Leadership and Management

AI is increasingly shaping how work gets done on teams, often through informal or uneven use, without shared expectations to rely on. When that happens, teams begin developing “shadow standards”: unspoken assumptions about what’s acceptable, what’s smart, and what’s risky. Over time, this can create team-level strain through misaligned quality, uneven behaviour, reduced visibility, and the quiet erosion of professional trust and confidence. This workshop helps people leaders replace that uncertainty with team-level leadership judgment. You will learn how to notice when expectations have become blurred, diagnose whether leadership clarity is actually required, and make consistent, defensible calls using PMC’s LENS decision lens.  Rather than waiting for perfect organizational guidance, you will clarify how existing expectations apply to your team’s AI use. You will draft 2-3 practical team guardrails you can reasonably stand behind as a leader, and you will choose a defensible leadership position for how visible that clarity needs to be right now—whether it should be held, reinforced informally, or supported through a focused conversation. By the end of the session, you will leave with a repeatable method to reduce team-level uncertainty and strengthen trust, fairness, and consistency in how AI is used—without relying on policy work, technical expertise, or escalation.

Managers often step in because it feels faster, safer, and more reliable than waiting for someone else to think it through. But when the same questions, errors, and follow-through issues keep coming back, quick fixes start creating more work. This course helps managers and supervisors use coaching conversations to build stronger employee ownership, judgment, and follow-through. Participants learn when to coach, when to give direction, how to guide thinking without taking over, and how to turn conversations into clear next steps. With better coaching habits, employees become more confident in handling real work situations, while managers spend less time solving the same problems again.

Of all the key competencies for supervisors and managers, two of the most important are learning to manage individual performance on a daily basis and learning to delegate. Both represent difficult learning curves. Without mastering delegation, it is impossible to expand your range of responsibility, to empower others or to grow into your role and responsibilities. For many, it is a difficult transition from being paid for doing it yourself to getting the work done through others. Delegation is a critical skill to assist time-starved supervisors and managers in becoming more effective for themselves, their teams and their organizations. This course offers a mix of self-awareness, guidance, skills, ideas, tools and methods to master this critical competence.

Influence is a key skill that is necessary for having impact on organizations and communities, especially when you do not have formal authority. Being a leader means sharing your ideas and taking action, regardless of your position or title. This session focuses on how participants can have a positive influence on their personal and professional communities without depending on authority or organizational hierarchy.  Instead of considering influence to be a process of “persuading others”, this session focuses on building 5 key leadership qualities that will positively impact those you work and socialize with. Participants will learn communication strategies to improve influence. This session also includes a social styles assessment to help participants learn how to leverage their strengths. Even when in a formal leadership role, influence can motivate, engage and empower others, rather than relying on giving orders or using formal ‘power’. Instead of presenting traditional approaches to influence such as ‘networking’ or ‘ being persuasive’, this session focuses on authentic leadership, building relationships,  effective communication, connecting ideas to organizational values, and being a leadership role model. Myths around influence as applying pressure, manipulation, or requiring a social media presence will be dispelled. Participants will have the opportunity to develop communication skills, craft a vision statement, and create an action plan for making an influence in their community.

It is seldom easy to assume a position of authority over those who have previously been your colleagues and peers. This workshop will help you address the challenges and difficulties of making the transition from co-worker to boss. You’ll learn tools and techniques to achieve a balance between your existing relationships with co-workers and the requirements of the new management role. The workshop is interactive and fun, making use of case studies and role play.

Leadership and management are some of the most challenging roles in work and business. Leaders strive to achieve results while effectively leveraging the skills and talents of their teams. In today’s workplace it is critical to recognize that people bring both their minds and their emotions to work and the reality is that emotions drive performance. The research is clear—leaders who have higher levels of emotional intelligence create positive work environments, generate higher levels of employee engagement, deliver higher performance, manage change better and experience less work-based stress. This course considers the impact of emotional intelligence (EQ) on leadership and organizations. It presents research that supports the business case for EQ in the workplace. Participants will be introduced to key concepts of EQ and self-evaluate their current leadership style, identifying areas of strengths and opportunities for development. Participants will build knowledge and skills related to self-awareness and self-regulation and how to be emotionally intelligent leaders. The second half of the course will focus on how to use EQ to motivate teams and implement practical strategies for organizations.

