Enhance your Leadership Skills! Apply by Dec 6!

The Homegrown Leadership Institute is a 6 month development course for emerging leaders of various experience levels focused on expanding participants overall individual leadership skills that can be applied to their work and life, developed by the Palmetto Innovation Center and Southern Palmetto Regional Chamber. The program will host leadership development sessions led by Kirk Randazzo, Director of Leadership Studies at USC, alongside speakers from throughout the regional business community and local government. 

This application process is for the first session, which will host a cohort of up to 20 participants that will meet in monthly sessions for 6 months at the Palmetto Innovation Center. After completing all six sessions, participants will graduate at the culminating event – The Homegrown Leaders Summit which will take place in June 2025.

Participants will leave the Program with:

•  Learning how to develop a vision or set of ideas/goals.

•  Exploring strategies on how to communicate (both intellectually and emotionally) various messages to specific audiences in private and public settings.

•  Identifying and analyzing particular organizational dynamics such as team building, diversity, and long-term strategic planning.

•  developing conflict management skills and strategies for the maintenance of interpersonal relationships.

Classes will be held once a month through January 16– June 5, 2025.
Thursdays 9-2pm in Barnwell: Palmetto Innovation Center, 218 Main Street

DEADLINE TO APPLY: December 6th, 2024.

Program Outline

Building Successful Teams & Local Impactful Leaders

PRIMARY PURPOSE

The Leadership institute is designed to provide individuals with tangible skills and strategies related to leadership that can be employed immediately in a variety of different settings. Our goal is to maximize the leadership potential in each individual and allow him/her to begin realizing that potential in concrete and leadership potential in each individual and allow him/her to begin realizing that potential in concrete theories and learn how to incorporate these into our own personalized leadership style. Particular attention will be paid to defining leadership and recognizing how it is not an ‘either/or’ quality, but rather a continuum of experience and expertise – one on which all individuals exist.

SUGGESTED READING (will be provided to all participants)

Kouzes, James M. and Barry Z. Posner. 2017. The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations, Sixth Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Session 1 (January)

•  Leadership in 3D (approximately 90 minutes)

 This presentation focuses on building fundamental leadership development skills that Everyone can use to become effective change agents in their organizations. It begins within ourselves. Finally, we focus on some additional aspects of leading others and making change happen that will help us become more effective leaders in our sphere of influence.

Session 2 (February)

•  Leadership Theory I (approximately 90 minutes)

o Kouzes and Posner The Leadership Challenge
o Model the Way / Inspire a Shared Vision / Challenge the Process

Session 3 (March)

•  Leadership Theory II (approximately 90 minutes)

o Kouzes and Posner The Leadership Challenge
o Enable Others to Act / Encourage the Heart / Leadership is Everyone’s Business

Session 4 (April)

•  Successfully Managing Conflict (approximately 90 minutes)

 Many of us prefer to avoid conflict whenever possible, often because we do not know how to handle confrontational situations or difficult people. This presentation explores some fundamental conflict resolution skills and strategies. Initially, we focus on the typical responses individuals adopt when conflict erupts. Then we turn to skills and approaches that one can adopt to resolve specific conflicts. Finally, we discuss specific long-term strategies that will help minimize the potentially negative consequences of conflict.

Session 5 (May)

Say What? Tips for Effective Public Speaking (approximately 90 minutes)
Survey after survey reveals that public speaking is the most frequently identified action that frightens individuals. People would prefer to get hit by a bus than speak in front of an audience. This presentation helps calm those fears by providing fundamental skills for effective speaking and dynamic presentations. It begins by exploring the tone colors. In everyone’s voices and develops strategies for bringing out these colors during speeches.We then focus on developing dynamic presentations that capture an audience’s attention and deliver an inspirational message to the listeners.

Session 6 (June)

•  Don’t Forget the I in Leadership (approximately 90 minutes)

 As individuals continue their journeys towards becoming more effective leaders it can be easy to forget that everything starts with I. We are the ones responsible for making connections with others, developing goals and visions, and inspiring our teams. This workshop focuses on three aspects of ‘I’ that will sustain our efforts: Authenticity, Vulnerability, and Anxiety/Mental Health. During the workshop we will identify strategies and tips to address each aspect as we focus on becoming visionary leaders.

• Luncheon with Both Barnwell and Allendale County Council. 

Graduation: Homegrown Leadership Summit (June)