A ten session program
for your rising leaders.
Most leadership development arrives about two years late. Somebody gets promoted, struggles for a while, and then gets sent to a class on delegation. The people worth investing in are already visible long before that, doing good work quietly and waiting for permission that is not coming.
This is a ten session curriculum for that window. It is free, it is written so the person running the cohort can be a participant rather than an expert, and it is built around the individual rather than the org chart, which is why it works in a room where everybody comes from a different employer.
Where this comes from. Chris Sund is a keynote speaker and the bestselling author of You Are Capable of More. He was named to the Midlands Business Journal 40 Under 40, went through the Greater Omaha Chamber’s CODE program for chief executives, has run its young professionals workshop, and has spent fifteen years promoting people into their first leadership roles and watching what makes that go well or badly.
Seen On
Chris has taken this material onto morning television in seven markets, and writes for Forbes and Inc.
What this is
not.
This is one half of an emerging leader program. It is worth being clear about which half.
Nothing here covers running a one on one, writing a performance review, or handling a corrective action. Those are teachable in an afternoon and most programs already do them. This is the part underneath, and it is the part that usually gets skipped.
Chambers already do the connective part better than anyone. This gives a cohort something to actually work on together, so the relationships form around something real instead of a name tag.
Nobody grows into a leader in a conference room. The program works when participants have something at their job they are genuinely trying to move, and it stalls when they do not.
No license, no per participant fee, no certification. Print it and run it. That matters most for the chamber program with a hundred dollar tuition and the employer with no development budget at all.
The four that hit
hardest early.
There are ten concepts. If you only have four sessions, or you want to know what is doing the heavy lifting, it is these.
Own It. Every Day.
Early career is where the habit of explaining gets formed. The territory was bad, the manager was disorganized, the process is broken. Every one of those can be true and none of them move anything. The people who get promoted young are almost always the ones who found the part that was theirs and worked on it while everyone else was building a case.
This is the first session for a reason. It sets the standard the rest of the cohort runs on.
Read the concept →Train Your Inner Voice
Rooms full of high performers in their late twenties and thirties are also rooms full of people quietly convinced they got lucky and someone is going to notice. It rarely gets said out loud, which is exactly why it keeps working on them.
This session is usually the one people remember two years later. Run it after the group has been together long enough to be honest, not on night one.
Read the concept →Lead Before You Are Asked
The central idea of the whole program. Leadership is not conferred at a promotion, it is built out of promises kept to yourself when nobody is checking. It reframes the wait that most emerging leaders are stuck in, which is waiting to be chosen.
Pair this one with something the participant actually commits to in front of the group. The commitment is what makes the session work.
Read the concept →Finish What You Start
Cohorts die around week four. So do the personal projects everyone announced in week one. That is not a coincidence and it is not a character flaw, it is the predictable point where the excitement runs out and the work is still there.
Running this concept in the middle of the program, rather than at the end, is the single best thing you can do for completion rates.
Read the concept →Ten sessions,
in order.
One concept per session, weekly or monthly. The order matters more than the pace, because each movement depends on the one before it.
Own It. Every Day.
Responsibility as the starting line. Separating the true reason from the part that is actually yours to move.
The FoundationTime Is Your Edge
Where the week actually goes. Being present versus being available, and what that costs at home.
The FoundationThe Comfort Ceiling
The point where a person stops being challenged and starts calling it stability. Most cohorts have two or three people sitting on one.
The BreakthroughTrain Your Inner Voice
What people put after the words I am, and how much of a career gets decided by it.
The BreakthroughRelentless Improvement
Correcting drift sooner. Getting better as a series of adjustments rather than one big decision.
The BreakthroughSeek Truth. Not Praise.
Asking for feedback in a way that produces something usable, and hearing it without defending. The session that changes how the cohort talks to each other.
The BreakthroughUnlock Your Hidden Gear
The gap between current output and actual capability. Usually not effort, usually a sentence somebody decided about themselves years ago.
