Coaching for leaders & MAnagers - 6-part series
This six session series will focus on leadership development for new or experienced leaders of nonprofits or small businesses. The first three sessions will focus on how to manage one’s strengths and leadership style, and the last three will focus on best practices for leading organizations including teamwork, communication, and coaching.
Workshop #1: StrengthsFinder
Leaders gain far more when they expend effort to build on their greatest talents than when they spend a comparable amount of effort to remediate their weaknesses. This session will focus on identifying and building on the strengths of the leaders. At the end of the session, participants will be able to:
Workshop #2: Leadership Styles
While there are many ways to look at leadership styles (e.g., leader as teacher: rule breakers and value creators; as hero: responsible for great causes and noble works; and as ruler: motivated by dominating others and exercising power), leaders must understand what motivates them and how they will lead their organization. At the end of the session, participants will be able to:
Workshop #3: Emotional Intelligence
What role does emotional intelligence play in leading nonprofit organizations and small businesses? How can leaders be more empathetic and still drive their mission ahead? At the end of the session, participants will be able to:
Workshop #4: Team Building
Using Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team as the basis for conversation, participants will learn how to distinguish effective teams from poor ones. By the end of the session, participants will learn techniques to overcome challenges in managing and forming common dysfunctions in their teams including:
Session 5: Communication
How can we connect better with our stakeholders? Sometimes the message gets lost when the messenger does not do a good job connecting with the recipient, whether it is in person, over the phone, via e-mail or Zoom. How can we improve our communications skills to improve those messages? During this session participants will learn techniques to improve their communications skills and will craft an action plan to measure progress in the following areas:
Session 6: Coaching
Whether you are preparing to turn over the reins of your organization to another leader or groom future leaders, we all need to learn how better to "coach" others. That is, how do we support future leaders and help them grow? At the end of the session, participants will:
Workshop #1: StrengthsFinder
Leaders gain far more when they expend effort to build on their greatest talents than when they spend a comparable amount of effort to remediate their weaknesses. This session will focus on identifying and building on the strengths of the leaders. At the end of the session, participants will be able to:
- Understand what the Clifton StrengthsFinder tool is and how it can be applied
- Comprehend their own StrengthsFinder profile and how to use it in a leadership context
- Apply their profile in team-based homogeneous and heterogeneous groupings
- Identify complementary strengths that will produce the best outcome for the organization
Workshop #2: Leadership Styles
While there are many ways to look at leadership styles (e.g., leader as teacher: rule breakers and value creators; as hero: responsible for great causes and noble works; and as ruler: motivated by dominating others and exercising power), leaders must understand what motivates them and how they will lead their organization. At the end of the session, participants will be able to:
- Understand what their leadership style is, and how it can be used
- Discuss the context where the style can be used to optimal effect in a leadership setting
- Apply their style in team-based homogeneous and heterogeneous groupings
Workshop #3: Emotional Intelligence
What role does emotional intelligence play in leading nonprofit organizations and small businesses? How can leaders be more empathetic and still drive their mission ahead? At the end of the session, participants will be able to:
- Understand what emotional intelligence is and how it compares to other forms of intelligence
- Comprehend how emotionally intelligent leaders model such behavior in the workplace
- Be able to apply personal and social competence viz. self-awareness and self-management and social awareness and relationship management
Workshop #4: Team Building
Using Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team as the basis for conversation, participants will learn how to distinguish effective teams from poor ones. By the end of the session, participants will learn techniques to overcome challenges in managing and forming common dysfunctions in their teams including:
- An absence of trust
- Fear of conflict
- Lack of commitment
- An avoidance of accountability
- Inattention to results
Session 5: Communication
How can we connect better with our stakeholders? Sometimes the message gets lost when the messenger does not do a good job connecting with the recipient, whether it is in person, over the phone, via e-mail or Zoom. How can we improve our communications skills to improve those messages? During this session participants will learn techniques to improve their communications skills and will craft an action plan to measure progress in the following areas:
- Oral communication
- Written communication
- Electronic communication
- Effective meetings
Session 6: Coaching
Whether you are preparing to turn over the reins of your organization to another leader or groom future leaders, we all need to learn how better to "coach" others. That is, how do we support future leaders and help them grow? At the end of the session, participants will:
- Learn the basics of leadership coaching and its applicability in the nonprofit world
- Understand how they might apply a coaching dynamic in their own workplaces
- Model a simple coaching conversation
- Be able to prepare a coaching plan for their teams
About the Presenter:

David S. Liebschutz, Principal, DSLeadership, LLC
David Liebschutz is the principal of DSLeadership, LLC, a consulting and coaching firm specializing in leadership development and strategic planning. In addition, he is a long-term public service professor at the UAlbany’s Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. He is also an adjunct professor of management at Siena College where he teaches a senior seminar in leadership. He has served in leadership roles on several local and national volunteer boards and committees, including the United Jewish Federation of NENY. He is a board-certified life and executive coach and has a BA in economics from Yale and a JD/MPP from Duke.
David Liebschutz is the principal of DSLeadership, LLC, a consulting and coaching firm specializing in leadership development and strategic planning. In addition, he is a long-term public service professor at the UAlbany’s Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. He is also an adjunct professor of management at Siena College where he teaches a senior seminar in leadership. He has served in leadership roles on several local and national volunteer boards and committees, including the United Jewish Federation of NENY. He is a board-certified life and executive coach and has a BA in economics from Yale and a JD/MPP from Duke.