FUEL Leadership Series

Hosted by Rockhurst University

Why is this leadership development opportunity needed now?

Accelerated industry changes and chaotic disruptions are important reasons to embrace the business principles and leadership practices of The FUEL Leadership Series. They have timeless value, can drive quick results and are key to a strong culture. 

Leaders are the key to competitive advantage, and executive participants in the FUEL Leadership Series will strengthen their personal portfolio of leadership practices and will be positioned to achieve uncommon success. Our commitment to “all learn, all share” ensures that executive interaction on current issues of leadership will be impactful. 

The FUEL Leadership Series is constructed for you to build on your strengths and improve on areas of need. Participants will learn to build and execute strategic plans, understand the practices of sales professionals and strengthen their relationship skills.

  • Strategy

    Dwight Eisenhower famously said: “plans are useless, planning is essential.”

    We share strategic practices that prepare organizations to thrive in the midst of change.

  • Operational Effectiveness

    Mr. K’s COO, Jim McGraw, described leadership as: “getting the right things done on time, through people.”

    We help leaders determine the right things and get them executed on time, through people.

  • Principles

    Mr. K said: “if you care about people and have high expectations, they will live up to them.”

    These leadership principles have powerful, long-term benefits for performance and retention.

  • “The single most powerful form of competitive advantage comes from your people; what they do, and the commitment and skill with which they do it.’’

    Dave Pickhardt, FUEL Co-Founder

What you will take away from each session

Learn actionable ways to develop and execute winning strategies.

We have all experienced a planning process that ends with a plan that never gets touched again. One of Mr. K’s executive associates described plans as “BS, three-holed-punched.”

Our FUEL Leadership Series avoid this type of planning. Instead, we discuss approaches that have been proven to be quick, simple and easy to implement. We will focus on successful planning tools, such as:

  • Your customer-driven value discipline

  • Planning for drivers of change in your industry

  • Analytic tools for your market and portfolio product review

  • Addressing problem solving effectively to create winning strategies

  • Tactical innovation and strategic alignment audit

  • Approaches for leading your people through change

  • Organizational structure and strategy in support of your plan

  • Roles and responsibilities

Successful strategic planning is only the first step in reaching your business objectives.

Executing, or driving operational effectiveness, is the next critical action that an executive must take to reach the organization’s goals. The FUEL Leadership Series focuses on essential practices that are proven to execute strategic plans, such as:

  • Hiring and retaining best practices  

  • Powerful team leadership initiatives 

  • Onboarding best practices 

  • Engaging your team with purpose  

  • Achieving clarity of direction 

  • Conducting ongoing performance counseling that works for you and your team members 

  • Coaching for continuous improvement 

  • Awards and rewards for impact   

  • Maintaining consistent consequences 

There is a science around successful sales strategy and how to best conduct a sales or account management call. Whether you lead the sales team or not, you’ll benefit from understanding this area of business.

Through the FUEL Leadership Series, you’ll learn:

  • Myths and realities regarding sales, including the characteristics of the best sales professionals

  • How to choose the right sales strategy for your business, based on your product, service and/or customers

  • The 5 Essentials of successful selling:

    • Planning the call

    • Probing for goals and confirmation

    • Presenting goals

    • Identifying cues

    • What to do when the customer is moving toward the sale

    • What to do if the customer is moving away from the sale

  • When and how to close the sale

  • How to put pressure on the right objective

Build your relationship skills and enable collaboration among team members by focusing on everyone’s strengths.

  • Management by Strength (MBS) is a proprietary tool that will be a part of the FUEL Leadership Series. This will ensure individuals on your team are communicating and operating effectively together.

  • The core of MBS is developing your team members’ ability to understand their dominate temperament and communication styles.

  • The four temperaments you will learn to identify are all strengths, but vary from individual to individual in terms of their impact on what they value and how they manage relationships.

  • As a participant, you will be provided a very short questionnaire that will identify your strengths and how others can best communicate with you.

  • You will learn how the MBS tool is used to help individuals and teams work more effectively together and strengthen customer relationships.