The StandardLead Before You Are Asked
Leading yourself first. Confidence built from kept promises rather than from a title arriving.
The StandardFinish What You Start
Week four, and what to do when the excitement is gone and the commitment is still on the table.
The StandardLeave People Better
The close. Success versus significance, and what the whole program was actually for. The strongest final night there is.
The PurposeThe Eleventh Session
The ten week guide includes a closing session most groups skip. Do not skip it. It is where people report on what actually changed, and a cohort that ends on a summary feels like a class while a cohort that ends on evidence feels like something that happened to them.
Five formats,
five calendars.
The same ten concepts at different depths. Start with whatever your group will realistically show up for.
The 10-Week Program
The full cohort version, and the right default for an emerging leader program. One concept a week with real life in between, so participants try something at work and report back out loud to the group.
Works for: a chamber leadership class, an employer high potential cohort, a rotational program, or a young professionals council with a real commitment level.
Open the Guide →The Book Club Guide
The lighter monthly version. One concept per session, written so a different participant can lead each month, which is itself part of the development.
Works for: a cohort that meets monthly over a program year, or a YP group that wants ten months of programming solved at once. Everyone needs a copy of the book.
Download the Guide →The Workshop
One concept worked properly. A question on the board, silent reflection, tables of four, and the cohort deciding together what it will change. The best single session you can run.
Works for: one meeting of a leadership class, a YP council with a real time slot, or a cohort session where you want the room working rather than listening.
Open the Guide →The Boot Camp
All ten concepts in a single day, each running the same loop of teach, reflect, discuss, decide. Participants leave with a written plan rather than a folder.
Works for: the opening retreat of a leadership class, a summer intern or new graduate cohort, or a one day academy where you get people once.
Open the Guide →The Lunch and Learn
The smallest complete version. All ten at about five minutes each, with a run of show and the exact question to ask. Nobody needs to have read the book, including the person running it.
Works for: a YP council lunch, a recruiting or preview event for next year’s cohort, or a single slot at a chamber event.
Open the Guide →Running a cohort
that finishes.
What Separates the Programs That Work
Mixed employers beat single employers. People are more honest about their manager, their ceiling, and their doubts in a room where nobody reports to anybody. If you are a chamber, this is your structural advantage over any internal program and you should say so.
Get the sponsoring manager to agree out loud. The fastest way to kill a cohort is a supervisor who approved the application and then schedules over every session. Ask for a yes on the calendar, not on the form.
Everyone commits to one thing, with a date. Not goals. One specific promise per person, said in front of the group, revisited at every session. The Promise tool does exactly this and takes four minutes.
Do not let it become a speaker series. Guest speakers are easy to book and easy to sit through. A cohort that watches ten presentations has been entertained. A cohort that had to answer a hard question in front of eleven peers, ten times, has been changed.
Name the drop-off before it happens. Tell them in session one that attendance dips around week four and that you are telling them now so they notice it in themselves. It is a small thing and it works.
Confidence is not built in the big moments. It is built in the promises you keep to yourself.
Or bring Chris
to the cohort.
Program kickoffs, graduation nights, chamber annual meetings, and full facilitated days. Bulk copies can be paired with a keynote so every participant leaves with the material the program runs on.
Bring Chris In
The keynote, a facilitated opening day, or bulk copies for a leadership class.
Start a Conversation →Choose Your Sessions
Six sessions instead of ten, or four for a shorter academy. Pick the concepts and get a running order.
Build It →For New Managers
The version written for people who already have the title and got it recently.
See the Page →The Assessment
Twenty five questions, scored, nothing sent anywhere. A strong session one opener and a good thing to repeat at the end.
Take It →
When I’ve got something worth sending.
Just a story or an idea I picked up that I think will help you.
Sometimes that’s twice in a month. Sometimes it’s not for a while.