Today’s workers want more development opportunities. More than three quarters (76%) of Gen Z employees value learning and consider it essential for career success. This generation is more focused on career growth and learning than previous generations, but Millennials are not far behind. Gallup reports that six in ten Millennials want to see opportunities to learn and grow when they are browsing job postings. This group is also the most likely to leave their jobs faster than other generations if and when the job “stunts their growth.”

But it is not just young people who are looking for more. 92% of all job seekers prefer a company that provides learning and development opportunities over one that does not. The problem is that managers are not providing the development opportunities their employees want and the ones they do offer are missing the mark. 

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Our executive coaching services at JMA are designed for leaders already at a certain level of their career. That is when securing company sponsorship for a six-month (or more) executive coaching engagement makes the most sense. We have empowered many clients with the tools and strategies to make a compelling case for this transformative investment. 

But what if you aren’t at that level in your career yet, and you want more? 

Look in the Mirror

You should consider our virtual leadership workshops if any of the below scenarios apply to you:

  1. You tend to be reactive, stressed, overwhelmed, and take things personally. When you get home from work, you are exhausted because you are emotionally drained. You wish you could build resilience and be more effective at managing your day-to-day stressors. 
  2. You lack confidence and constantly second guess yourself. You may find it challenging to make powerful decisions or jump into group conversations to voice your opinions. You may feel like a fraud.
  3. You want to have more executive presence, and gravitas. You want to learn how to improve how you are perceived in the workplace by others and how you communicate with them. You want to have more impact and influence in your job. 
  4. You are a manager, but you want to level up your operational rigor. You could benefit from learning how to be more effective at aligning your teams, communicating requests, and dealing with individuals who fail to deliver. 
  5. You know you want to move up the ladder to be a leader, and you want to get the fundamentals down now. You need frameworks and tools so you can better understand where your gaps lie and how to close them to improve your performance. 
  6. You want more range in your communication. You want to listen with more discernment and listen more actively. 
  7. You find yourself in a bubble in your company. You want exposure to other leaders and their ideas. You want to understand the company’s other challenges outside of your circle, and you want to have a bigger picture view of your work and your impact. 
  8. You find yourself a victim of office politics, and you want to be more effective at handling those complicated situations. 
  9. You have recently been promoted from managing to leading, and you need guidance on how to effectively move people to action and drive results more quickly.
  10. You have recently been put on a performance improvement plan. 

It is likely you can relate to at least one or more of those scenarios if you take a hard look at yourself. But have you ever even thought to ask your supervisor or your Human Resources department for training and development in any of these areas? I have found that it is common for workers to feel too scared to ask for help or that they are unsure of how to make this request. Let me remedy this by explaining how to request sponsorship from your supervisor or HR partner to get what you need to succeed in your current job and secure success in your future. 

Understanding Your Employer’s Perspective

In a perfect world, this type of training and development would be available within your organization, but today’s leaders are under-resourced. They do not have the time to collaborate with you personally or to mentor you in the way that you deserve. 

It’s a win-win to outsource this type of training to a reputable company like ours who gets rave reviews and repeat clients. The leaders benefit from sending their employees to workshops because making an investment in their employees’ future leads to employee retention and more productive and cohesive teams. 

What Will You Get from our Leadership Workshops?

Here are some reasons why you should consider JMA’s leadership workshops to help you improve your performance:

  • Workshops require a limited amount of time, just two days in fact! 
  • The cost of our leadership workshops is a fraction of the cost of an executive coaching engagement. If you broke the material covered in the leadership workshops into individual coaching sessions, it would equate to over seventeen sessions or a $13,000 value. 
  • You will learn how to identify ways you are self-sabotaging yourself and bring your blind spots to light so that you can address them. 
  • You will receive deliverables and frameworks that you can use immediately to level up your performance. 
  • You will receive individualized feedback despite being in a group setting. 
  • You will participate in a supportive, safe environment. You can ask questions without identifying yourself and/or your company. 
  • You will learn how to make effective requests that boost accountability and spur action.
  • You will learn how to apologize in a manner that repairs relationships and rebuilds trust.
  • You will learn to make responsible complaints for quick corrective actions. 
  • You will learn how to have crucial conversations in a timely manner. 

These are not adjustments individuals are often able to make on their own, no matter how many self-help books they read or therapy sessions they attend. In fact, I often have workshop clients tell me that they learned more about themselves on the first day of the workshop than they did in several years of therapy. 

And the support does not end after the two-day workshop. You also get:

  • Results from a 20-minute online assessment taken before the workshops to uncover your blind spots.
  • 15 short, educational videos with handouts sent daily to deepen your learning of the MindMastery® framework.
  • Access to two different apps for daily use to reinforce what you learned in the workshops and practice it in real life. You do not even have to remember to do the work – the apps will tell you when it is time! 

Emotional Intelligence is Within Your Grasp

Our leadership workshops are as relative for a C-suite player as a new manager. They are applicable to everyone, because they build emotional intelligence including self-awareness and mindfulness, regardless of where you are in your career path. 

Once you are able to see how you are getting in the way of your own success, you will be empowered to shift out of a victim mentality of blaming others (your company, your supervisor) and feeling powerless. You will learn to take ownership of your performance (aka radical accountability) as well as become more effective at helping level up your own direct reports to build and drive a more effective team. 

