2022-24 NFPA Executive Leadership Program Overview

Introduction and Program Overview

Professor Fred Harburg

VS1 will provide Program Fellows with an overview of the two-year program, an introduction to classmates, and an explanation of class one assignments.

VS1 Outline

• Congratulations and welcome to the NFPA Executive Leadership Program
• Introduction to Program Fellows
• Program purpose, process, product, timeline, and logistics
• Overview of Session One - Leader as Coach and Executive Judgment
• Explanation of assignments and pre-session homework
  • Core Ethos Pre-work
  • AJIL® Assessment
  • Flight Plan One
  • Readings regarding Core Ethos, Leader as Coach, and Judgment

In conjunction with the NFPA Industry and Economic Outlook Conference, on August 15, 2022, Suburban Chicago

AM Session

Leader as Coach - How Executives Build Engagement and Talent

Professor Fred Harburg

Every leader has a fundamental responsibility to develop the talent and performance of others and to help them deal with non-stop challenges and changes. Surveys repeatedly demonstrate that successful leaders give coaches and mentors the primary credit for their leadership development. At the same time, a failure to receive the feedback and coaching they need to grow is the primary complaint of most employees. These facts support the idea that coaching is an essential but neglected tool for leadership effectiveness.

In this active, experiential session, Program Fellows will:

• Begin mastering a powerful model for growing capability and performance of people in their professional and personal life
• Coach and be coached on real issues of vital importance
• Gain commitment and confidence to coach others
• Continue using the process with accountability and support with a classmate over the following 90 days

Lunch 'n Learn Session with Jon Goreham, President/ CEO, QCC

Past NFPA Board Chair Jon Goreham will join the cohort for an informal discussion during lunch, sharing his experience and helping to contextualize the day's content for the fluid power industry. 

PM Session

Executive Judgment - The Ultimate Leadership Capability

Professor Fred Harburg

The stakes have never been higher, nor the need greater for leaders to use adaptive discernment to effect essential positive changes in our world. Sound judgment guides our actions, determines the quality of our results, and is at the center of the self; it is the operating system underlying a leader's decision-making capabilities. A leader's ability to envision an exceptional future and enroll others in its realization depends on her/his reputation for good judgment. Executive judgment is the ultimate executive skill because the effectiveness of all other capabilities depends on it. Developing better judgment is first-order work for a senior leader.

During this session Program Fellows will:

• Gain an understanding of the judgment research foundation
• Identify opportunities for the development of even better judgment from the results of their AJIL® assessments
• Begin mastering a simple, powerful model (The Ajility Growth Process™) for cultivating better executive judgment
• Apply the model to strengthening judgment and help a classmate do the same over the ensuing 90 days

IPS1 Results Review and Preparation for IPS2

Professor Fred Harburg

During VS2 Fred will lead a review discussion with Program Fellows regarding their 90-day coaching and judgment development results

Fred will field questions and lead a discussion among the Fellows regarding their
insights and learning from their experience using the F>A>C>T-Based Coaching™
process, the Ajility Growth Process™, and the Ajility Flight Plan™

Three or four Program Fellows (notified well before this session) will provide a five-minute personal spotlight:

• Their professional journey and current role
• Highlights of their company history, philosophies, and best practices
• Personal insights regarding their lives, family, activities
• Current and future challenges, aspirations, and growth objectives

A few minutes will follow each spotlight for questions and response from the listening
Fellows. Particular attention will be given to ideas of support and insight from the Fellow
network regarding the last segment on challenges, aspirations, and growth objectives.

Preview of, and assignments for Session 2 – Strategic Leadership.

In conjunction with the NFPA Annual Conference, on February 13, 2023, Ojai, CA

AM Session

Strategic Frameworks

Professor Matt Ranen

Strategy encompasses an explicit set of decisions regarding where we compete, how we can be best positioned to win, what distinct capabilities and resources (i.e., people, capital, intellectual property, relationships, assets) will enable success, and what we are willing to forgo or not do. Good strategic process involves using excellent judgment to make these decisions with agility, flexibility, and foresight as conditions change and opportunities arise. However, without sufficient stability, strategy can be mercurial and erratic. Finding the right balance is the daunting role of senior leadership.

In this active, experiential session, Program Fellows will:

• Gain understanding of the strategic cascade framework for business success
• Identify ways to answer the fundamental strategic questions
• Anticipate ways that strategy can go wrong
• Commit to use the strategic tool kit to view their respective businesses

Lunch n' Learn Session with Jeff Hand, President/CEO, ROSS Controls.

Past NFPA Board Chair Jeff Hand will join the cohort for an informal discussion during lunch, sharing his experience and helping to contextualize the day's content for the fluid power industry.

PM Session

Operational Execution

Professor Achal Bassamboo

Strategy establishes the playing field and operations make the plays. Understanding the

constraints and options for optimizing execution is essential to win the game. Inventory

control, storage, supply chain excellence, and operational implementation either bring a

strategy to life or put it to rest.