This two-day workshop will provide you with an overview of how to understand financial information without requiring an in-depth knowledge of math, bookkeeping, or accounting practices. In addition to providing the basics of financial statements, you will also learn how financial information can support financial management objectives and decision-making. You will receive practical tips on how to analyze reports and data to identify key elements to provide a clearer picture of your business to highlight your financial position and identify financial areas requiring your attention. You will gain insight to better evaluate the information you are receiving from your financial data.

In today’s workplace, training has taken on a broader role as more employees are now responsible for, or taking on the challenge of, training others within their department or organization. Recognizing that training and education is one of the key components to any organization’s success, whether you are providing new hire orientation, transferring knowledge or skills, or training a group of employees on a specific subject, some basic learning principles will apply. That’s where we come in. By guiding you through the ins and outs, the tips and tricks, and the do’s and don’ts of training others, we will help you to provide an effective and positive learning experience. This one-day course provides an essential tool-kit to help you acquire the underlying skills of an effective trainer. We will help you understand the learning and training fundamentals, and review the tools and techniques in designing and delivering training that will guarantee positive results from your audience. You will also learn how to evaluate your training effectiveness, while receiving practical feedback on how to improve and hone your training skills.

Supervisors make constant decisions all day long about when to step in, what to say, and how to respond when work or behaviour starts to slip. When these moments are handled inconsistently or too late, issues linger, expectations become unclear, and teams end up dealing with avoidable rework and frustration. This supervisor training course is built around PMC Training’s 3-Zone framework, a practical approach to everyday supervision that helps managers set work up clearly, adjust performance issues while they’re still recoverable, and reset missed standards when needed. It gives supervisors a simple way to decide when to coach, when to give feedback, and when to take more direct action. As a result, teams work with clearer expectations, stronger accountability, and fewer unresolved issues. It also helps your organization apply standards more consistently, fairly, and promptly in a way that supports stronger performance and team morale.

Stepping into management changes more than your responsibilities. It changes how people interpret your actions, how standards need to be applied, and how often you find yourself needing to address issues you may have previously overlooked, tolerated, or left to someone else.  This course uses PMC Training’s Four Shifts framework to help new and experienced managers lead more consistently across role, relationship, communication, and routine. Participants learn how to communicate more clearly, apply expectations fairly, navigate changing team dynamics, and build the structure that supports team accountability.  The result is a steadier approach that strengthens trust, visible fairness, and day-to-day performance for both the manager and the organization.

More and more organizations are faced with the challenge of maximizing the time they spend attracting, inspiring and retaining top performers. That’s why the interview itself is such a critical step in the employee selection process. Quoting Dr. Paul Green, a pioneer in developing behavioural interviewing processes: “past actions predict future performance.”  Behavioural interviewing focuses on the applicant’s past actions and behaviors, and not subjective impressions that can sometimes be misleading. This type of interviewing improves your organization’s overall hiring ROI (cost of hire or re‐hire, training and productivity costs, impact on morale, etc.) and competitive edge in today’s market. It also reduces risk in potential bias and is more legally defensible than any other type of interview. This one-day workshop provides a comprehensive guide to understanding and incorporating behavioural interviewing techniques to identify, hire and retain quality talent every time.

Organizations perform at their peak when the Vision, Values and individual Needs (for autonomy, respect, appreciation and contribution) of their people are agreed upon and met. This enables individuals to flourish within the organization to come together as a team united in a shared group identity. It can be achieved with an agreed purpose and direction based on a set of common values and behaviors. Individuals are inspired then to take personal responsibility to unleash their creative talent in harmony to meet the objectives and goals of the organization.

Most people hate performance appraisals. They think they are a waste of time and just try to get them over with. At their worst they can demoralize staff and damage relationships. It doesn’t have to be that way. When done right, PA’s are an enabling tool that operates at the center of your management practices. They help to recognize and reward staff. They set operational and competency development directions for the coming year. They serve as the framework for coaching, mentoring and feedback throughout the year. When done right, they save time, add value and create accountability in all the right places. 

