Category Archives: Training

An Update on ‘Tales from the Leadership Front’​ – A Lifetime of Mentoring

Category : Leadership Training

I was deep into working on my next leadership book last week when I received a phone call. I was prepared to ignore it or send it to voicemail since I figured it was another car warranty extension or student loan reduction call when I saw my mentor, Jerry O. Williams’s face on my phone. Several years ago, I started adding pictures to my contacts so I don’t even have to read the name of the caller, but I can see their face, even from across the room.

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Crisis Leadership Content Now in the Leadership Resource Library

Category : Leadership Training

“True leadership is revealed in the time of a crisis!”
– J. Bryan Bennett

In 2020, leaders were challenged by numerous crises, including a global pandemic, racial injustice and changing business models. This has been a stressful time for the many executives I regularly talk to and for many of the people who work for them.

That’s why the HCOE’s training arm, the Elite Leadership Academy, decided to add “Leading During a Crisis” and “Leading With Diversity & Inclusion” categories to the “Special Leadership Topics” section of our Leadership Resource Library. Like all of our categories, these libraries include some of the top leadership resources curated from leading online sources. Try it out today with a free 30-day trial. Just click on the link for more information.


Preview the Elite Leadership Academy

Category : Leadership Training

We are very excited to share the news of the rebranding of our new leadership training site – Elite Leadership Academy. In the past, we have operated under the Professional Leadership Academy, but with the expected publication in the next few months of my new book, The Path to Elite Level Leadership, we decided to change the site to match the book.

The new site features new leadership development programs, master classes, a leadership resources library and even a virtual tour of our virtual academy.

As a subscriber, we are inviting you to preview the site and also offering you 25% off any of the training in our ‘Curriculum Catalog‘ with the coupon code ’25offpreview’ until November 30, 2020.

Please take a look at it and let us know what you think about it.


4th Principle of Professional Leadership

Category : Leadership Training

The 4th Principle of Professional Leadership is “An abundance of the innate leadership qualities of humility, empathy, vision and risk-taking (and the instinct when to use each).”

Although everyone can be taught leadership, the best leaders have that little something extra that sets them apart. That ‘something extra’ component is usually a number of innate leadership qualities, some that can be taught, but the best leaders have an abundance of these qualities innately. The more innate qualities a leader has, the higher their leadership ceiling which is what separates a good leader from an elite level leader.

Nominate an elite level leader today for the 2020 Professional Leadership IMPACT Award. Nominations are open until 7/17/20.


Assessing Leadership Impact

Category : Leadership Training

Since 2016, the Healthcare Center of Excellence, through its leadership training arm, the Professional Leadership Academy, has been using the Leadership IMPACT Assessment to evaluate the potential and practice of leadership as well as monitor leadership improvement over time. This proprietary tool was developed by incorporating multiple disciplines to evaluate leadership behavior. Its measurable results have successfully been utilized in onsite and online Professional Leadership Training classes and it was the subject of a 2019 case study.

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Tell Oscar-Worthy Stories

During the Academy Awards ceremony, I noticed a common theme from the presenters and winners, which was the importance of telling a good story. No matter what kind of movie, the best movies have the best stories. The best actors typically come from the best movies.

The difference between telling a story for a movie and telling a story as a leader is that the leader’s story has to have a purpose. The purpose can be:

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Lessons From a Master Storyteller

I had the pleasure of hearing E. Gordon Gee speak at a dinner several years ago when I taught in the Integrated Marketing Communications program at West Virginia University. I was so impressed with his ability to connect with the audience that I wrote an article about it back then and included his story in my book, “Prescribing Leadership in Healthcare.” He uses a lot of self-deprecating humor in his stories because it leads to high viral probability when posted on social media.

Here is the video from the event. Even if you only watch part the video, you will learn something about incorporating storytelling into your daily leadership practice.

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Storytelling With My Family

As we prepare for the launch of our Storytelling for Leaders Master Class, I’ve reflected on my life as a story gatherer and storyteller. I’ve loved writing and telling stories since I was young. Family interactions can be some of the most impactful stories to tell.

I heard stories from my great-grandparents as they told us about growing up on farms in Louisiana. I vividly remember my great-grandmother telling us about how they would get a chicken from the farm for dinner.

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Empower Your Storytelling With the ‘Right Stuff’

Leaders need to be good storytellers, but if their storytelling doesn’t have the ‘Right Stuff,’ it may not be as effective.

Watch the video to learn about delivering the:

  • Right Story, to the
  • Right Audience, at the
  • Right Time, with the
  • Right Message
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“Free Your Mind,” Matrix Style With Great Stories

As we learned in “The Matrix”, perception is not always reality. That is also true to when it comes to leadership. Leaders are only as good as their people perceive them to be.

In our Professional Leadership Training programs, we address the perception versus reality dichotomy with a peer assessment. Participants are usually surprised to see that what they considered to be their leadership attributes were not what their peers thought, both positively and negatively.

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