In this case-based session, Program Fellows will:

• Gain an understanding for logistics and supply chain interdependencies
• Increase their tools for operational analysis optimization
• Use tools and frameworks in a case to make a crucial operations decision
• Identify how they will use these tools in their respective businesses

IPS2 Results Review and Preparation for IPS3

Professor Fred Harburg

During VS3 Fred will lead a review discussion with Program Fellows regarding their
implementation of the concepts and tools from strategy and operations.
Fred will field questions and lead a discussion among the Fellows regarding their
insights and learning

Three or four Program Fellows (notified well before this session) will provide a five-minute personal spotlight:

• Their professional journey and current role
• Highlights of their company history, philosophies, and best practices
• Personal insights regarding their lives, family, activities
• Current and future challenges, aspirations, and growth objectives

A few minutes will follow each spotlight for questions and response from the listening
Fellows. Particular attention will be given to ideas of support and insight from the Fellow
network regarding the last segment on challenges, aspirations, and growth objectives.

Preview of, and assignments for Session 3 – Negotiation Tools and Strategies.

Held at Kellogg’s James Allen Center, Evanston, IL on May 8, 2023

AM Session

Tools for Negotiation

Professor Leigh Thompson

Not only is everything negotiable, but we are also negotiating all the time, even when we fail to realize it. In a sense, every conversation is a negotiation in which we are asking for and providing information, making requests, and fielding the requests of others, asking for and giving support. In each case there is an implicit or explicit negotiation under way. In the best case all parties optimize their outcomes because they are working for the attainment of the interests of all. Sadly, that is rarely how things work out.

In this active, experiential session, Program Fellows will:

• Gain understanding of the subtle elements of negotiation
• Identify their personal negotiating tendencies
• Strengthen their negotiating approach
• Increase their negotiating tool kit

Lunch n' Learn Session with TBD

PM Session

Negotiation in Practice

Professor Leigh Thompson

Understanding the negotiating tools is essential but insufficient for sustained negotiating success. Negotiating excellence requires practice, acknowledgment of blind spots, and deliberate effort to improve the nuanced skills needed to succeed.

In this case-based session, Program Fellows will:

• Have an opportunity to use new and familiar concepts
• Receive feedback regarding the efficacy of their approach
• Create a game plan for improvement

IPS3 Results Review and Preparation for IPS4

Professor Fred Harburg

During VS4 Fred will lead a review discussion with Program Fellows regarding their
implementation of the concepts and tools from Negotiations Tools and Practice.

Fred will field questions and lead a discussion among the Fellows regarding their insights and learning

Three or four Program Fellows (notified well before this session) will provide a five-minute personal spotlight:

• Their professional journey and current role
• Highlights of their company history, philosophies, and best practices
• Personal insights regarding their lives, family, activities
• Current and future challenges, aspirations, and growth objectives

A few minutes will follow each spotlight for questions and response from the listening
Fellows. Particular attention will be given to ideas of support and insight from the Fellow
network regarding the last segment on challenges, aspirations, and growth objectives.

Preview of, and assignments for Session 4 – Presentations and Presence.

In conjunction with the NFPA Industry and Economic Outlook Conference, on August 14, 2023, Suburban Chicago
 

AM Session

Presenting for Impact

Professor Steven Franconeri

Leaders are called on to make presentations daily. It is alarming and dismaying how poor the quality of graphic presentation, particularly technical or data presentations can be. The way the brain processes and absorbs information is at the crux of the issue. Most of us violate the fundamental aspects of neural processing every time we step up to the screen or podium.

In this active, experiential session, Program Fellows will:

• See the fundamental errors of most graphic presentation
• Understand how to organize visual data for impact
• Gain very specific tools and practices for immediate implementation

Lunch n' Learn Session with Marc Weston, Area Vice President, Applied Industrial Technologies.

Past NFPA Board Chair Marc Weston will join the cohort for an informal discussion during lunch, sharing his experience and helping to contextualize the day's content for the fluid power industry.

PM Session

Executive Presence

Professor Brooke Vuckovic

Executive presence is more than stagecraft it begins with self-concept and ends when a
leader brings their full and best self to a presentation opportunity. The basics have to do
with using the vocal instrument. It deepens when one connects at a profound level with
listeners

In this experiential session, Program Fellows will:

• Grasp the concepts a gravitas and the signature of the leadership presence
• Work with a colleague to use the tools that command respect and followership
• Identify ways they will continue to cultivate their impact on others

IPS4 Results Review and Preparation for IPS5

Professor Fred Harburg

During VS5 Fred will lead a review discussion with Program Fellows regarding their
implementation of the concepts and tools from Presenting with Presence.

Fred will field questions and lead a discussion among the Fellows regarding their
insights and learning.

