Investing in Leaders: Fall 2021
For more than a year, executives have wrestled with the fall-out of a global pandemic. The impacts have been felt by leaders in every functional area of companies in all industries and in every part of the globe. As the public health emergency eases, it’s time for those same executives to begin to plan for the Next Normal. Here at the Robinson College of Business, we have created a series of short courses specifically targeted to provide learning support in the areas that can create the quickest return on investment. If you are interested in your own growth as a leader or if you are responsible for the ongoing readiness of your organization’s workforce, please consider the opportunities below.
To learn more as fall approaches, please provide your information in the contact form below. If you have any questions you would like us to address, please email execed@gsu.edu
Whether it’s to lead or to keep up with the competition, all organizations must be able to make changes that matter. Doing so requires leaders at all levels in the organization build their change savvy; understanding how to build a case for change, how to address resistance to change, and how to drive results through change are more essential capabilities than they have ever been.
While invention can be the result of a fortunate accident, innovation – turning something new into something valuable, is anything but an accident. History is full of examples of companies that could invent but then struggled to ever make invention a commercial success. Ironically, we know what it takes to build an organization capable of doing just that.
Research has found that we operate from one of two mindsets. Those who rely on a fixed mindset are focused on likely to focus on the constraints they face and to quickly resign themselves to their resulting fate. Those who rely on a growth mindset understand failure as an opportunity to grow and learn and find challenge invigorating. When it comes to workplace behavior, the implications of each mindset are clear.
As the pandemic eases and the next normal is revealed, every organization is going to be in an ongoing and accelerated evaluation of its people, processes, and products. Hard decisions are going to become de rigueur. In that environment, individuals need to work tirelessly to demonstrate their relevance to the employer’s future.
During the next ten years, the millennial generation will complete its takeover of the c-suite. As the generation has grown up, it’s been greatly maligned. Though much that has been used to dismiss the seriousness of the generation is either wrong or better explained by their age at the time the criticism was levied, there are substantive ways in which millennials (as was true of generations before them) are uniquely unprepared to lead.
Learn how Fintech innovation, particularly its impact on digital payments and credit, will lead to increased demand for digital services and have a transformative effect not only on the financial services sector but to a wide swath of industry.
Learn how new tools and packages are rapidly democratizing the field of data science, giving rise to the role of “citizen data scientists who, with the right tools, are capable of leveraging advanced technologies as well as working with and leading teams of data scientists to create value and realize the potential of artificial intelligence. Examine AI-related concepts that lead to discovery of innovative solutions to business challenges, how these are changing industry, and how you can leverage them.
Teams are the building blocks of the modern organization. With more than 3/4s of employees participating in two or more business teams and with increasing numbers of those teams having global or organization-wide responsibility, how to build, develop and implement teams becomes a crucial leadership skill. While 99% of those participating in teams say they are “a good team member”, over half also report a lack of trust, commitment and accountability among team members. Where we find successful teams, we find leaders who focus on purpose, process and people in building those teams.