LTI Seminars at Congressional City Conference

FULL-DAY SEMINARS
Saturday, March 10, 2012

L01: Collaboration vs. Polarization: Creating Effective Policy Amid Competing Views
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Registration Fee: $180
Competency: Collaborator/Competent Practitioner
Today’s political climate is polluted by individuals and groups that use heated rhetoric while demonstrating an unwillingness to even hear the ‘other side.’ When leaders are polarized, the community suffers. How can we learn to find the best in our differences and manage the tension? Learn how to identify polarities and create a plan to use the best of both, while avoiding their downsides. Understand how to use your head and heart strategically to manage the complex issues wholly and directly.  Realize the best way to articulate the greater purpose of common interest? Develop successful, sustainable solutions to complex community issues.  Your community can have limitless possibilities and opportunities when both sides are heard and engaged so that polarized groups stop focusing on being ‘right.’
Instructor: Margaret Seidler, Consultant, Seidler & Associates, LLC, Charleston, SC


MORNING SEMINARS
Saturday, March 10, 2012

L02: Creating and Understanding Your Personal Leadership Style
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Registration Fee: $120
Competency: Cornerstone
21st century leadership needs to be both similar to leadership of the past as well as different from leadership of the past.  How can that possibly be? The fundamental principles of effective leadership skills have remained the same for generations. But many of the strategies to lead effectively have changed to meet the demands of the 21st century.  Explore what “leadership style” is and why it matters.  Without skillful leaders, communities will struggle in good times, fail to adapt to change, and will crumple in the face of hardship. Recognize how effective leadership skills are based on timeless human relationship principles. Learn to pinpoint your own personal leadership style; know how to capitalize on your own strengths and how to overcome potential weakness.
Instructor: Maria Carrasquillo, President, MJH Consulting, Lanham, MD

L03: Strategic Collaboration to Strengthen Local Government
9:00 am – 12:00 Noon
Registration Fee: $120
Competency: Collaborator
The current political context presents many challenges along with an opportunity for America’s elected leaders and citizens. Communities and regions with strong economies, quality education, positive community health, and good governance are characterized by a vibrant culture of civic collaboration.  In these places, elected leaders and citizens catalyze and convene new and innovative partnerships and collaborations.  Examine and identify the feasible collaborations within your community.  Who are the key stakeholders?  What is the scope of your community issues?  Learn collaborative leadership concepts for working with these challenges and constructively creating change in your community.
Instructor: Michelle Campbell, Managing Partner, MD Campbell & Assoc., LLC, Greenwood Village, CO

L04: Leading Your Community’s Transformation: Making Change Work
9:00 am – 12:00 Noon
Registration Fee: $120
Competency: Catalyst
Leadership is about making change happen. Great leaders are not remembered for maintaining the status quo. So, how do you successfully lead change? You can start by developing an clear understanding of what it takes for people to transition from opposing a change to supporting it.  Learn strategies for promoting the need for change and communicating it to your constituents.  Conduct an assessment of your own community’s readiness to embrace your ideas for change and create a plan to implement a proposal for change in your community that includes tactics for success in every stage of the process.  Learn to build a system to reinforce and sustain the change once it has taken hold.
Instructor: Michelle Flaherty, President, City on a Hill Consulting, Inc., Washington, DC


AFTERNOON SEMINARS
Saturday, March 10, 2012

L05: A Call to Order: Effective Parliamentary Procedure
1:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Registration Fee: $120
Competency: Cornerstone
Accomplishing your leadership agenda depends on your ability to lead an inspiring meeting.  Learn how to manage both basic and essential parliamentary processes from handling debates, motions, amendments, and taking votes.  Through simulations, engage in the opportunity to exercise judgment and craft solutions based on the principles that have consistently governed the democratic process.  Gain the necessary tools to create a fair and balanced atmosphere in meetings, where members can respectfully disagree, yet function in the best interest of the community at large. Sharpen and refresh your knowledge of the fundamentals of leading effective meetings. Rejuvenate your skills around advanced motions and how they impact the parliamentary procedure process.  
*This is a core curriculum seminar recommended for all local leaders, whether you are new to NLC and the Leadership Training Institute or current participant wanting to build vital components of a well-balanced leadership platform with a fresh perspective.
Instructor: Colette Collier Trohan, CPP-T, PRP, Parliamentarian and Trainer, Silver Spring, MD

