Talks and Short Practical Courses Management, Leadership and Talent

Delivered by Professor Adrian Furnham

MA MSc MScEcon DPhil DSc DLitt FBPsS CPsychol FAcSS

Since 2007, Adrian has been nominated by HR magazine as one of the 20 Most Influential People in HR

“Knowledgeable, entertaining, motivational and approachable – Adrian is superb”

Full and Half-Day Workshops, Lectures and Presentations. These last 3-4 hours but can be tailored to specific needs for a shorter or longer course. All have been delivered as both full day and half day courses. The aim is to be practical but also to give delegates the necessary concepts to understand behavior.

The ideal number is 21 to 28 people per workshop though we can deal with both bigger and smaller numbers. They can be delivered as key-note speeches, interactive sessions or in more traditional lecture format. I have spoken to groups in excess of 2000 delegates and am used to working with multiple simultaneous translations.

All have been run many times in different countries including Abu Dhabi, America, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Dubai, Germany, Hungary, Holland, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Nigeria, Oman, Russia, , Singapore, Spain, Sweden….and the .

It is possible to choose all, some or just one of these courses. They are all accompanied by full Powerpoint presentations that are informed by the latest academic and applied research findings.

1. Understanding Emotional Intelligence

Workshop Outline • What is Emotional Intelligence and how to measure it? • The story of the Social Intelligences • Emotional and Cognitive Intelligence: what is the difference? • How to Improve your Emotional and Cognitive Intelligence at work • How it all works: when, why and how EI is important at work

Discussions and activities • Dealing with two agendas: pursuing your own and understanding theirs (exercise) • Counseling skills and effective responding: Social Skills and Social Intelligence (exercise) • Completing the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (exercise)

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • How to define and describe EI • Understand why it is important in the workplace • How to measure EI in staff and applications • What we need to do to increase a person’s EI • The costs of low EI score for senior managers • Fact and fiction written about EI

2. Understanding Talent Management

Workshop Outline

• Defining and measuring the personality and ability profile of talented people at work • Identifying, retaining and rewarding talented people • Creativity, genius and High Flyers • People talent that derails

Discussions and activities • An opportunity to complete two cognitive ability tests • Completing three personality tests • A discussion of business options, i.e. should the High Flyers list be kept secret, how people become “categorized” as High Flyers?

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • An understanding of where talent comes from • How to define and measure ability talents • How to define and measure personality correlates of high ability • How to recruit, select, induct and manage High Flyers • The special needs of High Flyers • Preventing derailment in High Flyers

3. Understanding Performance Management

Workshop Outline

• Defining Performance Management Systems • The theory behind the systems • Overview of Performance Management Systems • Who uses them and why • How they actually work, with supposed advantages • Why they fail….usually around rating of behaviour • How and when to avoid failure

Discussions and activities • Participants’ experience of PM Systems and consideration of alternatives • Participants discuss clarification of criteria for the business environment • Rating and measuring performance: the three rating types and their consequences, and how to improve the ratings • Participants rate two people they know on preset form; rating styles and suggestions for improvement are discussed • “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”. How to overcome rating problems to ensure reliable and valid data. Suggestions about what can and should be done with performance data (i.e. related to variable (bonus) pay, training, promotion etc.).

• At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • The theory behind PMS • The essential skill set associated with PMS • How to measure all aspects of performance • How to conduct a progress review with staff • How to ensure staff are rated accurately and honestly • How to avoid PMS systems failing

4. Understanding Psychometric Testing and New Assessment Methods

Workshop Outline

• The history of • The different techniques available (Self report, Observation, Test Performance, Life Data) • Evidence of the validity and usefulness of each technique • The difference between selection and development • Cost benefit analyses of spending money on tests • Developments in the field

Discussions and activities • A look at tests of ability and the opportunity to complete some • Completing tests of personality, beliefs, attitudes and values • A guide to which questions to ask when selecting and buying a test

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • How, when and why we need to assess people at work • The history of assessment of people • What methods are available: from biography to brain scans • Technique selection criteria: validity, cost, practicality, generality, acceptability, legality. • Selecting IN and selecting OUT: how to define what you want in your staff and what you don’t want • How tests are developed • Personality tests • Ability tests • Limitations of interviews, references, and application forms • Selecting High Flyers and those with “potential” • Tests for development • Fashions and fads • Neuroscience and the future of assessment

The session will allow people to complete and score three types of tests. They will also receive a copy of a new book on the topic.