Courage is like a muscle; the more you use it the stronger it grows. Although some may have an aptitude for it, anyone can learn to be courageous. Being courageous can take various forms, including: not shying away from uncomfortable situations, encouraging rather than stifling creativity among those around you, and a willingness to take calculated risks and decisions and stand by them. Demonstrating courage can fast track your career. It’s not always easy to be a courageous leader, but usually a leader like this will be remembered with admiration and respect. At this workshop, you’ll gain an understanding the qualities of courageous leadership, and learn how to apply and implement them – regardless of your position or role. This workshop is highly interactive, designed to engage participants through meaningful discussions, real-life scenarios, and shared experiences to maximize learning and impact.

As human beings, we often hunger for feedback. However, many people will tell you that when they do get feedback, it’s often because of something they have done wrong. This one day course is designed to help workplace leaders learn how to provide feedback any time that the message is due. Whether feedback is formal or informal, and whether it is provided to employees, peers, or someone else, there are ways that it can be structured to be effective and lasting. This course will help participants learn why the way we deliver is feedback is important, how to deliver a message so that people accept it and make changes that may be needed, and how to accept feedback that we are offered.

In this one-day training workshop, you will learn accountability strategies that will help you, and your team, stay on track to achieve results. Participants will have an opportunity to explore the impact that accountability has on employee engagement.  This hands on workshop will discuss the value of ownership, and will discuss methods on how to self-realize your full potential.  Attendees will have a chance to discuss successful methods to motivate, recognize, and collaborate as a team to achieve responsibility and accountability in the workplace.

In the current work environment, most employees are dealing with a lot of uncertainty and change, with a subsequent negative impact on productivity and job satisfaction.  This two-day course will help you to recognize the importance of being a more positive model as a leader in order to have more engaged employees.

Managers’ report they would rather lead an all-remote team or an all in-person team. Organization, alignment, team building, decision making, information sharing, collaboration and more are just more difficult in a hybrid world. But it doesn’t have to be that way! This course will give you the tools you need to successfully lead in a hybrid world.

How do you manage a poor performer? What do you do if your feedback is ignored? How do you manage an individual who seems to lack a work ethic? How do you define the shortfall in an individual’s performance? How do you ensure that any positive change in work performance is permanent and lasting? This workshop gives you practical help and guides through a collaborative process that will produce many lasting benefits. Interactive and fun, you’ll learn a motivational style that you can practice in a risk-free setting.

Learn how to successfully lead and manage individuals and teams who work in different locations. Acquire the tools, skills and methodologies that will help you to overcome the significant obstacles that are created by working in this way. The result is high performing teams that are highly aligned around shared purpose, processes and culture.

This course introduces new managers and supervisors to the skills needed to lead their teams effectively and in addition to meet the expectations of senior management. Many new supervisors and managers achieve their success on the basis of their technical or operational merit but then need to achieve superior results through others. This training is designed to help you to make this important transition. The course is interactive and participative. The practical exercises are designed to help you to transfer the learning you gain during the course, back to the workplace.

This program builds on the core management knowledge, skills and attitudes acquired in Part One. It delivers the additional tools you need to thrive in the hectic, demanding and change-centric environment currently dominating public, private and nonprofit organizations worldwide. Your workshop draws on cutting edge research and real-world experiences to deliver practical solutions to complex challenges and opportunities facing leaders at all levels today. The engaging learning environment relies on an interactive dialogue and activities-based approach. It will have you contribute your insights, gathering tactics from a diverse range of colleagues and picking up transformative concepts from the material and facilitator.

Being a Manager/Leader is a challenging, complex, risky yet a rewarding endeavor.   Staying grounded through the daily storms of uncertain, ambiguous and emotionally draining situations can be stressful.   Being calm and collected through a typical volatile day requires a person to manage self and emotions by gaining space to put things in perspective – to keep a focus on the rational and logical – to get things done.  That is where the time-tested practice of mindfulness is important.  Centering attention in the present moment with a focus on the breath has been around for thousands of years – now being validated through neuroscience for its effectiveness on clarity of the mind, for health and well-being.  This will help manage stress levels for leaders think, feel, act, relate, perform, lead and collaborate by evolving safe and inclusive spaces for people to perform.   Many organizations are investing in mindfulness training programs for their managers and leaders to mitigate stress, gain mental clarity, and improve their decision-making and performance. This interactive workshop, facilitated by a long-term mindfulness and martial arts practitioner, will include breath-centered practice sessions that are put into context through the five virtues of great leaders.  You will learn how to practically apply mindfulness tools to have an impactful leadership style to create psychological safety within the organization for diverse people to perform as a team, make difficult decisions and inspire people to action.   The program is designed to provide the foundation for creating lasting personal change towards being a self-aware, courageous and authentic leader.

