Looking to start off your fall and winter with some new ideas and inspiration on selling?  Maria Saley will be teaching an evening course at University of Calgary’s new downtown campus (906 8 Ave SW), starting October 18th, for 7 weeks.  

This course will be valuable for anyone who wants to be more effective with developing selling relationships and winning new business.  Students must have a real selling situation to use for the assignments.  This course would appeal to new or experienced salespeople, business professionals and small business owners.

Contact Continuing Education for more details at http://conted.ucalgary.ca/

or call Continuing Ed at 403 220-2866      The Course number is BMC 294-002.

A leader who can step back and encourage team members to put forward ideas in their areas of expertise will generally have a much more engaged, productive team.   One of my favourite books calls this “Leading from any Chair”.  The book is “The Art of Possibility”  by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.  http://www.benjaminzander.com/book/   Benjamin describes how much better an orchestra could perform when the conductor allowed the orchestra members to suggest better ways to play the music and even to conduct sometimes.   Orchestras are traditionally very heirarchical and structured organizations.

There are many comparisons to this in the corporate world.   Leaders spend a great deal of time on selecting talented people and then are sometimes unable to tap into their talents and keep them engaged.    How many times have you seen a team where the talented people have left and the less talented stayed, leaving a weaker team?      This can happen because of poor selection in matching skills to the job, but it can also occur because the leader does not know how to encourage effective ” leading from any chair”.  

Here’s a few suggestions to encourage “leading from any chair”:

- Ask people to prepare their suggestions and  ideas in a short written  form.   Prepare a simple structure for them that  includes the issue or opportunity, the idea, and the anticipated result.  This forces them to think about the idea first but do not create too much structure on this,  or many good ideas will never be communicated.     

- Respond to every idea in a timely manner.   Even if you do not agree with the idea, remember that you want to encourage people to think of good ideas, so ask some questions to uncover their thinking rather than just saying you do not like the idea.  By asking questions, you will help them to think it through more and learn.  Show respect and do not act judgmental.

- Celebrate great ideas and have the person or people who generated the idea lead the execution if possible.   Also encourage teammembers to work together on an idea before submitting it  – this encourages a more collaborative approach and a more well-thought-out idea. 

Maria

What is the right balance of fiscal responsibility versus social responsibility?  Don Braid wrote an article for the Calgary Heraldon on the prevalence of mayoralty platforms focusing on fiscal responsibility vs social responsibility. He argues that most of the mayoralty candidates are talking about fiscal responsibility at the expense of social issues.   http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Braid+Decline+public+civility+shows+Calgary+needs+leader+with+heart/3493074/story.html

Outside of politics, as CEO/CFO of your company, or of your Life, this is a constant balancing act.  How do you manage money and budgets in the face of competing and increasing demands?   How do you manage the various stakeholder expectations?    How do you keep debt under control?

There are a few important principles:

- Set objectives for what you want to achieve, including social responsibility issues.

- Set written budgets that do not exceed your cash flow, and support what you want to achieve.  Prioritize what has to be spent and what is just nice to have.    

- Have a contingency fund for emergencies or unexpected events.

- Review budgets versus actual spending regularly in order to re-balance.    This is about re-allocation, not exceeding your cash flow.   If cash flow is truly inadequate, where can more cash flow come without sacrificing other important objectives ?

- Make sure that all stakeholders have commitment to budgets.  In companies, this means all employees; in  families, this includes all family members. 

Maria Saley

Want to take charge of your life and career and enjoy the satisfaction of pursuing meaningful goals?    Maria Saley will be leading a special 2-day workshop on “Be the CEO of your Life”, at the University of Calgary on September 22 and 23, 2010.    

Course Details

Take charge of your future with a strategic approach called “Be the CEO of your Life”.   Participants will learn how to apply strategic principles to their own life and career.  Discover how to identify and develop a personal vision and brand, focus on success factors and set your key strategic goals and tactics.  A workbook is provided for your Life Strategy Planning that will guide you into uncharted territory for an energetic and inspiring session!

This seminar will appeal to anyone who wants more from their life and career and isn’t content to  just let it “happen”. 