5. Understanding Job Engagement and Motivation Workshop Outline

• The meaning of job satisfaction, commitment and engagement • The relationship between engagement and productivity • Five important theories of motivation • Two factors theory • Money as motivator • Do special people need special packages? • Motivating people in difficult times

Discussions and activities • Designing your own motivational package • Completing various satisfaction and engagement questionnaires • A discussion on cultural differences in motivation and performance

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • How to measure engagement in your staff • How to apply motivational techniques that work • How to train your managers in motivational methodology • How to design cheap and effective reward strategies • Simple but effective strategies to motivate staff

6. Understanding Negotiation and Persuasion

Workshop Outline

• The difference between negotiation and persuasion • Golden rules in how to negotiate better: what to do; what not to do • The classic phases in negotiation • Negotiation in groups vs pairs • Lessons from behavioural economics • The six fundamental influence strategies • The skills of interpersonal influence: how your style works for and against you • Reading and adjusting to others’ preferences and styles

Discussion and activities • Discovering and disguising agendas • The Prisoner’s Dilemma game • Detecting deceit in others • A business simulation

At the conclusion of the Seminar you will understand • The basic strategies used in successful negotiation • How to get information out of others • How best to present your case • The fundamental strategies used by advertisers, politicians and other persuaders, and how and when to apply them for your needs • The skills you need to work on

7. Understanding the of Individual Differences

Workshop Outline

• Theories of personality from Freud to neuroscience • Differences in abilities, personality and values • How to do an assessment of an individual • What is a personality clash and what to do about it? • Self-awareness of your own profile

Discussion and activities • What we have in common is that we are all different • What it means to have a “personality clash” • Knowing your own personality, strengths and gifts • Born or made: what you can and can’t change • Completing three state-of-the-art questionnaires

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • How to write a descriptive, psychological assessment of other people • Why individual differences exist and what they mean • How to deal with people who are different from you • How you can predict behavior once you know a person’s profile

8. Understanding the Psychology of Change Management

Workshop Outline

• Change or die: what has changed and is changing - change vs progress • The theory and practice of change • Individual Reactions to change: who opposes change and why • Why change initiatives succeed and fail • Six change strategies • Changing people vs changing things

Discussion and activities • Case studies on successful change • Revolutionary vs evolutionary change • Examining different models of change • Changing people vs changing processes • Sustaining change

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • How to understand the change process and resistance to it • The advantages of six different strategies to bring about change • What needs to be done in the pre and post change launch period • How to avoid costly failures of change programmes that backfire

9. Understanding Organisational Management

Workshop Outline

• The modern manager: new skills in a new workplace • Managing and leading: task, group, individuals • Management style: self-awareness and adaptability • Managing people from different cultures • The role of strategy

Discussion and activities • The changing workplace and changing needs • Assessing your own management style: 360 feedback • Culture’s consequences: managing a diverse workforce • Strategic thinking and force-field analyses • How to engage and motivate staff

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • Your personal management style and its consequences • The three tasks of all managers • How to start strategic thinking initiatives • Dealing with ambiguity and stress

10. Understanding Self-Awareness and Self-Development Workshop Outline

• Who knows you best: yourself, partner, friends, work colleagues • How do you become more self aware: training, therapy, coaching • What are your major strengths and developmental opportunities • What should you work on? • What can you develop and how? • The benefits of self-awareness

Discussion and activities • The Johari Window and the importance of self-disclosure • Questionnaires on your dark side traits • Using strengths finders to understand oneself • Denial and other defense mechanisms questionnaire • Writing a self-development plan

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • What are your potential strengths and how to engage with them • What are your real developmental needs and how to proceed • How you behave under-pressure • How to help your staff and colleagues achieve greater self-awareness • How to write and follow a developmental plan

11. From Good to Great as Leader

Workshop Outline

• A modern comprehensive model of the make-up of great leaders • Great Leaders from history and the lessons they taught us • The essence of transformational leadership • Forming, aligning and motivating the top team • “Yes you can”. Understanding self efficacy in leadership.

