Leadership Excellence in a VUCA World

About the Course

The world we live and work in is, in many ways, unpredictable. Economic instability, political upheavals, changing legislation, natural disasters and global pandemics - the list of factors impacting (and re-shaping) the environments within which we work is by no means short. Managers and leaders often feel overwhelmed by the pressures they face, mainly when operating in volatile and uncertain settings or within complex and ambiguous contexts. Compromised performance and the risk of burnout are often the consequences.

The 5-day Leadership Excellence in a VUCA World virtual training course addresses the abovementioned challenges. It is designed to equip leaders and managers with fresh ways of thinking that help them deal more effectively with the pressures they’re facing on a day-to-day basis. It also provides them with a toolkit of skills, techniques and insights that help them reach better decisions, lead their teams with higher effectiveness and act with renewed confidence in the face of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

This, in turn, leads to a range of practical benefits. Participants will discover ways to face volatility with an anchoring vision, reduce uncertainty with understanding, meet complexity with clarity and handle ambiguity with agility. As a result, leaders can better support their organisations through challenging times and gain a greater sense of stability and resilience themselves.

Core Objectives

Delegates will achieve the following objectives:

• Understand the nature and impact of the VUCA phenomenon
• Discover the 10 VUCA Leadership competencies
• Maintain performance and reduce risk of burn-out for self and teams
• Leverage vision and purpose of combating the impact of volatility
• Learn how to deal with uncertainty and transform it into understanding
• Drive clarity and observation in the face of complexity
• Devise a strategy to deal with VUCA for your organisation
• Discover how to leverage agility to overcome ambiguity
• Lead teams and projects with renewed confidence in a VUCA world

Training Approach

This training course is a mixture of lecture, video presentation, trainer-facilitated workshop exercises, and case study analysis organised through a Virtual Learning Platform anytime and anywhere.

The Attendees

This virtual training course is suitable for anyone in a leadership or managerial position who works in settings exposed to volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity and who would benefit from a toolkit to deal effectively with the impact of the VUCA phenomenon.

This virtual training course will be valuable to professionals, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Senior Managers and Leaders
• Midlevel Managers and Functional Leaders
• Project Managers and Team Leaders
• Business Development Professionals
• Anyone who wishes to strengthen their resilience in a VUCA world

Daily Discussion

DAY ONE: UNDERSTANDING THE VUCA PHENOMENON

• Understanding Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity at Work
• Generating key insights via the VUCA Gap Analysis process
• Understanding the impact of VUCA on self and others
• Exploring the key levers of VUCA Leadership
• Eliminating barriers to managing in a VUCA world
• Recognise and leverage the benefits of sound VUCA leadership

DAY TWO: FROM VOLATILITY TO VISION

• Black Swan and White Swan Phenomena
• Applying the GROW model to support your team
• Covey’s 2nd Habit: ‘Begin with the end in mind’
• Team Vision to Defuse Volatility
• The Coherence Model

DAY THREE: FROM UNCERTAINTY TO UNDERSTANDING

• The relationship between Uncertainty and Procrastination
• Scharmer’s ‘Theory U’ to Transform Uncertainty
• Psychological Safety
• Kurt Lewin’s Person-Environment Model
• Simulation and Crisis Planning

DAY FOUR: FROM COMPLEXITY TO CLARITY

• Complex, Complicated or Chaotic?
• Delegation as a tool for mastering complexity
• The systemic loop technique
• The Cynefin Framework
• Leveraging Teams to Transform Complexity

DAY FIVE: AMBIGUITY TO AGILITY

• Ambiguity vs Ambivalence
• The Growth Mindset
• RACI & Stakeholder Analysis
• The four roles of the Ambidextrous Leader
• Functional Fixedness vs ‘Thinking with No Box’
• The 6 Paradoxes of Leadership