We are the Experts

In addition to my 30 years of experience as an executive coach where I am privileged to be known as the “CEO whisperer,” I am also a Wall Street Journal best-selling author of Leading Lightly. I have personally conducted over 500 leadership workshops over the course of my career. That includes working with hundreds of clients from Fortune 100 companies as well as thousands of mid to small business employees – all while retaining a 4.8 star rating on Trustpilot for our workshops with over 150 reviews. 

Here is just a small sampling of the companies I’ve worked with for leadership workshops (you can see even more on our website):

  • Affirm, Inc.
  • Baird
  • Encyclopedia Brittanica
  • Engrain
  • PayPal
  • Pinterest, Inc.
  • San Diego Symphony
  • Synovus
  • The Executive’s Club
  • And many more…

How to Ask for Support

Now that you are convinced you need to take our leadership workshops, how do you get buy-in from your supervisor or HR partner? I suggest having a live conversation, either in person or via video or phone, to make your case. You can send an initial email to ask for the conversation and outline your proposal, and of course, a follow up email to thank them for their time is always appreciated. 

I am not going to give you a script but rather provide a framework that you can use to make a compelling argument for company sponsorship of our workshops. 

Start with why you think you would benefit from the workshops:

  • Is there a problem that your supervisor or company wants to solve that is in alignment with what you will learn in the workshop? By presenting a problem and how the workshop acts as a solution, you are making their job easier. 
  • Has there been a performance issue? Or do you have a strong drive to perform at an even higher level? Those are easy areas to go to your boss with practical solutions. 
  • Have you always been an impressive individual contributor who has just been promoted to management? The workshops are a straightforward way to get you up to speed on what you need to know about managing others. 

Next, consider all the challenges that could get in the way. 

  • The top one will always be budget constraints. Typically, there’s not money for development until you make it to the C-suite. But this is a much less expensive ask. Could they spare a smaller amount for your development? It is powerful when individuals offer to pay for half of the workshop to show your company you have some skin in the game. And from my experience, when someone offers to pay for half, the company ends up paying for the entire cost. It is an even bigger win because you score points with them for even offering it. Even if you do have to pay for half, you will gain knowledge that you will take with you wherever you go in the future. Consider it is an investment in your career! 
  • Time is also a key factor. With our virtual workshops, it is still possible to work a half-day and participate. We host them mostly on back-to-back weekdays (i.e., Thursday/Friday) so it is easy to fit into a work week. 

Finally, make a strong connection with the ROI for the organization and you have made a compelling case for your workshop sponsorship. 

  • In just two days, you learn tangible strategies to drive results in teams, lead other individuals as well as yourself. 
  • You will become more self-aware, which benefits not only you but the entire organization. 
  • You will have on-going measurable support for your targeted growth and change with our apps that will provide the opportunity for continued performance improvement long past the initial workshop engagement.

Here is a framework for making your request:

  • Consider the timing of your request (e.g. fiscal year/budget constraints).
  • Research any company guidelines on employee training.
  • Craft your pitch and build your case. 
  • Practice your pitch and produce answers to questions and objections that may be thrown at you.

You also need to include all six components of making an effective request, which we detail in the first day of the leadership workshops. Effective requests are the foundation for working well together because they ensure that both parties understand one another. So, in your pitch make sure you include:

  1. A committed speaker — you are engaged and specific in your request.
  2. A committed listener — you ensure the individual you are asking is attentive and clear in their understanding of the request.
  3. Future action/conditions of satisfaction — you provide specific parameters of the request.
  4. Time frame —  you provide an expectation of completion/deadline.
  5. Mood/tenor — you set the tone appropriately (hint: this shouldn’t come off as a complaint!)
  6. Context —  you provide an explanation of how the request fits into the big picture.

If, for whatever reason, you feel like an email would be more effective, here is an example of an email that you can customize to fit your situation.

I have been reflecting on my professional growth and identifying areas where I can further develop my skills this year. In my search for effective development opportunities, I came across virtual leadership workshops offered by Jody Michael Associates that I believe would be highly beneficial for me.

JMA is a leader in executive coaching and leadership workshops, having conducted over 500 workshops with hundreds of Fortune 100 companies as well as thousands of mid to small business employees. Their virtual workshops are offered at a fraction of the cost of traditional executive coaching engagements, making it an excellent investment in professional development.

I am particularly interested in using these workshops to work on [insert specific skills or development areas]. I believe that participating in the workshops will provide me with the accountability, expert guidance, and support necessary to accelerate my growth in these areas.

The workshops I am considering are very robust and include two days with a live instructor plus an ample amount of support after the workshops are over, including a 2-week video series and access to two apps to deepen my learning. I am writing to inquire if the company would consider covering or subsidizing this cost to support my development journey. [Insert dollar amount or range of request]. I see this as an investment not only in my personal growth but also in enhancing our team’s capabilities and the value I can contribute to our projects.

If you need more information about JMA or would like to discuss the potential for financial support for this coaching, I would be happy to provide further details and discuss this in person.

Thank you for considering my request. I look forward to your thoughts.

Are you ready to move your career forward with our leadership workshops with support from your company? 

Learn more about Leadership Workshops