Leading through Uncertainty

What lessons can leaders learn from the Great Recession?
How can leaders apply these lessons to accelerate profitable growth?
What can you do to help your company thrive during periods of uncertainty?

The global economy is just beginning to emerge from the longest and deepest recession since the Great Depression. Since 2008, the Center for High Performance has seen evidence that hard times are a fertile breeding ground for fear-based behavior. We have often seen leaders obsess about what they have to lose, rather than thinking rationally about what steps they need to take to win.

It is time for senior leaders to get past fear-based, emotionally driven behavior and focus on the proven factors that accelerate high performance, even in times of uncertainty: valuing people, optimizing critical thinking and seizing opportunities. It is time for executives to move beyond short-term thinking and concentrate on achieving long-term results.

Behaviors that originate with the CEO and his or her direct reports filter down through the organization, where they are repeated and magnified. Just as business failures can be traced back to the actions and decisions of the executive team, so can business success. High-performing leadership teams breed high-performance companies.

Leading Through Uncertainty helps leaders confront harsh realities, adapt quickly to change and seize opportunities in the face of ambiguity.

Participants will learn how to:

• Encourage an environment that drives high performance
• Understand the killers of high performance and how to avoid them
• Learn how leadership behavior affects high performance
• Apply the principles of respectful communication
• Thrive in ambiguity
• Listen to contrarian voices
• Celebrate success
• Identify, replicate and nurture high-performance behaviors throughout the organization

Your Instructor

The course will be taught by Susan Lucia Annunzio, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Center for High Performance (CfHP). She is a strategic advisor to CEOs of leading global companies on strategy attainment and business transformation. Previously, Susan ran the research-based high performance consulting subsidiary of Hudson Highland Group, Inc., a leading international professional staffing and talent management solutions firm. Susan partners with senior executives to increase their ability to simplify complex strategic decisions through enhanced collaboration and creativity. She is a globally recognized speaker and thought leader on shaping and maintaining high-performance business environments. She has a strong track record helping leaders maximize returns on strategic, financial and human-capital investments.

Under her direction, Hudson Highland completed the most comprehensive global study of knowledge workers ever conducted regarding the factors that accelerate or stifle high performance. Susan has presented on this study at such prestigious venues as the World Economic Forum, The International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change at the University of Greenwich, and Vacature’s 2004 “Talent Economy” launch event in Belgium.

Susan is a former Adjunct Professor of Management at the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business. She has been a guest lecturer at INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau, France, Kellogg Graduate School of Management and Instituto de Empresa in Madrid. She also has taught at General Electric’s Crotonville Corporate Training Center.

She is the author of Contagious Success (Portfolio, 2004), a dynamic management book that revealed a global standard for high performance. Contagious Success was voted Fast Company’s Readers’ Choice selection in January 2005. Additionally, Susan authored two more prominent business books: Communicoding (Fine, 1990; Penguin USA, 1991) and Evolutionary Leadership (Simon & Schuster, 2001; Fireside, 2002).

She has been a guest on numerous local and national television and radio news programs and has been quoted extensively in the business press, including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, BBC, USA Today and Bloomberg.

Susan is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, the Executives’ Club of Chicago and the University of Chicago Women’s Business Group. She also works with the Metropolitan YWCA of Chicago and The United Way.

Dress
Dress is business casual.

Meals and Snacks
Meals are included in your tuition. Breakfast and afternoon snacks are provided in addition to lunch. If you have special dietary requirements, please contact us at +1 312.595.9104 before the program begins and we will do our best to accommodate your needs. Vegetarian options are available.

Cancellation Policy
Before a program begins, the Center for High Performance incurs substantial administrative cost related to your registration. Therefore the following fees apply: