Facilitator
Description
Leading well means working through competing priorities, constant change and difficult conversations. Pressure tends to bring out our defensive habits; when it does, we become closed, protective and focused on being right, and stop being open, curious and willing to learn. The skill is noticing where you are and choosing deliberately how you respond.
Operating above the line helps leaders build a culture where people take responsibility, ask more than they tell, learn from mistakes and help each other back when they slip. It also helps you focus your energy where you have influence, and lead change in a way that brings people with you.
In the workshop you will explore research and proven models, including Positive Intelligence's Saboteurs, Losada's research on high-performing teams, Covey's Circle of Influence and Rock's SCARF model. Through practical exercises you will find out what lifts you above the line and what
pulls you below it, and apply the tools to your own work and your organisation's values.
You will leave able to recognise your triggers, respond rather than react, and hold more constructive conversations. You will also be ready to lead your team towards a culture of curiosity, accountability and collaboration.
Learning Outcomes
Participation in this workshop will enable you to:
- recognise above the line (open, curious, trusting) and below the line (closed, defended, fearful) mindsets, and why below the line is our default under pressure
- identify what enables you to be at your best and what triggers you to go below the line
- name your saboteurs and notice how they shape your reactions
- use stop, challenge, choose to respond rather than react
- focus your energy on your circle of influence
- describe your organisation's values above and below the line, and call out below the line behaviour constructively
- apply SCARF to reduce threat and build engagement when leading change.
Content
- What is a mindset?
- Why below the line is our default: the brain's threat response
- Me at my best, me most challenged: your enablers and triggers
- Meet your Saboteurs: the Judge and its nine accomplices
- How we talk together: Losada's research on high-performing teams
- Listening to understand: reflection, advocacy and inquiry
- Stop, Challenge, Choose: the space between stimulus and response
- Our greatest challenges: circle of concern vs circle of influence
- Our values above and below the line, and the courage to call it out
- SCARF: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness
- Taking it back to work: Plan, Share, Act, Reflect