Thinking corporately
Top team, statutory officers and political acumen.
Three hours on thinking corporately as a director: the top team, collective responsibility, the statutory officers, political acumen and leading through elections and change.
- Level
- Focus
- Learning time
- 3 hours
- Where
- Becoming a Director
- Price
- £69
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Heads of service stepping up and new directors in councils across Wales and England
Overview
This Focus brings together five modules on the corporate core of the director's role. It starts with the corporate turn: Marshall Goldsmith on old habits, Michael Watkins's seven shifts, Robert Katz's three skills and the expert trap. It then explores the top team through Jon Katzenbach, Hambrick and Mason's upper echelons theory, Patrick Lencioni and Avanti's Top Team Development Approach, and how directors carry collective responsibility. Next come the statutory officers, the section 114 report and how to raise a concern well. The final modules turn to politics: Yates and Hartley on political astuteness, the owl, fox, donkey and sheep, advising members, the pre-election period, new administrations and working under no overall control.
Aims
This programme aims to develop directors who weigh their directorate against the needs of the whole council, play a full part in the corporate management team, support and challenge the statutory officers, and advise members candidly through political change.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Explain why becoming a director is a change in kind, and assess how your habits and time support leadership of the whole council rather than one service.
- Apply the habits of collective responsibility and the six-step sequence for raising concerns, so that you support statutory officers without undermining their independence.
- Use political astuteness to advise members frankly and loyally, and plan how to lead your directorate through elections and a new administration.
What you'll develop
Through this Focus course, you will build the ability to:
- Distinguish the habits of the expert trap from those of a corporate leader, and identify which you still rely on.
- Apply the habits of collective responsibility and of a good corporate management team member to your own conduct.
- Apply the six-step sequence for raising a concern that something may be unlawful, unaffordable or unsafe.
- Use the Yates and Hartley capabilities and the owl, fox, donkey and sheep model to read people and situations issue by issue.
- Apply the six steps to advising members so that your advice is frank, timely and written, and then delivered loyally.
- Plan a briefing and induction for a new administration covering manifesto analysis, honest constraints, quick lawful wins and early decisions.
Built from 2 parts.
3 hours of learning.
- 01Joining the top teamThe corporate turn, collective responsibility and statutory officersBitesize3 modules
- 02Reading the politicsPolitical acumen and political transition for directorsBitesize2 modules
Keep going.
Part of the Becoming a Director topic, also sold whole as The corporate turn.
Go deeper, and pay only the difference
- You are hereFocus, 3 hours, £69
- The whole topicExplore, The corporate turn, 6 hours, £129. Already own the Focus? You pay £60.
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Prices per person. Read the full terms
Also part of: Leading the whole, Toward the chief executive role