Three or four Program Fellows (notified well before this session) will provide a five-minute personal spotlight:

• Their professional journey and current role
• Highlights of their company history, philosophies, and best practices
• Personal insights regarding their lives, family, activities
• Current and future challenges, aspirations, and growth objectives

A few minutes will follow each spotlight for questions and response from the listening
Fellows. Particular attention will be given to ideas of support and insight from the Fellow
network regarding the last segment on challenges, aspirations, and growth objectives.

Preview of, and assignments for Session 5 – Leading Under Pressure.

In conjunction with the NFPA Annual Conference, on February 26, 2024 – Location TBD
 

AM Session
A Value-based leader
Professor Peter Rea

The indisputable keel for a vessel plying turbulent waters is forged from the values that give it stability in a storm. In a similar way, values when fully understood and incorporated into actions beyond words give a leader the constancy of purpose and character needed to lead effectively in the worst of conditions.

In this active session, Program Fellows will:

• Define the concepts of values and character
• Examine how the essential ideas take shape in a leader
• Dive deep into comprehending and place values into action

Lunch n' Learn Session with John Stenz, CEO, FORCE America.

Past Board Chair John Stenz will join the cohort for an informal discussion during lunch, sharing his experience and helping to contextualize the day's content for the fluid power industry.

PM Session
A Value-based Culture
Professor Peter Rea

Espoused values vs. lived values are the essential guidepost for life in an organization. When the leaders of a business place the proper emphasis and attention of practical ways to bring admirable values to play in their organization, the values become a magnet for talent, a source of customer loyalty, and a profit generating engine.

In this experiential session, Program Fellows will:

• Understand how a values-based culture can transform a business
• Identify ways they can lead a values revolution in their companies
• Plan to lead the revolution as a values-based leader

IPS5 Results Review and Preparation for IPS6

Professor Fred Harburg

During VS6 Fred will lead a review discussion with Program Fellows regarding their
implementation of the concepts and tools from Leading Under Pressure.

Fred will field questions and lead a discussion among the Fellows regarding their
insights and learning

Three or four Program Fellows (notified well before this session) will provide a five-minute personal spotlight:

• Their professional journey and current role
• Highlights of their company history, philosophies, and best practices
• Personal insights regarding their lives, family, activities
• Current and future challenges, aspirations, and growth objectives

A few minutes will follow each spotlight for questions and response from the listening
Fellows. Particular attention will be given to ideas of support and insight from the Fellow
network regarding the last segment on challenges, aspirations, and growth objectives.

Preview of, and assignments for Session 6 – Cultivating Culture, Values, and Virtues

Held at Kellogg’s James Allen Center, Evanston, IL

AM Session

Leading in a VUCA World

Professor Bernie Banks

Our world is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. The capacity to keep calm and carry on is essential for those entrusted with the welfare of a business, its people, and its customers in this turbulent context. The only certainty is that business will be more uncertain in the future. Having ways to frame, manage, communicate, and engage follower is chaos becomes a distinguishing quality for distinguished leaders.

In this active, active session, Program Fellows will:

• Understand the way the VUCA environment necessitates a new leadership
• Identify how this environment is affect them at personal level
• Gain tools and strategies for steering their crew through turbulent waters
• Lunch n' Learn session with TBD

Lunch n' Learn Session with Steven Meislah, Global Director of Engineering, Sun Hydraulics

Industry leader Steven Meislahn will join the cohort for an informal discussion during lunch, sharing his experience and helping to contextualize the day's content for the fluid power industry.

PM Session

Thriving in Challenge

Professor Fred Harburg

The ability to prepare for, recover from, flourish, and grow stronger physically, intellectually, emotionally, and ethically amidst demanding challenges and setbacks separates the most effective and fulfilled from the merely competent. Having evidence-based approaches to boosting energy and thriving in the face of significant challenges is the lifeline we all need to deal with the exigencies of challenging times. The lessons from performance psychology, nutrition, exercise physiology, and neuroscience provide a playbook for times when the rules are constantly in flux.

In this experiential session, Program Fellows will:

• Understand the science of resilience and human energy
• Identify current resilience position and opportunities for growth
• Personalize personal resilience routines in all four dimensions

IPS6 Results Review and Preparation for Life as an Exceptional Leader

Professor Fred Harburg

During VS7 Fred will lead a review discussion with Program Fellows regarding their
implementation of the concepts and tools from The Virtue of Values

Fred will field questions and lead a discussion among the Fellows regarding their
insights and learning

Three or four Program Fellows (notified well before this session) will provide a five-minute personal spotlight:

• Their professional journey and current role
• Highlights of their company history, philosophies, and best practices
• Personal insights regarding their lives, family, activities
• Current and future challenges, aspirations, and growth objectives

A few minutes will follow each spotlight for questions and response from the listening
Fellows. Particular attention will be given to ideas of support and insight from the Fellow
network regarding the last segment on challenges, aspirations, and growth objectives.

In this culminating virtual session, Fellows will reflect on the journey they have taken

together. They will identify the highlights of their leaning and the ways in which they have applied the six pillar sessions. Each of them will reflect on what they have learned from each other and how they can continue to support and encourage their one another in the future.