving conflict, and managing negotiations. In it you will learn how to prepare for these situations with a proven technique, transform pent up emotions into powerful dialogues, develop the confidence to talk about almost any difficult issue, be persuasive and not abrasive in confronting the issues.
Creativity and Leadership. This workshop provides a theoretical platform and an applied framework for understanding and designing creative processes individually and in groups. The workshop draws on the concept of whole brain technology as the theoretical platform for understanding the creative process. Different thinking styles are required throughout that process. Prior to the class, participants will be asked to take a personal assessment measuring their particular thinking style. That assessment of style will be used to help develop a team and corporate strategies for building creative problem solving processes and cultivating a holistic approach to leadership. This workshop will also explore current research in nurturing creativity in others, leveraging team synergy, fostering corporate innovation, and using conflict for creative outcomes.
Dealers Choice: Tools of the Trade in Investment Banking. What's behind the deal? The investment banking industry relies heavily on a couple of key databases to track merger and acquisition activity and IPOs. SDC Platinum (Securities Data Corp.) is considered the "industry standard" and is the world's foremost financial transactions database. When the press reports on the top financial deals of the year or identifies the leading financial or legal advisers via their league tables, the SDC Platinum database is generally their primary information source. SDC Platinum is a global database that tracks proposed and completed deals in both the private and public sectors. This class will provide an in-depth introduction to two key databases in the SDC Platinum product: M&A and Global New Issues. Students will learn how to effectively search these two databases. The class will be held in the Parker Center.
Financial Accounting for Not-for-Profit Organizations. This is an introductory session about financial accounting for not-for-profit organizations, including recognition and measurement issues as well as the interpretation and use of financial statements. The session will focus on similarities and differences in financial accounting across different types of organizations. It also will focus on relatively new standards for accounting for contributions, the form and content of financial statements, and accounting for investments. The session is intended for individuals who will be active with not-for-profit organizations in various roles, including as members of boards of directors.
Giving and Receiving Feedback: The art of receiving feedback from and giving feedback to colleagues, subordinates, and customers. One of the critical factors for success in any organization is the ability to solicit feedback from others with whom you interact in your everyday transactions. Soliciting feedback is the only way to make sure we assess accurately our strengths and developmental needs and expand our self-perception in a focused way. Conversely, our ability as leaders and team participants depends on our savvy in giving feedback to others so that they can respond to our work and professional needs and become more effective team players.
This workshop uses the Web for learning key concepts. In the class, the interactive part of the workshop, participants will have the opportunity, through role-playing and feedback, to learn and put into practice powerful techniques that are critical for success. Case studies will be given and discussed with the class and role-playing will be utilized to demonstrate the techniques being taught.
Introduction to Microsoft Access: Tables, Queries, Forms and Reports. Where ya gonna store all that data you need to analyze? For data storage and reporting, Microsoft Access beats Excel hands down. You will learn how to: design a table for storing data; enter, edit, and delete data; selectively retrieve data using filters and queries, and use wizards to create forms for viewing data and reports for printing data. Even better, you will learn how to connect to Access from a worksheet. That way, you can enjoy both the storage features of Access and the analysis features of Excel at the same time!
Introduction to Microsoft Access: Designing a Database from the Ground Up. Overcome the limitations of storing data in Excel by designing a relational Access database. Solve a real-world data storage scenario by building multiple, related tables. Learn how to hide the complexity of a relational database from a user with combo boxes, forms with sub forms, and multi-table queries.
Intermediate Microsoft Access. Now that you know how to find your way around Access, harness its power by creating a relational database. Overcome the limitations of a flat-file database by designing multiple, related tables. Learn how to hide the complexity of a relational database from a user with combo boxes, forms with sub forms, and multi-table queries.
Introduction to Multilateral Organizations: ASEAN to WTO. When people talk about the IMF, IFC, and EBRD, do you just nod, smile and hope that nobody notices that you're clueless? If you are not perfectly comfortable with these acronyms and the multilateral institutions behind them, then this program is for you. Learn the basics about the multilateral financial institutions (IMF, World Bank, and regional development banks), the supranational quasi-regulatory and legal entities (WTO, the International Court of Justice) and the free trade zones and economic unions (EU, FTAA, ASEAN). Whatever your area, these multilateral organizations are almost sure to affect your work and certain to have a place in the business environment in which you are operating. So, you might as well come for this intensive introduction and feel comfortable when you hear the alphabet soup of global institutions in the future.
Introduction to Project Management Using Microsoft Project. Microsoft Project is a valuable tool for planning, managing and controlling the status of your projects. It gives you the ability to see both the overview and the detail, and it will help you to identify risks and solve problems before they occur, thus saving time and money. This workshop will demonstrate project management workflow using key features of Microsoft Project. The workshop will closely follow tutorials in the book.
Investment Banking Law. This program will provide students interested in investment banking with the basic legal framework for the transactions on which investment-banking firms advise. This two-part seminar addresses the legal issues that arise in connection with securities offerings and merger and acquisition transactions, from the perspective of an investment banker.
