Let’s be honest, each of us has personally worked for a bad leader or has witnessed one in action. And so, the age-old questions related to leadership continue to be debated. My personal belief is that one can possess one or all three of what I’ve dubbed the Triple A of leadership (aspirations, attributes, and abilities), but to become a good leader with the potential to become a “great leader” requires work. Good and great leaders are made through the process of knowledge enhancement, learning from best practices, and personal experiences-good and bad. My stance is based on history, studies, first-hand accounts, and personal experiences.

On your leadership journey, to better understand the phenomenon of leadership, we will look at its role throughout history, studies that have been conducted, first-hand accounts, and my encounters and experiences. For example, we’ll explore historical societal systems and the role of leadership, such as the hierarchy system that existed within traditional monarchies. As we know, these systems supported the appointment of leaders who came to power solely based on birthright. Looking at this and other leadership structures will help us to better understand some of the guiding principles associated with leadership.

AVA is committed to providing a well-rounded, tailored leadership program that will prepare individuals for their next level opportunity. Regardless of where a person is on their leadership learning spectrum, we will help define individual starting points and needs, providing essential tools for next-level leadership growth opportunities.

Now or Never: Is this where you are?
2020 ushered in the COVID-19 pandemic, catching most of us off guard while drastically changing the trajectory of the world and our society. Most of us were caught off guard, and for a period, we lived day by day, uncertain of the future. For many Americans, COVID-19 was by far the greatest tragedy that we’d experienced in our lifetime, and millions of lives were lost. Post-pandemic, we’ve all changed. We cling closer to those who are important to us, we value the intangible more, and we have an enlightened understanding of the concept of “time”.

This program is designed to meet you where you are. The process will include:

• A thorough assessment to help us get to know you and your specific goals and needs
• Knowledge enhancement lessons
• Skill-building lessons and activities
• Explore leadership options
• Practice exercises
• Coaching
• Summaries of feedback and recommendations

Objectives for Individual Clients:

• To develop your leadership training strategy (defining your starting point in the process).
• Clarify and/or refine your next-level goals (where you want to go).
• Provide you with tailored essential tools.
• Provide you with a concrete leadership development strategy to prepare you for your next level and support you as you move forward.
• Support

The fact that you are reading this confirms that you understand the importance of staff development, and you know that there are benefits gained through investment in employees. You are in tune with your organization’s current attrition rate, the high cost of recruitment, and the impact of losing great employees.

The uniqueness of this program is that training strategies are tailored to support and strengthen leadership abilities/skills of employees who may be first-time managers or supervisors. They may or may not fit your classification of a traditional manager in that their prior roles at the company may not have been in leadership. Or, they may not have a 4-year college degree, yet you’ve identified them as a valuable employee, and they have qualities that could make them a fit for a new supervisory role that’s open in her current department or another area. Perhaps they started in an administrative role, and they’ve excelled in their core role, they’ve also demonstrated leadership potential, and/or they may have made it known that they want to grow career-wise. Knowing the obvious reasons why companies want to keep good employees, you’ve determined that investing in leadership training for this staff is well worth it and would also give them additional skills, support, and confidence for their new leadership journey.

A related case in point is that recently, I’ve developed a program that addresses how to prepare direct support workers for supervisory roles. The premises are, while this isn’t the traditional pool that you would look to for supervisory roles, rather than hiring an external supervisor to fill a supervisory role in the department, I hope that recruiters will look internally first. If they’ve excelled in their work and you’ve determined that they have the potential and they are worth the investment, I will support them in developing their leadership skills so they can be successful in their new roles.

To capture just a few company benefits:

• It boosts loyalty and demonstrates that you value your employees.
• It demonstrates support and loyalty.
• It saves you money by hiring from within and foregoing the recruitment budget and uncertainty.
• It helps to build and solidify team spirit.
• It prepares your employees for the next level.
• It minimizes staff attrition.