You have been identified as an effective manager in your organization. You successfully implement the objectives of your bank. But are you truly regarded as a leader within your management group? Does senior management rely on you to help shape the vision of the future, to promote core values, and to motivate your team to achieve the chosen goals? Recognizing that leaders-in-fact and leaders-in-training need a nonthreatening environment to acquire or practice the skills of leadership, Massachusetts Bankers Association has designed a leadership workshop – The New England Leadership Development Program. This highlyinteractive workshop admits only a small group of senior managers, putting them in a supportive learning environment to give them an opportunity to explore the role and responsibilities of a leader. This three-day program is highly recommended for graduates of the New England School of Financial Studies, but welcomes other middle and senior managers from financial institutions. Class size is limited to allow for maximum education benefit and personal attention. Peer interaction, critical self-evaluations, and lively case study discussions are hallmarks of this excellent executive program. 

Click here for the brochure and more information.

Program Highlights:

 Self-Awareness – Self Assessment – 180 Evaluation

Three assessment tools will be used, making this program uniquely personal. Using an online self-evaluation tool, you will first create a profile of your strengths – those talents that make you shine. A tailored leadership guide will be provided as well as recommended strategies for leading a team of diverse strengths. In the second evaluation, you will fill out a survey describing your own management style. Six of your subordinates or peers will be asked to anonymously complete the same checklist, describing how they perceive these same characteristics in you. A confidential report will be prepared for you. The report will be compared to critical leadership requirements of succession planning, recruiting, and mentoring high potential talent, improving staff engagement and operating in a global environment. A third self-assessment will measure your emotional intelligence, recognized as a key component in moving from a good leader to a great one. In combination with these assessment reports, you will learn to use the FeedForward techniques to engage in self-improvement in those areas of leadership most necessary for your professional success.

The Shift from Management to Leadership As a manager you focus on problem-solving, producing results, organizing, and controlling the process. As a leader, your role and focus must shift to creating and communicating a vision, defining and executing strategy, a heightened awareness of change, and, most importantly, influencing and inspiring others to achieve the company goals. Group discussions will explore effective techniques for making this mindset switch. 

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership IQ and technical knowledge are no longer enough to succeed as a leader. Social awareness, empathy, and self-management are critical skills that are paramount for greater success. Emotionally intelligent leaders inspire others, boost morale, and increase productivity and employee performance. 

Leading the Diverse and Inclusive Team To paraphrase Rocky Balboa, “I’ve got gaps; they’ve got gaps; together we have no gaps!” That would be the description of an excellent team. Acknowledging personal unconscious bias and the team diversity of style, generation, culture, strengths, and weaknesses, and then turning the richness of that blend into a positive force will be the focus of this session. Individual and team exercises will give you opportunities to put recommendations to work. 

Leadership Round Tables Tapping into the combined experience of the workshop participants, you will share actual problems faced by executives in the industry on a daily basis. The emphasis will be on practical solutions to dilemmas of communication, delegation, staff development, decision-making, ethics, motivation, and conflict resolution. Drawing on the group’s collected experience, your fellow attendees will enrich and broaden your perspective of the presented cases. 

Going from Existing to Excelling … and Taking Others with You Most people go through life merely existing when excelling -- being the very best -- is so readily attainable. Since leadership is the ability to inspire the best in others to mutual advantage, learn how to leverage the talent present in your organization. Through a high energy, engaging session, you will explore critical success factors, realize the right questions to ask, and develop an action plan that will assist you in building your own personal Center of Excellence. At the conclusion of this program, you will create a personal action plan, drawing on all of the insights you have explored over the course of the workshop – your own strengths and weaknesses, the recommended strategies and techniques, as well as the readings and discussions with the facilitators and fellow participants.

Accommodations: 

Students are encouraged to reside at the Babson Executive Conference Center to experience all the benefits of this intense program. Located on Babson College’s campus in Wellesley, Massachusetts, the Center provides a blend of advanced conference facilities and thoughtful amenities in an ideal setting to share, engage, and learn. For directions, visit the center’s website. Tuition: $1,195 per person, members, $2,390 per person, nonmembers Accommodations: $1,500 single occupancy – 3 nights (Includes the meals & breaks). Day Student Fee: $650 (For those not requiring overnight accommodations. Includes the meals & breaks.)

Workforce Training Fund Program Approved:

The New England Leadership Development Program is eligible for the Express Program as part of Massachusetts’ Workforce Training Fund Program. The Workforce Training Fund Express Program assists companies in addressing their staff training needs by providing access to grants. To receive the grant, banks need to complete a short online application to request grant funds. Grant recipients with under 100 Massachusetts employees may receive full reimbursement of the cost of training upon completion of an approved course, up to $20,000 per calendar year. Financial institutions with over 100 Massachusetts employees are now encouraged to submit General Program applications. The deadline to apply for the grant is 21 days before the program begins. The Course ID for the New England Leadership Development Program is #C-10653. Mass Bankers strongly urges you to complete the process as soon as possible to ensure that your application is approved in time. For more information or to apply, visit the Workforce Training Grant Express Program site. Please note that your bank must have a Certificate of Good Standing. Click here to request on