Here is the link to sign up or get more information  http://conted.ucalgary.ca/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do;jsessionid=60621B3A30149ABBB169E133A485410B?method=load&courseId=2829691&selectedCategoryId=10237&selectedProgramAreaId=&selectedProgramStreamId=

Women of Influence Inc. – the organization dedicated to the enhancement of professional women, partners with Knightsbridge – the experts in building leadership capacity, for a unique, year long program combining formal professional development and facilitated peer-mentoring groups.    Maria Saley will be facilitating and coaching with the Emerging Leaders section in Calgary.

Elevate Your Influence is a program designed for women who fit one of two leader community groups:

-  High-potential emerging business leaders

-  Trailblazers approaching the summit of their careers 

Does this sound familiar? 

You need to ‘manage up’ to attract attention and resources in your organization.

Your role has more accountability than authority and you need to get things done without direct control.

You are negotiating increasingly complex deals with more sophisticated partners.

You want to be seen as an attractive candidate for succession.

The ability to strategically influence across and outside your organization is increasingly identified as a key skill required for achieving business success.  Elevate Your Influence provides you with Knightsbridge’s thought leadership around successful influence in a two module learning experience, which is designed to help you leverage strategies and tools in influencing situations you are facing right now. Knightsbridge’s facilitated peer mentoring sessions will provide a forum for you to engage with like-minded professionals. They are designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas, set goals and accountabilities, and provide you with a personal advisory group.  You will also benefit from several one-on-one coaching sessions to gain candid feedback on your own influence style.

Why You Should Attend

Elevate Your Influence provides the rare opportunity for you to:

•  Obtain critical influencing strategies and tools you can apply immediately
•  Practice skills that will help you to thrive and make an impact in increasingly complex, matrixed business environments
•  Gain confidence that you can have influence in arenas that you may not have previously considered possible
•  Connect and network within a peer community through shared learning and experiences

Elevate Your Influence Program Outline

September – October 2010: Kick-Off & Formal Learning Module

•  Elevate Your Influence Program Kick-off
•  Learning Module 1 (joint session with all participants)

Key Take-Aways:

• Increased insight into the levers of influence
  • A process for influencing outcomes and relationships
  • A better understanding of the impact of gender on the practice of influence
• Insight from a peer community on how to successfully influence within and outside your organization
• Greater self-awareness of how you influence others – Becoming a Woman of Influence 

October and November 2010: Leader Communities

• Facilitated Peer Mentoring Groups (approximately 2 hours, once a month)
• Two communities of leaders will be created including High-potential emerging business leaders; and Trailblazers
• Knightsbridge trained coaches will facilitate the leader community group discussions to encourage skill integration of influence strategies and techniques related to the particular challenges and opportunities within each leader group 

January 2011: Formal Learning Module

•  Learning Module 2 (joint session with all participants)

Key Take-Aways:

• New insights about the nuances of influence in complex environments
• A greater appreciation of the personal and organizational mindset required for successful collaboration
• Applied tools to build and leverage your strategic network to maximize collaboration
• A better understanding of the role gender plays in both recognizing collaboration opportunities and working together collaboratively
• A broader perspective gained through a discussion with your peer community of strategies for making collaboration work inside and outside your organization

January, February, March, April 2011: Leader Communities

• Facilitated Peer Mentoring Groups (Approximately 2 hours, once per month)

May 2011: Program End Celebration

•  Program Celebration with all participants

Throughout the Elevate Your Influence Program

• 3 one-on-one coaching sessions with a Knightsbridge Coach 

Program Cost: $6000.00 per participant

Registration Process:  Space is limited to 20 participants (10 from each leader community group) on a first come first serve basis.  Please note we reserve the right to cancel the program if there is insufficient enrollment.

Online Registration:  www.womenofinfluenceinc.ca/elevate.html  

Registration Deadline: September 15^th, 2010 

For More Information on the Elevate Your Influence Program contact Cindy Lake directly at clake@knightsbridge.ca or 604.678.9344. 

Elevate Your Influence Program Schedule