Leading Without Easy Answers with Doug Sundheim

Build momentum for your big idea.

We have had a lot of uncertainty in the last 18 months, from Covid to inflation to political polarization. Yet it is the ability to move forward in the face of uncertainty that allows for success. In fact, this course can teach you how to harness the power of uncertainty for yourself.

This course will allow you to build momentum for your big idea, through:

• Understanding how to take smart risks in uncertain times
• Getting clear on your objectives and goals
• What it means to execute your idea
• Working with polarity (doubting yourself vs trusting yourself, needing to move fast vs moving slow enough to be thorough, the need for stability vs the need for dynamism, and the creative tension between taking risks and seeking safety)
• Bringing a passion project to life

This course will explore how you can fine-tune and sharpen your skills in a world that seems to be in a near-constant state of uncertainty. You’ll bring a specific idea, project, or company challenge you’re trying to overcome and advance, and dig in with Doug and the rest of the group. Classes are highly interactive workshops with a talk, presentation of a new skill set, sharing with others, and individualized coaching with Doug.

Take this class if:

• You have led well in the past but are finding the current state of the world hard to navigate
• You need a better understanding of how to lead
• You’re launching something and want to be as prepared as possible
• You are managing others and want to feel more confidence in your skills
• You have been successful as a leader in the past but have plateaued in your skills

We’ll explore the four ways you can lead without an easy answer.

Week 1: Get clear

This first class is foundational. We’ll get clear on what you’re doing and why, your directional vision, and your underlying values. We’ll look at your values driving you, and how to keep them from getting static. Clarity comes from seeing your ideas in a dynamic way, not a static goal line to be crossed.

Week 2: Get aligned 

Alignment builds on clarity. From here, we’ll talk about the reality that we can’t always get everyone aligned with our vision, and what we can do about it. Alignment might not mean that everyone agrees with the path ahead, but it does mean that everyone is on-board with moving in that direction. In this week’s class, we’ll talk about how to do check-ins and establish open dialog that allows convergence around your idea and helps inspire others to follow your lead, even if they’re not totally sold on the direction.

Week 3: Get moving 

Moving means knowing all the moving parts of what’s to come. Movement requires the plan be implemented in a way that some are doing work, some are overseeing it, and everyone is being held accountable to delivering on their end of the task. We learn to evolve as we move. There’s a dynamism in moving and we’ll learn, evolve, and change as we go.

Week 4: Get better 

Here we stop and look at the big picture. If you’re an operator, the leader, what are you doing to personally grow? How are you helping the team excel better? Doing the right kind of research, which we’ll explore, is one of the foundational practices in getting better. We will look at the conditions for a highly effective team and see how yours is stacking up. We’ll analyze your approach to personal development and see if it will help you better lead. The idea here is that leaders learn to sharpen their own saws, not other people’s, to inspire growth and innovation from everyone on the team. In other words, we lead by example.

The course will be by Zoom, and will be every two weeks on Wednesday nights from 7-9 pm EST, starting October 20th, 2021.

Dates: October 20, November 3, November 17, December 1

Time: 7 – 9:00 PM EST

Cost: $150 for the 4-part series