L06: Shaping Community through Storytelling
1:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Registration Fee: $120
Competency: Communicator
Two of the best tools a local elected official can have in order to communicate with their constituents are likeability and telling stories. Discover how successful civic leadership understands the power of story.  Understand how to choose stories that reinforce the community characteristics that serve its citizens, and how to use story intentionally to inspire, motivate and lead. Learn how the simple structure of storytelling and the mindset to make emotional, likable connections with your constituents can improve community.  We are always looking for ways to improve our message and stories have the power to focus your message.  Realize that when people relate your stories to others; they are actively supporting your point.  Learn how to successfully communicate even through the most common roadblocks.
Instructor: Bill Graham, President, Graham Corporate Communications, Montclair, NJ

L07: Problem Solving Teams are Effective City Councils
1:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Registration Fee: $120
Competency: Competent Practitioner
Does your city have a council member that doesn’t buy into the concept of ‘team?’  Is your city council more like Congress or more like a problem solving team?  Which do you prefer?  As a local leader you are required to work with and through others to make quality decisions.  And then successively build acceptance by others to transform those decisions into positive outcomes.  Identify key challenges that face your municipality. Learn how to structure and design problem solving teams of people, even from diverse backgrounds, to address relevant municipal issues. Discover ways to manage the situation that will benefit everyone involved  Learn to work more effectively on your city council as a municipal problem solving team, working as a member or as leader of the team.
Instructor: G. Ronald Gilbert, Principal Consultant, Gilbertems, LLC, Port St. Lucie, FL

FULL-DAY SEMINARS
Sunday, March 11, 2012

L08: Building Public Private Partnerships
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Registration Fee: $180
Competency: Competent Practitioner
Public private partnerships (PPP) are a popular policy tool used by governments around the world to finance, build, operate, and maintain public infrastructure assets. The incentive for government to partner with for-profit and non-profit organizations is driven largely by the desire to leverage expertise, experience, and the ability to finance projects that government doesn’t have the capacity to develop and execute. Local governments have embraced the use of PPPs not only for new projects, but increasingly as a vehicle to raise funds and transfer risk and responsibilities around maintenance and operations of existing government assets. Learn the types of PPP arrangements that can be used by local governments and how to develop, implement and monitor the relationship.  Examine the risks and how to manage them through the PPP process and develop the skills to effectively engage stakeholders to maximize the goals.
Instructor: David Van Slyke, Professor, Syracuse University–Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse, NY


MORNING SEMINARS
Sunday, March 11, 2012

L09: The Nine Essential Skills for Municipal Leaders
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Registration Fee: $120
Competency: Cornerstone
How do you see yourself as a leader of your community? Each day that you have to make tough decisions, you want that decision to deliver a positive contribution to your community. Leadership is both an art and a science. Recognize the pioneering principles of Dr. John Gardner and the practical application of these skills to the work and service of public sector policy leaders.  Learn the inter-related nature of the nine essential skills for local leaders and broaden your perspective on the key elements of municipal leadership. Explore those vital skills and abilities that will help you truly serve the public good and not simply constituents’ interests.  Examine your own personal accountability in the political arena and value the efforts of a governance team in conjunction with your own individual goals.
Instructor: Dr. Carolyn Warner, President, President and Co-Founder, Corporate//Education Consulting, Inc., Phoenix, AZ

L10: Speaking from the Heart: Giving your Best Speech Ever
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Registration Fee: $120
Competency: Communicator
Discover practical ideas and engage in new exercises to help you give a winning speech or presentation every time!  Learn how to size up the event and the audience, so that your message will be right on target! Learn how to prepare great openings that grab attention and develop endings that are memorable.  Realize how you can direct how you are introduced so that your audience will be primed to receive your message. Understand how to use effective audiovisuals and avoid ‘Death by Power Point.’ Recognize the power of storytelling in speech making, and practice staying on message during the Q & A session.  Appreciate the use gestures, along with voice and body language, to keep your audience interested.  And in the end, know that when you are enthused, energized, and committed to your subject matter by speaking from the heart, your nervousness is completely manageable.
Instructor: Joe Slye, Trainer and Media Consultant, Alexandria, VA

L11: Leadership in a Diverse Generational Community
9:00 am – 12:00 Noon
Registration Fee: $120
Competency: Collaborator
Veterans, boomers, Xers, and nexters have more in common that they think.  World shaping events, childhood heroes, and early work experiences might have happened in a different decade, but we all can relate and agree that they have shaped our lives. There is more in common than in differences; in values, perspectives, work ethic and motivators. Examine the perceptions of various styles used to communicate thoughts, ideas and opinions, and their impact.  Examine the factors that influence the quality of varied leadership and human interactions, both politically and personally.  Develop your leadership awareness and the skills necessary for enhancing win-win human interactions and interdependent relationships in a diverse community.
Instructor: Todd Arwood, President, Todd Arwood Performance Partners, Louisville, KY

