Winter Institute Workshop to Teach Key Competencies for Effective Leadership

Amanda Cebula

At next month’s Winter Institute, Amanda Cebula and Thomas Stanley of the Kansas Leadership Center will present the Leadership Workshop for Owners and Managers, which will introduce the key principles and competencies for developing leadership skills.

Cebula is the director of business development for the Kansas Leadership Center, and Stanley serves as the center’s director of business initiatives. Together, they will help program participants better understand the challenges facing their businesses and identify ways to make progress on these issues.

Thomas Stanley

The Kansas Leadership Center team led a successful session on the same topic at Winter Institute 11 in Denver and facilitated the event’s first-ever debrief.

The Leadership Workshop for Owners and Managers will be held ahead of the institute, on January 27 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis. The workshop is $125 per person and open to ABA member owners and managers only. Attendance at Winter Institute is not required to attend the workshop; however, booksellers must pre-register and space is limited.

Below, Cebula and Stanley provide insights about what booksellers will learn during the workshop.

Bookselling This Week: What aspects of leadership can booksellers expect to learn about during your presentation at Winter Institute?

Kansas Leadership Center: Booksellers can expect to learn key competencies for being an effective leader through diagnosing complex situations, managing themselves, energizing others around a common purpose, and intervening in skillful ways.

BTW: During the session, will booksellers have the opportunity to share practical business challenges and get feedback on how to navigate them?

KLC: Great leadership training focuses on you first. We will ask all participants to come with a leadership challenge to connect concept to real application. You will leave with clear ideas and next steps for applying the leadership competencies we discuss to your challenge.

BTW: How can leadership skills help booksellers as they take more prominent roles as leaders not just in their stores but also in their communities?

KLC: Bookstores have tremendous opportunities in engaging and mobilizing their communities by being a space for addressing and learning about tough challenges. This is where leadership skills are needed. For example, our local bookseller in Wichita [Watermark Books & Café] is constantly convening people and using its space for conversations that don’t take place anywhere else, using the medium of modern literature. The kind of leadership we will teach equips people to engage others around tough issues in their organization and in their community.

BTW: Once booksellers return to their stores after Winter Institute, how can they be proactive in applying the information they have learned?

KLC: An important part about exercising leadership is that it isn’t just a “one and done” kind of thing. You have to keep practicing and developing your skills. When returning home, one way to be proactive is to pick one or two of the leadership behaviors you would like to focus on and start there. This workshop will also provide additional resources, such as one-year access to Your Leadership Edge, which you can use to stay connected, continue applying the ideas, and hold yourself accountable.

BTW: Who will this session be most helpful for?

KLC: This session will be most helpful for anyone who feels there has to be a better way to move forward on the challenges they face and is looking for the types of tools, behaviors, and mindset shift to get there.

BTW: Which leadership skills did booksellers find to be the most important or effective following last year’s presentation at Winter Institute?

KLC: Ideas that the group last year found helpful included distinguishing the difference between leadership and authority, exploring adaptive challenges versus technical problems, and better understanding the activity of leadership.

Register now for the Winter Institute Leadership Workshop for Owners and Managers.