The first part of the program addresses the requirements and restrictions applicable to various types of public offerings and private placements, with the principal focus on initial public offerings. The second part introduces the statutory, regulatory and contractual issues arising in various types of M&A transactions, including hostile tender offers, sales of public companies and business divestitures.
In addition, through materials to be reviewed, the seminar will cover the major elements of purchase agreements entered into by the parties to a transaction and the fairness opinions delivered by investment bankers.
Negotiating Employment Offers. The art and the science of it! Just as the best offers go to applicants who sell themselves better, the best compensation packages go to people who know how to negotiate. These are the applicants who know how to leverage their talents, the conditions in the market place, and the context of the offer at their prospective employers.
This workshop uses the Web for learning key concepts. In the web portion of the workshop, students will learn a general strategy for negotiations and specific negotiating techniques. In the class, the interactive part of the workshop, participants will have the opportunity, through role-playing and feedback, to learn and put into practice powerful negotiation techniques that are critical for success. Case studies will be given and discussed with the class, and role-playing will be utilized to demonstrate the techniques being taught.
Personal Mastery. All great leaders stand for something. This course focuses on developing a sense of personal vision - a perception of you in the world that provides a framework for shaping your life and career. The discipline of developing that vision cultivates a way of thinking that produces a sustained sense of energy and gradually leads to what we want. Strongly held visions produce extraordinary results. This program will provide both a context for visioning, and an experience of visioning.
PowerPoint 101. So, you can start PowerPoint and create some slides with bullet points on them. Maybe you can even add some clip art. What about video clips? How about some cool sounds? Where do you get them, how do you put them in your presentation? And of course, there is the terrible worst-case scenario: you create the presentation on your laptop, start to give your presentation using a different machine and the pictures are missing, and the multimedia does not work!!! ARGH!! Learn how to make your presentations even better, and how to avoid presentation traps in this fun and interesting LSP.
PowerPoint 201. If you know how to do the basics in PowerPoint but want to add that little extra "oomph" to your presentations, this is a class for you. This hands-on workshop will focus on adding "bells and whistles" to your presentation. Do you know where to get cool backgrounds for your slides and use them in your presentations? Can you bring in an outline done in another application? Do you know what "branching" or action buttons are and how to create them? We will also look more closely at bringing in an Excel chart and MS Graph (PowerPoint's application for charting). Many tips for design recommendations will also be included as well as documented information about how to give an effective presentation.
The Art of the Deal: A look at the softer side of Investment Banking. Have you ever wondered how the leading investment banks win the mega-deals that you read about? Success in "getting the business" involves much more than building the best financial model or coming up with the killer acquisition idea. Closing the deal, and the negotiation process that takes place along the way, are other matters entirely. In this half-day program, we will examine the interpersonal skill set required of investment bankers as a deal is worked from idea inception to final execution, as well as some of the pitfalls that inevitably arise. We will also endeavor to point out the differences in roles between junior and senior level bankers throughout this process.
The Leadership Challenge: The Hoffman Challenge Course. This workshop is for people who are interested in learning about teams and leadership in a live setting. The workshop serves to develop the group as a team by placing participants into hands-on learning situations. These learning activities include a progressive series of group initiatives and individual challenges in both low and high elements that are designed to address issues of leadership, communication, planning, and trust. They are minimally physical, somewhat unconventional enjoyable activities. Most challenges are impossible to solve alone, and each may require a different approach. Skilled trainers assist groups in drawing lessons from these experiences.
Time Management Survival Skills. How can you balance competing demands, multiple priorities and limited time? This session will help you understand how to identify your high-value activities, set clear priorities and make realistic plans - despite endless to-do lists, countless distractions, and constant pressure to "get it all done!"
Webmaster 101: Creating Your Own Web Pages. If you know your way around the Internet, you understand the basic language (you know how to "surf the Web" and understand what a "hot link" is) and you would really like to try to create some basic Web pages, this class is for you.
If you already know how to use an editor, or use html tags, this class is not for you. If you have no idea what the last sentence meant, this class is for you! In this part-lecture, part-hands-on course, you will learn how to use basic html (hypertext markup language) coding used to create Web pages. We will do some basic formatting and place simple graphics on the pages.
Web 201. During your summer internship, your boss wants you to put together a web site for your division that incorporates the look of the other company web pages, create a simple form for customers inquiring about your product AND get the web server to process some of the data directly for you. If you think this might stump you, Web 201 is for you. We will look at frames, creating forms and using the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and scripting to process data. We will also take a quick peek at JavaScript, just enough so you are ready for that project when your boss hands it to you!
What Should I do With My Life? This workshop will help you architect a rewarding career path by exploring who you are, what type of work would be a great fit, and how you can identify and secure the right jobs.
Wine Appreciation - Banfi.
WINE: "BEVERAGE OF THE GODS"
Sounds intimidating...but it need not be! Since antiquity, wine has been lauded for its characteristics as a simple, natural beverage. Join us on an enological pilgrimage where we will discuss wine basics, sensory evaluation (sight, smell, taste and touch), and the pairing of food and wine.
We'll swirl, sniff and taste our way through some of Castello Banfi's Tuscan superstars and try to dispel some wine myths such as "one can only enjoy white wine with fish," or "red wine must be served with red meats."