L12: Marketing Economic Development in Your Community
9:00 am – 12:00 Noon
Registration Fee: $120
Competency: Catalyst
Lurking in the shadows of your community’s competition for businesses, visitors, resources and residents is an elusive but mighty influence on the bottom line. Recruiting the private sector’s fiscal participation in the brand management process from the get-go often means a city can recap a reputational advantage without spending a single tax dollar.  Using your brand as a pivotal rallying point can pull together efforts and assets for a more competitive community. Learn how to organize and develop marketing partnerships to bring together public and private sector entities.  Discover the importance of maintaining a steady stream of policies and initiatives that encourage innovation in your community.
Instructor: Don McEachern, President, North Star Destination Strategies, Nashville, TN


AFTERNOON SEMINARS
Sunday, March 11, 2012

L13 – The Five Powers of Public Leadership
1:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Registration Fee: $120
Competency: Cornerstone
In public organizations leaders at all levels, take risks and make decisions, where total teamwork and imagination are the rule not the exception, where diverse teams learn to adapt, embrace and move on from change, and more importantly where teams learn to truly grow is found in the art of thinking…this is the public body of the future. This is the hard work of governing; learning to work together and make decisions Learn how to enhance, expand, incorporate, and sharpen your abilities as a municipal leader. Examine how to take risks in a way that will push your objectives toward success while embracing the team and the challenges that come with it.
Instructor: Malcom Chapman, President, The Chapman Group, Rapid City, South Dakota

L14: Advocating and Influencing with Integrity
1:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Registration Fee: $120
Competency: Competent Practitioner
If you walk the talk, practice what you preach, stand up for your beliefs, follow through on your promises, and do what you say you will do…your community will thrive. Learn how to augment your communication skills as you enhance your effectiveness as an advocate for your community and its priorities. Understand how to best manage your own behavioral integrity to build trust and credibility. Explore the tools and skills necessary to build and sustain a leadership culture of integrity above reproach.
*This is a core curriculum seminar recommended for all local leaders, whether you are new to NLC and the Leadership Training Institute or current participant wanting to build vital components of a well-balanced leadership platform with a fresh perspective.
Instructor: Todd Arwood, President, Todd Arwood Performance Partners, Louisville, KY

L15: Managing Your Media Message
1:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Registration Fee: $120
Competency: Communicator
Learn how to develop, control and deliver persuasive messages to the media and constituents.  Focus on constructing concise messages to improve clarity and build confidence in your relationship with the media.  Through role-playing exercises, learn how to assert control in an interview and effectively answer both the anticipated and the unexpected questions.  Strengthen your presentation abilities and identify how clear communication serves your constituents to better understand you as a leader.  Discover practical ways to stay cool in the hot seat, deliver the intended message and convey the proper image.  Improve your ability to work with the media and your day-to-day communications skills.  
*This is a core curriculum seminar recommended for all local leaders, whether you are new to NLC and the Leadership Training Institute or a current participant wanting to build vital components of a well-balanced leadership platform with a fresh perspective.
Instructor: Joe Slye, Trainer and Media Consultant, Alexandria, VA

L16: Contemporary Trends in Local Government
1:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Registration Fee: $120
Competency: Catalyst
How do we use the techniques of modernization to build unique communities? Two trends dominate the work of local government officials—modernizing the organization and citizen engagement.  These are independent, world- wide trends that must be bridged in order to create, maintain, and preserve communities with identity.  On the one hand, the modernization trend creates homogeneity; on the other hand, the engagement trend seeks identity.  Effective local government officials increasingly find themselves in the role of "bridging" the gaps the trends create.  Examine the trends and the skills that the bridge building role requires.  
Instructor: John Nalbandian, Professor, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

CERTIFICATE OF ACHIEVEMENT IN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM
...allows local elected officials to organize their professional development around critical skills necessary for effective leadership.  The program is built around five core leadership competencies for local elected officials, with each Leadership Training Institute Seminar addressing one of the following competency areas...
(1) Cornerstone;
(2) Competent Practitioner;
(3) Communicator;
(4) Collaborator;
(5) Catalyst.

To obtain more information or enroll in the Certificate of Achievement in Leadership program, contact the Leadership Training Institute at (202) 626-3170 or lti@nlc.org.