Discussion and activities • Discussion about the greatest leaders each has experienced • How to do “tough love” and confronting poor performance • What you have to do to be a great leaders: what is holding you back • It’s tough at the top; coping with stress in top jobs • Why some leaders fail

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • What differentiates good from great leaders • The essential task of leadership and what you need to do differently • The importance of leadership in teams • The stress and loneliness of being at the top and what you can do about it • How to recruit and select great leaders

12. Giving Constructive Feedback Workshop Outline

• To help managers understand the role and importance of giving feedback to others at work • To become more self-aware about their feedback style • To become able to diagnose the causes of performance success and failure and give appropriate and specific feedback • To acquire and practice the skills of giving different types of feedback to different individuals • To draw up a feedback plan for all their direct reports for the forthcoming year

Learning Outcomes: • Understanding of the why and when and the how of feedback at work • Insight into your own personal style and how you come across to others • The acquisition of very specific and relevant skills: questioning, counselling, listening, interpreting • Self-confidence in their personal skills and a real desire to go and deliver feedback to all their staff

Delivery Methods: • Lectures and lecturettes to help delegates understand the theory and background of feedback giving • Questionnaires and tests that help delegates understand their personal feedback style • Practice sessions. Here, ideally, participants would be able to give real feedback to one of their actual reports so that it is a real session.

13. Understanding the Psychology of Coaching and Mentoring Workshop Outline

• What is the difference between coaching, counseling, consulting and mentoring • Why has there been a sudden and dramatic increase in the demand for coaching • Ten crucial questions to ask of the coaching of talented people • What do mentors do? • How does coaching work and what is the evidence for it? • The benefits of coaching and mentoring

Discussion and activities • Plotting one’s work life history • What sort of coach may work for you? What works for whom? • Using style instruments to understand oneself • Describing the skills of an “ideal” coach • Writing a self-development plan

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • What coaching and mentoring are designed to deliver • How the process works: the essential ingredients • Theories of how we learn best and what this means for coaching • How you select and brief coaches in the workplace • How to coach the talented as well as those struggling

14. Understanding Creativity and Innovation at Work Workshop Outline

• How to define and measure creativity • The focus on the person, the process, the product and the context • Personality, ability, values and creativity • Can creativity be taught? • The difference between business creativity and innovation • Managing (really) creative people

Discussion and activities • Taking three creativity tests • Reflecting of your own creative process • Trying to design an environment which really supports creativity • Pondering the dark side of creativity • Divergent and convergent problem solving

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • What creativity is and how best to measure it • What sort of people are more or less likely to be creative • How you select and manage creative people • Best practice for the innovation of new things in the environment • The many myths and half truths that exist in this area

15. Understanding Counter-Productive Behaviour at Work Workshop Outline

• The Range of CWBs: from arson to whistle-blowing • The case of theft • How to define and measure CWBs • Integrity tests • The detection of liars, deceivers and dissimulators • The criminal and anti-social personality • Justice and equity at work • Security and surveillance in the work place • Developing loyalty and commitment

Discussion/Activities • Taking three CWB and integrity tests • Role playing the detection of liars • Designing an organisational security system • Devising ways to measure equity at work

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • What CWBs are and how best to measure them • What sort of people are more or less likely to commit CWBs • How you select and manage honest people • What sort of management and organisational issues prevent CWBs occurring • How to develop staff loyalty and commitment

16. Understanding Corporate Audits and Surveys Workshop Outline

• The role and function of corporate audits • Data collection, analysis and feedback • Corporate culture and climate • Measuring engagement • Communication audits • Customer audits • Managerial use and abuse of audits and surveys

Discussion and activities • Competing and comparing five different surveys • The causes and consequences of corporate culture and climate • Critique of various measures • Devising ways to measure beliefs and behaviours at work

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • Why when and how to survey staff at work • The difference between corporate culture and climate • Why staff are sceptical and cynical about surveys and how to prevent this • How surveys can be used to bring about and measure change • The psychometrics of surveys

17. Understanding Leadership Derailment Workshop Outline

• What is the incidence of leadership failure and derailment? • Incompetence vs derailment • The dark side of leadership: personality disorders and derailment • The paradox of success: that factors that help you climb the greasy pole also derail you • How to prevent derailment

Discussion and activities • Taking a measure of derailment • Case studies of derailment • Designing a select-out selection system • Considering the power and role of corporate governance

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • How the Personality Disorders influence derailment • Which PDs (Narcissist, Psychopath, Machiavellian) are most dangerous • How you select and manage high flyers who won’t derail • What corporate and organisational factors lead to the rise of derailers

18. Understanding the Psychology of Money Workshop Outline

• The clinical, cognitive, developmental, organisational and of money • Money pathology • Money types and how to spot them • Money as a motivator at work • The behavioural economics of money • Influencing the money decisions of others

