Leadership Development and Coaching
A Single Step’s Director, Chris Pye, has spent thirty years working in and alongside the Helping Professions, which has shaped his approach to supporting leadership development. He combines his knowledge of these sectors with expertise in group facilitation, leadership coaching, and Applied Theatre techniques, to create powerful learning and development opportunities, informed by A Single Step’s core values
At the heart of every productive and thriving workplace are solid relationships and safe, inclusive leadership
But when these are interrupted, the team can feel unstable and uncertain, resulting in:
- Poor staff morale
- Low job satisfaction
- Reduced productivity
- Heightened stress and feelings of overwhelm
- High staff turnover
Supporting you to grow a cohesive and productive workforce is our speciality. Read on to find out how we do it.
Leadership Development and Coaching
Boards of Directors and Executive Leadership Teams the world over are increasingly recognising the power of a Leadership Development focus, including Team and Individual Leadership Coaching.
At A Single Step we walk alongside you, delivering an integrated process that takes your team or organisation from surviving to thriving over a few short months. This infographic illustrates the key elements of our evidence-based process, which are described below.
Because we work primarily with the Helping Professions, we understand the prevalence of trauma and stress in the lives of both clients and workers in this sector. We employ a Trauma-Informed Care approach to every project we facilitate.
Context Setting
First we connect with your individual team members to understand what is working, what is not, and where you want to go.
Diagnostic assessment early on will help form a baseline for the formative and summative evaluations that follow, helping chart the efficacy of the process.
Connection
An initial full-day ‘Foundations’ workshop will bring participants together, offsite, to connect in new ways and begin identifying pathways towards greater trust and cohesion.
We will support participants to reconnect with one another, to support the development of collaboration and shared ownership.
Capacity Building
Informed by the initial ‘context’ consultations and conversations in the Foundations workshop, a series of skill-building workshops are facilitated, informed by the interpersonal skills the participants wish to collectively develop. Topics can be selected from our most popular content areas, below, and tailored to the needs of your specific team. For full details of the 7 core content areas, see the tabs below.
- Initiating Courageous Conversations (including giving & receiving feedback and 'calling out' problem language and behaviours)
- The 9 Rs (Conflict micro-skills for building team safety and cohesion)
- Workplace Animations (Harnessing the power of experiential learning for the transformation of difficult conversations)
- Building a Trauma-Informed Care approach in your team
- Care and Wellness (for Safe & Sustainable Teams)
- 5 Leadership Keys
- Fostering Inclusion
Continuous Development
Team and individual coaching during the course of the program, and optionally beyond, will support the application and sustainable integration of the Leadership Development learnings.
Our Team and Individual Coaching sessions will help team members explore issues and themes that relate to the collective team experience, as well as their own individual growth and development.
The role of a Team and individual Coach is to ask the right questions to help participants focus on what is important, understand what is helping and hindering their performance, and build cohesion, towards greater harmony and productivity.
All the real challenges in organisations are not in the parts or the people but in the connections.
The sections below describe the 7 core areas of content for the interpersonal skill-building workshops. A number of these workshops is included within the integrated Leadership Development program, but they can also be delivered as stand-alone programs for your team or organisation.
The 7 content areas of our workshops
Initiating Courageous Conversations
(including giving & receiving feedback and ‘calling out’ problem language and behaviours)
Providing feedback to team members, managers or direct reports can provoke anxiety. Presenting a person with a challenging assessment of something they have said or done is never a walk in the park. It may feel like it goes against our strong desire for harmony and the building of relationship.
So, it’s no wonder that we have often been taught to ‘sandwich’ our ‘negative’ feedback between two slices of ‘positive’ feedback. But this only strengthens the narrative that receiving feedback is undesirable, when feedback can be a gift, if we use it to learn and grow.
There are also moments, in the life of a team or work environment, when we need to interrupt language or behaviour which we assess as threatening to the psychological safety of other team members or clients. Unlike feedback, which we can often take time to formulate, ‘calling out’ (or ‘calling in’) challenging behaviour often needs to take place immediately.
In this workshop, you will be introduced to the powerful tools of ‘SBI’ and ‘Calling in / calling out’ and guided in their practical implementation across your team or workforce, The results will be increased psychological safety and a shared language, emboldening all staff members to find the courage to engage in courageous conversations.
What you get:
- A mix of whole group discussion and pair work, to optimise engagement and safety
- Worksheets and infographics provided to extend your learning and integration beyond the session
- Masterful, trauma-informed facilitation that prioritises the safety and inclusion of all participants
The 9 Rs
Conflict micro-skills for building team safety and cohesion
Drawing on a wealth of sources, across thirty years of working within and alongside the Helping Professions, Facilitator, Counsellor and Coach, Chris Pye presents his 9 Rs framework.
The 9 Rs comprise nine core micro-skills essential for transforming problem conflict into creative conversations that help deepen our awareness of ourselves and each other, towards more harmonious and cohesive team environments.
In this workshop, we will identify our strengths and our learning edges, and focus on developing skills in the areas where we need to grow.
The 9 Rs provide an invaluable foundation for the building of a team culture that values clarity, accountability and connectedness, for the mitigation of work stress and potential burnout.
What you get:
- Intensive pair work that helps you focus on the areas of individual need for you
- Exclusive access to a suite of resources to support your ongoing learning and implementation of the 9 Rs
- Masterful, trauma-informed facilitation that prioritises the safety and inclusion of all participants
Workplace Animations
Harnessing the power of experiential learning to transform difficult conversations
With his previous career as a professional actor, Chris Pye from A Single Step brings a potent set of skills to his dynamic work with teams.
The content and process of this module are informed by the understanding that learning is optimised when integrated into our whole system, not just our cognitive functioning.
Forget everything you’ve ever known (and hated!) about role-plays and open yourself and your team to the unparalleled power of experiential learning.
In this workshop, Chris Pye create a safe, supportive, and fun container for the creative animation of common workplace conflicts and difficult conversations.
In these ‘rehearsals for real life’, participants will gain so much more than is possible from theoretical discussions alone.
How do we create a safe, fun and effective learning experience – even for the most ‘role-play-phobic’ participant?
- No-one is required to directly participate in an animation, unless they choose to (there is ample learning in observing and offering reflections)
- No-one is required to step into a role (Chris, himself, will become the antagonist, so that you just get to be you)
- Chris provides a safe, structured process, including clear enrolling and de-rolling, which maximises emotional safety and promotes investment in the animation
Workplace Animations will turbo-charge your team’s learning, in the areas of giving and receiving feedback and engaging in difficult conversations, towards a more confident and high performing team environment.
Care and Wellness
For Safe and Sustainable Teams
According to 2014’s State of Workplace Mental Health in Australia Report,
One in five Australians take time off work due to stress, anxiety, depression or mental ill-health.
Workplace stress costs Australia an estimated 14 billion dollars per year and contributes to instability and uneven workload distribution across organisations.
It’s important that we move beyond ‘self-care’, which places responsibility on the individual employee to sustain their mental health and wellness in the workplace.
A trauma-informed care approach helps us recognise the high levels of trauma in the lives of both clients and workers within the helping professions. It also reminds us that, as managers and leaders, we have a responsibility to create a work environment that is not only physically safe but psychologically and emotionally safe too.
In this workshop, we consider the range of practical strategies that we can use to build safety and support into our team operations and culture.
What you get:
- Practical strategies for building wellness into your team’s daily activities
- Neurobiologically-informed information about the power of mindfulness to support team wellness
- Games and creative activities to increase fun and social connectedness at work
Building a Trauma Informed Care (TIC) Approach in your Team
Managers within the Human Services and Community Services sectors are increasingly recognising the disproportionate levels of trauma in the lives of not only our clients but also our workforce.
Drawing on the experience and formulations of American peak bodies such as the Trauma Research Centre and the Traumatic Stress Institute, A Single Step supports teams and organisations within the helping professions to build and sustain workplace environments that are psychologically and emotionally safe for everyone.
This workshop guides participants to consider the things that can be done at team level right now, as well as introducing a maturity framework for ongoing design and implementation, towards a safer, more sustainable team and organisational culture, now and into the future.
What you get:
- Frameworks and templates to support your TIC planning process
- Practical brainstorming and groupwork exercises aimed at translating theory to your team and organisational context
- Exclusive access to a suite of resources to support your ongoing learning and implementation of TIC
Fostering Inclusion
In short, Implicit Bias describes the unconscious beliefs that our brains have learned, generally from birth, to help us navigate and survive a complex social world.
Research has shown that, regardless of how progressive or egalitarian our conscious belief systems may be, we all hold implicit biases which inform our choices and resulting behaviours.
This is one of the concepts we will unpack in this workshop about fostering greater inclusion in our teams and organisation, towards greater collaboration and improved performance and productivity.
Today, CEOs and Senior Leaders understand that a diversity of cultures, ideas, and ways of doing and being result in a more psychologically safe workforce. This in turn promotes more open sharing of these ideas, leading to better performance outcomes.
Diversity also means increased engagement with diverse stakeholders and potential client demographics. In short, inclusion makes sense for everyone.
Of particular importance for those working in the areas of recruitment, marketing and leadership, an understanding of Diversity and Inclusion is essential for any team wanting to move from surviving to thriving.
What you get:
- Theoretical frameworks explaining key concepts of Diversity & Inclusion
- Strategies and tools to support us in recognising our biases and moving towards more inclusive leadership
- Resources to support continued learning and development
5 Keys of Leadership
For teams to truly thrive, we must understand and embody the difference between management and inspired leadership.
In this workshop we invite you to re-ignite your passion for the inspired leadership of teams, introducing you to A Single Step’s own ‘5 Keys of Leadership’. This model is drawn from many sources, over Chris Pye’s thirty years working in and alongside Human and Community Services organisations. It comprises the vital elements leaders need for the effective leadership of their teams. They include:
- Lead with Self-Awareness
- Lead with Courage
- Lead with Purpose
- Lead with Trust
- Lead with Communication
We will unpack each of these core elements, explore their vital leadership role and consider their practical application, helping you harness the 5 Keys to take your team leadership to the next level.
What you get:
- Group and individual activities to help deepen your understanding of the 5 Keys
- A 5 Keys worksheet to help you establish leadership goals and chart progress
- Practical strategies and exercises to help you apply the 5 Keys at work
Blog highlight
For further support in building trust, cohesion, and productivity in your team, check out our current blog highlight.
Leadership Development Enquiry
Please fill in the form below and we’ll be in touch as soon as possible.
A team is not a group of people that work together. A team is a group of people that trusts each other
A Single Step is a certified facilitator of the Team Diagnostic Survey (TDS)
