Overview

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The Cowboy Leadership Experience is an ethics-centered certificate program that facilitates transformational individual and organizational growth by bringing leaders back to their core self. Over a five-day period, participants learn to create thriving organizations by taking a human-centered approach to leadership based on their own personal code of ethics.

 

 

Program Model

 

Preparing leaders to develop thriving selves, teams, and organizations.

Program Curiculum

 

The Cowboys Leadership Experience curriculum is designed through the lens of the PBLE leadership model. The curriculum facilitates the development of a personal improvement plan aimed at helping participants lead on principle to develop positive partnerships and create thriving organizations. 

 

 

Theme 1: Self Exploration

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1. What Do You Stand For?
   Reflecting on the “Code of the West,” participants gain awareness of their own moral foundation for leadership by developing their own personal code of ethics. Each participant’s code will consist of a unique set of principles, which they will use as a framework for making ethical decisions for themselves and those they lead.
2. What’s Your Brand?
   Participants examine their current “brand” and then are given a framework for enhancing their brand as a leader, with special attention given to integrity, a positive attitude, and grit.
3. Doing What Has to Be Done: Principle-Based Leadership
   Integrating their personal code of ethics, participants develop a personal foundation for principled leadership by creating a set of leadership principles. Participants are then prepared to live and lead on principle through application of fundamental decision-making principles.
4. Courageous Self-Examination: What’s Your Style?
   Participants gain awareness of their leadership traits and behavioral tendencies through assessment work. They then identify a leadership style that best fits their strengths. Finally, participants gain awareness of the implications of their leadership style for various leadership contexts and learn how to best leverage their style.

 

 

Theme 2: Team Influence

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1. Inspiring Employees to Ride for the Brand
   Participants examine the various traditional and non-traditional foundations for motivation to gain awareness of how to best engage employees. They then identify motivation problems within their organization/unit and are taught best practices on how to address them and inspire their own employees to “Ride for the Brand.”
2. Talk Less and Say More: Above-Board Communication
   Drawing on the various frameworks of humble and servant leadership, participants learn how to compassionately listen for understanding, humbly receive feedback, and honestly express their needs and intentions.
3. Building Teams That Take Pride in Their Work
   Integrating several interrelated frameworks for team effectiveness, participants are exposed to the markers of team success and typical dysfunctions (e.g., communication breakdowns, conflict, etc.) that prevent them from reaching those. Participants then learn how to help their teams effectively address those dysfunctions and become a cohesive unit.
4. Always Finish What You Start: Individual Development
   Participants frameworks to understand what developmental opportunities people need and desire, as well as to gain competence in implementing developmental frameworks.
5. Know Where to Draw the Line: Negotiating and Resolving Conflict with Integrity
   Incorporating the “Code of the West” with non-traditional negotiation practices to create and claim value in business and personal interactions. Participants will practice identifying existing value and, more importantly, identifying and creating unseen/unclear value for all parties involved in the negotiation. Finally, participants will learn techniques for overcoming common conflicts in negotiations.

 

 

 

Theme 3: Organization Dynamics

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1. Making Room Under the Brand
   Integrating the “Code of the West” with core diversity theories, participants learn how to foster diversity of thought in organizations and become a place that accepts and embraces new ideas. Finally, participants learn how to leverage that inclusivity for creative organizational success.
2. Remember that Some Things Aren’t for Sale: Creating a Values-Driven Culture
   Participants are taken through a process where a desirable set of values are identified for their organization/unit. After creating a series of principles that reflect the desired values, a plan for integrating the values into the organization’s culture is laid out. Participants will also create a “higher-purpose” statement for the organization. The intent of this exercise is to create an uplifting statement that helps team members clarify why they do what they do.
3. THRIVE Dynamics
   Participants are introduced to an innovative framework for creating organizational dynamics by which the people of an organization THRIVE and, consequently, the organization can be a living, changing entity. Participants then develop specific practices to take into their workplace.
4. Strategy and New Frontiers
   Participants are prepared to implement business-level strategic plans and organizational change initiatives by exploring the mechanisms of change. They are also taught how to align human capital management functions with the business-level strategy and talent philosophy.
5. Climb into the Saddle: Enterprise Risk Management
   Through an interactive discussion and assessment exercise, this session will equip participants with the insights and skills needed to develop three key areas – foresight, agility, and resilience – throughout the organization and drive team success.