New Ways for Work®Leaders Course Delivers Immediate Impact

August 3, 2024

New Ways For Work® – Leaders Course Delivers Immediate Impact

I had the pleasure of piloting HCI’s brand new course, New Ways for Work® – Leaders, to 24 keen learners on two half-days in July 2024. The inaugural class was comprised of Canadian and American leaders from across various sectors, including elementary and post-secondary education, municipal government, healthcare, aviation, industrial processing, court services, and leadership coaching.

After teaching the New Ways For Work® – Coaching course for HCI since 2022, it had become apparent that there was also a strong need for a course especially for leaders and the challenges they are facing in today’s workplaces. It’s a privilege to have worked with Bill Eddy and Megan Hunter to develop this course and provide information to leaders in a way that they can implement right away with teams that have become derailed by high conflict.

Bill Eddy and Megan Hunter kicked the Leaders course off with personal introductions which highlighted the prevalence of high conflict behavior in organizations and the importance of leaders learning skills for managing these challenging behaviours safely and with empathy.

4 Defining High-Conflict Characteristics

The leaders learned the four defining characteristics of high conflict personalities and what to avoid doing when high conflict behavior is identified. They also learned what to do instead, using the four building blocks of the CARS Method®. We then delved into six key leadership areas where leaders make missteps and explored how to adapt their leadership. From day-to-day interactions to toxic group behavior to performance management and formal processes, the leaders learned frameworks and practiced skills for interacting compassionately while also setting clear expectations and limits with the most difficult employees.

I’ll level with you that developing and delivering a brand new course for HCI, when at heart I still just feel like part of the “Bill and Megan Fan Club,” activated that voice in my head that worried, “what if it isn’t good enough?” The beauty of starting with a pilot version was being able to check in with attendees on how the various topics were landing. I made lots of notes about adjustments to make to improve the flow and allow more time when needed.

I was elated on the second day when everyone showed up for more and knew we must be getting something right. This group of highly engaged leaders shared feedback about key insights that had been resonating with them and how they had already begun implementing some of the skills. Here are some of the insights that the leaders in the course said they had gained:

Remaining calm and not getting sucked into the vortex of high conflict behavior
Acronyms like CARS, EAR, BIFF, SLIC and other frameworks make it easier to remember what to do
The importance of reframing to navigate one interaction at a time and put aside attempts to lead to insight
Setting limits is often not easy and takes practice

Thank you again to those who attended the first course and provided your feedback. I am passionate about empowering leaders everywhere with tools to navigate challenging employee dynamics and hope to meet you at upcoming New Ways for Work® courses.

Who should take New Ways For Work® – Leaders?

This course is for managers, supervisors, directors, chairpersons, leadership consultants and any leader who works in corporate, small business, government, public or non-profit sectors. If you lead people, this course will help you navigate and minimize the disruption high conflict personalities cause to your work teams.

Time commitment: 2 half-days live online training with Cherolyn Knapp + optional on-demand videos with Bill Eddy

Frequency: approximately every 2 months at various times of day for leaders in time zones anywhere.

Who should take New Ways for Work® – Coaching?

This course is for executive coaches, human resources partners, Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Service Providers, counsellors, therapists, union representatives, respectful workplace advisors, wellness advisors, and anyone who works one-on-one with employees in a coaching role to learn two coaching techniques:

CARS Method® Coaching: to help anyone deal with someone else’s difficult behavior, organize their responses to respond to calm down upset people, to redirect their energies, and to focus them on positive future choices and consequences; and
New Ways for Work® Coaching: structured exercises for an employee who displays high conflict behavior to strengthen the 4 Big Skills™: flexible thinking, managed emotions, moderate behaviors and checking oneself.

Time commitment: 120 minutes of foundational pre-recorded videos with Bill Eddy + 2 half-days live online training with Cherolyn Knapp

Frequency: approximately twice per year.

Cherolyn Knapp, B.Comm, LL.B, Q.Med is a conflict resolution consultant, mediator, trainer, workplace investigator, and lawyer based in Victoria, Canada. She holds a B.Comm (Human Resources) from Toronto Metropolitan University and an LL.B. from the University of Ottawa. Cherolyn began teaching HCI’s techniques in 2020, and she now brings a thorough knowledge of high conflict personality traits and resolution strategies to HCI’s trainings. Cherolyn is the New Ways for Work® instructor for HCI.