HOW IT WORKS
EASY STEPS
TO SUCCESS
Running a business takes everything you have, and you don’t need one more complication. Upside Partners makes it easy for you and your team to enroll and participate in our leadership development program. The Ready2Lead program is designed to help leaders step into a more authentic, more effective and confident version of themselves. It’s not about taking on some “guru-style” of leadership; instead it’s about leveraging your own strengths, your own unique brilliance to serve your team and the organization.
The change you’re seeking comes via the knowledge that you have the capacity to get what you want. Through our powerful conversations around your real-life challenges, a focus on your strengths, the research-based tool kit I have for you, and adopting best practices, you can become the leader you were born to be.
The program is engineered to significantly boost your team’s ability to lead and perform at a high level. Andy will start by learning all about who you are as a business.
One problem seen with traditional leadership training programs is that they try to force everyone into the exact same round hole. But what’s right for another person might not produce any results for another. Your team members might be suffering from Unbridled Irrational Arrogance, or Unnecessary Insecurity (aka “imposter syndrome”), in a variety of unique and delightful combinations! Or, your folks may just not have a lot of experience leading and inspiring people.
The most successful leaders are able to 1) be authentic (i.e., be themselves); and 2) lean into their unique strengths.
That’s why time is taken to understand things like:
- your core values
- what makes you unique in your space
- the experience you want to create for your customers and employees
- how you define your key factors of success
- what might get in the way of that success
- how you manage your team today
- what metrics you use to measure progress
Getting a very clear picture on these things lays the groundwork for your success in our program.
One size does not fit all! Once there is an understanding of the pulse of your company’s culture, our program will be adapted to best serve the people who will be involved.
Rest assured, there is no starting from scratch with each of our partners. Our program draws from the evidence-based tools and frameworks that are used to teach core leadership skills. These are taken and amended to reflect your current situation and the unique nature of your business and your people.
Our approach, techniques, and frameworks are based on the latest research on leadership, team engagement, and performance from authorities such as:
- the Gallup organization and its research on building engaged teams
- The Marcus Buckingham Company’s ideas around building a strengths-based organization
- Fred Kofman’s Conscious Business approach
- Harvard University’s “Strategic Planning: Formulation to Implementation” program
The proven tools, processes, and frameworks based on these sources have been shown to be effective at developing people into confident, inspiring leaders. These will be molded around your company to suit your unique situation.
Getting a very clear picture on these things lays the groundwork for your success in our program.
What’s the best way to get to Bermuda? The answer is: it depends on where you’re starting from.
Taking stock of your team’s strengths, goals, and challenges at the beginning gives us the data needed to track improvements over time.
How do you know if your team is making any progress? With many leadership development programs, well… you don’t.
Upside Partners makes sure you can point to measurable improvements from start to finish.
At the outset of the program, time is taken to learn from the participants what their biggest goals and challenges are. This gives us a benchmark against which to weigh your team’s progress and achievements. Also provided, is a strengths assessment from Marcus Buckingham, which identifies the unique strengths and gifts each person brings to his/her work.
When everything is all ready to go, the program itself is delivered in small groups. The format is very interactive and participative, with plenty of room for questions and feedback.
Traditional programs take up to 4 days of your team’s time.
In an out-of-town conference.
And then when they’re back on the job and in the weeds, it’s hard to remember or apply what they spent all that time learning.
Our sessions last for 2 hours, once per week, for four weeks. They’re held in your office, either live in person or over Zoom video chat. This creates minimal disruption, where your team members can actually apply what they learn to their work immediately.
As iron sharpens iron, your team members share their experiences and learn from each other, through:
- lessons with their coach
- masterminding challenges together
- homework assignments
- and discussion the following week
Because the same coach leads each session, he or she gets to know your team throughout the program. This also helps increase its effectiveness.
If the job is done right, your leaders should be seeing major gains in their goals and challenges.
Not just “I think I feel better about ______.” Real, quantifiable gains.
At the conclusion of the program, participants’ goals and challenges are re-assessed, and the progress they’ve made is measured.
Whereas before everyone might have been:
- feeling a lack of confidence in dealing with people issues
- teetering on the edge of chaos
- quarreling and blaming each other
- constantly making fixes, not progress
…Now you’ll start to see feelings of engagement, fulfillment and effectiveness.
A pattern of working together to overcome obstacles.
And a trajectory of progress, where your people get the opportunities they deserve to succeed in their careers, and your company exceeds financial and operational goals.
The value of our program is seeing your leaders receive significant boosts to their ability to build and lead engaged teams. To see teams accomplish more and gain a sense of fulfillment and achievement in the process. If you’re not seeing that happen, let us know and it will be fixed.
For even higher mastery, participants have the option of continuing on with individualized leadership coaching to address their specific challenges they encounter after the program.
READY2LEAD
BUILDING HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS THROUGH AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP
The change you’re seeking comes via the knowledge that you have the capacity to get what you want. Through our powerful conversations around your real-life challenges, a focus on your strengths, the research-based tool kit I have for you, and adopting best practices, you can become the leader you were born to be.
TESTIMONIALS
THOUGHTS FROM OUR CLIENTS
“Andy was a great sounding board for helping me talk through what I consider a foundation for my management philosophy, and what success looks like for how I support people.”
“My leadership style wasn’t inspiring the results that I wanted and needed to see from my team. I’ve studied corporate communication and tried several approaches on my own, but I was too close to the situation to be able to see a clear path forward. My sessions with Andy produced an “a-ha!” moment for me every time. There were even a few habits I had that I thought were helpful, but were contributing to the lack of progress. Andy’s conversational, low-key, no-judgement coaching style is brilliant. I highly recommend working with him. It will change your business for the better.”
“Andy helped me to have a better understanding of myself. Instead of telling me what I am doing wrong or what I need to focus on or develop, he continuously helped me figure out the things I need to work on. He did a very good job on this. He asked questions and helped me find the answers. He helped me to manage my stress, build self-confidence, and build good relationships with others. I would definitely recommend him to others.”