Managing with Mind and Heart
Leadership training that actually sticks.
For over two decades, our signature workshop series, Managing with Mind and Heart, and the sustainability efforts both before and after, have been instrumental in helping leadership teams and organizations achieve sustained improvement through the consistent practice of best-practice management skills.
“I've seen many workshops come and go over the years, but what Nash Consulting offers is sticky! Their commitment to exploring both tactical management skills and emotional intelligence means you get that elusive trifecta of training: it's practical, meaningful and sustainable!”
Katie Carlson
VP, Human Resources, Brooks Running
Here’s the deal…
Creating a healthy and thriving leadership culture requires all leaders to adopt a consistent set of skills, mindsets, and behaviors. Our Managing with Mind and Heart leadership workshop series plays a crucial role in achieving this goal. When all leaders within an organization receive training in best practice management skills and make efforts to sustain them, it leads to numerous benefits, such as improved morale, productivity, and engagement across the organization. It also fosters greater mutual respect and trust between leaders and enhances communication and collaboration between departments and workgroups.
Our leadership workshops go beyond just theory and focus on practical, actionable skills. We prioritize participant interaction, discussion, and commitment-building to ensure maximum impact.
Leaders and managers will leave equipped with sustainable management skills and clear, actionable plans to ensure these tools don’t just become the “flavor of the year.” We stand behind our commitment to delivering lasting results.
Session 1: The Manager's Mindset l Managing with Mind and Heart
Learning Objective: Embracing the six core commitments of an effective people-leader
Here we explore six key ways managers can effectively create healthy workplaces (whether on-site, remote, or hybrid) by focusing on workplace morale, emotional IQ, and psychological safety. We also introduce the Top 15 Management Skills for building healthy, highly engaged organizations and begin the journey of developing and practicing a set of specific adaptive skills, such as the ability to receive feedback non-defensively and listen so others feel heard.
Personal Growth for Managers | Key learning: Developing a growth mindset
The Morale Mandate | Key learning: Recognizing leadership’s role in creating and maintaining morale
The Top 15 Management Skills | Key learning: Identifying key people-management “deliverables”
Show Caring and Respect | Key learning: Demonstrating to employees that you have their best interests at heart
Grow Your Adaptive Skills | Key learning: Developing emotional intelligence and listening so people feel heard
Manage Your Power Differential | Key learning: Maximizing approachability and receiving feedback nondefensively
Session 2: Proactive Management l Systems Thinking and the Waterline Model
Learning Objective: Learning systemic solutions that improve workplace culture using the four levels of the Waterline Model
In this workshop, we’ll continue our journey through the Top 15 Management Skills and explore the challenge and the privilege of building and maintaining a professional and positive workplace culture through utilizing the "Waterline Model," a proactive approach to organizational health. We'll learn practical skills around setting clear expectations, holding effective one-on-one meetings, giving feedback clearly and compassionately, and more.
Waterline Level 1: Structure
Single-Point Accountability | Key learning: Understanding “systems” using an example of single-point accountability
Clear Expectations (The Personal Success Plan) | Key learning: Establishing clear and collaborative expectations with employees
Accountability Defined | Key learning: Differentiating proactive accountability from simply addressing poor performance
Waterline Level 2: Group Processes
One-on-Ones | Key learning: Building trust and connection through regular, scheduled one-on-ones | Key learning: Building trust and connection through regular, scheduled one-on-ones
Lines of Communication | Key learning: Managing healthy communication channels
By-Whens | Key learning: Committing to reliability and follow-through
Waterline Level 3: Interpersonal
The Art of Giving Feedback | Key learning: Giving feedback clearly, compassionately, and effectively
Waterline Level 4: Intrapersonal
Behavior Styles Homework
Session 3: Understanding People l Behavior Styles
Learning Objective: Building trust and respect through understanding our behavior styles
This fun and interactive workshop explores the four spectrums of human behavior and reveals how leaders can use Behavior Styles Theory, combined with a growth mindset, to increase their own self-awareness, build greater trust and respect in their work group, and improve their effectiveness as leaders.