Encouraging individuals to achieve their highest potential can be a challenging endeavor. Effectively managing for peak performance involves mastering the art of creating an environment where motivation thrives and individuals exceed their own expectations. This comprehensive one-day workshop is designed to equip you with essential skills and strategies to achieve just that.

This interactive workshop provides an opportunity to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of your team, and discover the key ingredients of a winning team. You’ll learn how to analyze key issues of performance and behaviour, and to coach team members using a disciplined approach that builds on shared understanding and agreement on objectives. You’ll come away with a personal action plan for making your own team stronger and more productive.

If you and the people who work with you don’t understand where the company is going, they may all develop their own priorities and actually prevent you from getting where you need to be. Part of getting everyone on board is creating a strategic plan complete with the organization’s values, vision, and mission. Then, there’s the challenge of bringing these principles to life in a meaningful way that people can relate to. This two-day course will help you describe what you want to do and get people where you want to go.

Managing the succession of talent in your workplace is a vital strategic process that minimizes gaps in leadership, ensures the continuity of corporate knowledge, and enables your people to develop the skills necessary for possible future roles. This interactive workshop will show you how to design and implement an effective and flexible succession plan that will help your organization continue to grow and achieve its business goals.

Most people who call themselves trainers today probably didn’t start out to be trainers. They often work in a field where they develop extensive knowledge and then are asked to share what they know. Many trainers have some experience with teaching, writing, or leadership, although they come from nearly every field. As such, people who work as trainers are often put into difficult situations without much understanding of what training is or how to do it well. We know that being a good trainer is the result of developing skills to bring information to an audience. This information will then engage, empower, and encourage continued learning and development. This three-day course will give you the skills that you need so that your students not only learn, but also enjoy the process, retain information shared, and use their new skills back in the workplace. Participants will also have the opportunity to conduct a short group training session that incorporates these training concepts.

Values and ethics are part of our daily decisions and choices at work.  Yet, how often do we take the time to consider these in a meaningful way?  Studies show that a strong ethical workplace culture creates a high performing organization, where employees are motivated and engaged, and where leadership is clear and aligned.  With 67% of working Canadians not fully engaged in their work, this course aims to explore the connection between individual and organizational values, and employee engagement levels within the workplace. This 2-day course begins with a self-assessment into existing values, and how these might be demonstrated within the workplace.  Values will also be considered in the context of the organization as a whole, and how personal and organizational values can be aligned.  Real-life ethical dilemmas and solutions will be explored, key research results will be discussed, and tools and practical information will be provided as participants identify their own ethical boundaries, and practice how to navigate these in situations where there may be a conflict.

Strong employee onboarding and orientation practices have become an expectation of new hires and the message is clear: first impressions matter. The purpose of this program is to get comfortable with effective onboarding practices. Recognizing that many teams now work remotely, this program explores both in-person and virtual onboarding and orientation solutions.  Participants of this workshop will be well equipped to “wow” new hires, helping them achieve immediate results. By reviewing an onboarding basics model, learners will recognize the necessary steps required before a new team member’s first day.

Our lives are becoming ever more complex. We seem to have more to do and never enough time to do it all. We have practically unlimited real time connectivity, and an expectation that we are contactable 24/7. Much of what is put in place to make our work environment better actually has the opposite effect and adds even more complexity to our workday: Endless initiatives to help us do more with less IT systems that we need to spend time learning how to use, before they will help us Policies, procedures, regulations and legislation to keep us safe, secure and consistent We find ourselves making more decisions, about more things, with not a lack of information, but with too much information. Emails, news feeds, updates, phone calls, interruptions, the need to search for files, facts and information, and meetings, all contribute to the complexity of our work life. With all of this, how much of our day is truly productive? What can we do? The answer, while it may seem counter-intuitive, is simplification. Do less to achieve more, slow down to go faster. This workshop will be highly practical. It will involve drawing on experiences, issues and positive examples from your place of work. You will build your own personal 8-point action plan that you take away and start to work with immediately. The techniques we will cover in this workshop are equally applicable in your home and work environments.