Discussion and activities • Taking a money typology test • Classifying others into money types • Taking a behavioural economics test

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • The reason why people are a-rational and psycho-logical about their money • How to “diagnose” people as to their money type and how to influence them • How to use behavioural economics heuristics to be persuasive

19. Understanding Body Language Workshop Outline

• Verbal, vocal, visual cues • Major forms of body communication • Cultural differences • How to detect lies • Body language at work

Discussion and activities • Reading the signals • How to fake and detect faking in others • Sense and nonsense about bodily communication

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • Myths and realities about body communication • What signals leak most information and why • How better to present yourself non-verbally

20. Understanding Competencies at Work Workshop Outline

• What are competencies? • Ability, personality, values...and competency • The typical lists and its problems • How competencies “unify” HR policies

Discussion/Activities • Rating yourself on the GREAT EIGHT • Which and how much can competencies by taught • Designing competency architecture in an organisation

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • What Competencies are and how best to measure them • Sex, age and culture differences in competencies • How you deploy competency frameworks in organisations • How to develop the competencies of people in your organisation

21. Understanding Office Politics: Being savvy at work Workshop Outline

• What is being savvy? Why is it important? • Why some people are good at it and others not? • The difference between being “dodgy” and being wise • Learning the essential skills and tactics to become savvy in the workplace

Discussion/Activities • Rating yourself on two measures • Multiple choice tests on being savvy • Learning how to map or plot a strategy that works

At the conclusion of the seminar you will understand • Why, how and when it is important to be savvy • The essential steps you need to take to being more effective in the workplace • The necessity of understanding hidden agendas • That being savvy is not devious or Machiavellian but very sensible

More About Adrian…

Adrian Furnham was educated at the London School of Economics where he obtained a distinction in an MSc Econ., and at Oxford University where he completed a doctorate (D.Phil) in 1981. He has subsequently earned a D.Sc (1991) and D.Litt (1995) degree. Previously a lecturer in Psychology at Pembroke College, Oxford, he was Professor of Psychology at University College London from 1992 to 2018. He has lectured widely abroad and held scholarships and visiting professorships at, amongst others, the University of New South Wales, the University of the West Indies, the University of Hong Kong and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He has also been a Visiting Professor of Management at Henley Management College. He has recently been made Adjunct Professor of Management at the Norwegian School of Management (2009).

Adrian has written over 1200 scientific papers and 85 books including The Protestant Work Ethic (1990) Culture Shock (1994), The New Economic Mind (1995), Personality at Work (1994), The Myths of Management (1996), The Psychology of Behaviour at Work (1997), The Psychology of Money (1998), The Psychology of Culture Shock (2001), The Incompetent Manager (2003), The Dark Side of Behaviour at Work (2004), The People Business (2005) Personality and Intellectual Competence (2005), Management Mumbo- Jumbo (2006), Head and Heart Management (2007), The Psychology of Physical Attraction (2007), The Body Beautiful (2007), Personality and Intelligence at Work (2008), Management Intelligence (2008), Dim Sum Management (2008), 50 Psychology Ideas you really need to know (2009), The Elephant in the Boardroom: The Psychology of Leadership Derailment (2010), People Management in Turbulent Times (2009), The Psychology of Personnel Selection (2010), Body Language in Business (2010), Bad Apples (2011), Leadership: Everything You Want to Know (2011), People Management in a Downturn (2011),The Talented Manager (2012), and The Engaging Manager (2012) – others are in preparation! Many of these books have been translated into foreign languages, including Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish.

Professor Furnham is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and is among the most productive psychologists in the world. He is on the editorial board of a number of international journals, as well as the past elected President of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences. Adrian has been a consultant to over 30 major international companies, with particular interests in top team development, management change performance management systems, psychometric testing and leadership derailment. He speaks regularly at academic and business conferences and is noted for his motivational speaking.

Adrian is also a newspaper columnist, previously at the Financial Times, now at the Sunday Times. He wrote regularly for the Daily Telegraph and is a regular contributor to national and international radio and television stations including the BBC, CNN, and ITV. More details in the latest ‘Who’s Who’.

Since 2007, Adrian has been nominated by HR magazine as one of the 20 Most Influential People in HR. He was nominated to the 3rd most influential thinker in 2015. He speaks regularly at academic, business and training conferences around the world being well known as approachable, well-informed and entertaining.