The Four Spectrums of Human Behavior | Key learning: Appreciating our diverse behavioral expressions
Discovering Your Behavior Style(s) | Key learning: Identifying your own combination of styles
What’s Your Vibe? | Key learning: Gaining a working understanding of the four styles and how we impact others
Morale, Meetings, and Managers | Key learning: Exploring each style's basic wants, needs, and expectations
Ranges of Expressions | Key learning: Digging deeper into the ways people express themselves emotionally
Building Trust and Respect | Key learning: Discovering ways to help others show up as their best selves
Creating Your “User Manual” | Key learning: Practicing self-advocacy and increasing others' understanding of youse Behavior Styles theory to enhance meetings, decision-making, and communication
Your Growth Opportunities | Key learning: Committing to three customized learning and growth strategies
Session 4: Performance Management l Course Correcting for High Performance
Learning Objective: Mastering the art of holding employees accountable while maintaining trust and respect
Managers provide feedback in hopes of getting employees to do more of what's working and less of what's not. But let's be honest: that doesn't always happen. Efforts to provide feedback, even if well-intentioned, can easily backfire and cause hurt, confusion, and apathy among employees. This workshop equips managers with techniques that maximize the effectiveness of workplace feedback and coaching.
Accountability Revisited | Key learning: Reviewing accountability as a continuum from proactive to remedial
Navigating Organizational Concerns | Key learning: Learning to select from five key manager responses
The Four Keys to Effective Performance Management | Key learning: Balancing accountability with supportive leadership
Progressive Conversations | Key learning: Practicing the art of challenging conversations
Staying Connected Relationally (C.A.R.E.) | Key learning: Maintaining curiosity and empathy in your corrective conversations
Dealing with Challenging Responses | Key learning: Navigating defensiveness and resistance while fostering trust
Session 5: Workplace Culture - Building for Success
Learning Objective: Understanding the five core social needs - status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness - toward the aim of enhancing employee engagement and well-being
In this chapter, we will start the day by digging into some important information about the brain, human needs, and the psychology of workplace engagement in our continuing journey toward management excellence. Then we'll begin exploring practical and effective ways to build employee engagement with the five core social needs in mind.
Status
Recognition and Appreciation | Key learning: Effectively validating employees' contributions, value, and worth
Certainty
Information Distribution | Key learning: Building communication channels that reduce uncertainty and increase trust
Autonomy
The Outcome-Based Mindset | Key learning: Adjusting our mindset toward employee autonomy
Decision-Making Styles | Key learning: Using “smart autonomy” to situationally adapt our decision-making approach
Relatedness
Creating Connection at Work | Key learning: Incorporating the three-part strategy for building workplace community
Triangulation in the Workplace | Key learning: Reducing workplace triangulation and free-floating negativity
Effective and Enjoyable Meetings | Key learning: Facilitating meetings that maximize effectiveness and engagement
Fairness
Actual and Perceived Favoritism | Key learning: Establishing a culture of fairness and belonging
Session 6: Communication and Sustaining Change
Key Objective: Learn the foundation of leading change and create a sustainable leadership development plan
Finally, we’ll turn our attention to the vital topic of sustainability and how to avoid the “flavor-of-the-year syndrome” in terms of applying The Top 15 Management Skills to your workplace. Our goal is to work with you to help ensure that you and your fellow management team members implement and sustain the skills from this workshop in order to achieve long-term success.
Sponsorship | Key learning: Establishing and maintaining upper management commitment to change
How Systems Change (or Don’t) | Key learning: Understanding the dynamics of resistance, persistence, and sustainability
Avoiding the “Flavor-of-the-Year” Syndrome | Key learning: Embedding leadership skills into an organization's culture
Sustainability Group Project | Key learning: Designing a leadership skills sustainability plan for your organization
Final Commitments and Action Planning
If you’d like to get more of a feel for our core training content and philosophies, we encourage you to listen to our podcast or read our blog.