Until Washington crossed the Delaware, the triumph of the old order seemed inevitable. Thereafter, things would never be the same again.
― David Hackett Fischer, Washington's Crossing
― David Hackett Fischer, Washington's Crossing
The Crossing
A suite of four two-day courses offered strategically throughout the year targeting the most important aspects of influence and leadership at every level of your organization.
Class 1
The Three Cs of Leadership: Competence, Character, & Conviction
No one ever woke up and asked themselves, “What does it take to be an average leader? What can I do today to be completely mediocre?” The course begins with the real question, the real objective of entire program: What does it take to be a great leader?
We offer the Three Cs of Leadership as the broad path towards great leadership: Character, competence, and conviction. Without the three Cs, credibility cannot be established. Without credibility, your words and deeds lack meaning and sincerity. At best, you will achieve compliance from employees. At worst, you will encounter open contempt and defiance leading to both individual and organizational failure. Conversely, credible leaders get more from their people than they ask. Employees feel valued and appreciated. Most importantly, employees are inspired beyond compliance to actual commitment to the organization.
We will discuss the three Cs from a wide variety of viewpoints offering new perspectives on age-old concepts. For example, should motivation be the leader’s main purpose or is there something more powerful? Does charisma add or detract from effective leadership? Do great leaders build power or give it away? Do followers want confidence or humility from their leaders? Just how important is authenticity, honesty, and integrity in the workplace? How important is your passion, enthusiasm, and vision? Through engaging facilitation and discussions, group breakouts and share-backs, presentation of latest research on a variety of relevant topics, and the use of real-life successes and failures, we discuss obstacles and paths to establish and sustain credibility with those who look to us for leadership.
Class 2
Expanding our Influence: Understanding Self, Others, and Context
The most effective and influential leaders lead different people and different situations differently. While no specific leadership formula or prescription exists, great leaders understand true influence best occurs with the confluence of the right leader behaviors given the needs of the follower in specific yet dynamic contexts. Understanding how each of us perceives our environment and our individual roles relative to that environment offers a powerful first step in expanding our leadership capacity. Learning to recognize the nuances of myriad contextual influences in the moment and developing the wisdom to know which leadership behaviors are best suited for that context offers a dramatic step two towards expanding our capacity for great leadership.
A significant component of this class is dedicated to the DISC Behavioral Model and subsequent self-assessment (the DISC 17 Behavioral Assessment) created by the CPLE International. DISC offers a unique way to look at people as a context. The strength of the model rests not only in its ability to measure and categorize observable behaviors and emotions but also in its capacity to provide the necessary information for each of us to exercise more flexibility with a variety of people and situations. If better communication, lessened conflict and tension, and significant expansion of your leadership and influence sounds valuable, you will love this highly enlightening, life-changing course. The newly released text, Perception: Understanding Human Connectivity thru the DISC Behavioral Model, will be provided to each student.
Class 3
Leading Individuals/Leading Teams
The most successful organizations have several characteristics in common. They have strong, engaged leadership at every level. They value the role of individual leadership but appreciate the power of teams and building alliances to accomplish great things. They are driven by a powerful and positive vision with an unyielding culture of excellence in all they do. They strive to only hire and promote honest, self-directed, self-motivated employees. And they never shy from the tough stuff required to possess these characteristics.
Over the course of two days, we will take a deeper dive into the tough stuff. What does one-on-one leadership really look like? How do we primarily lead – through our actions, through grand gestures and crisis, or through low-key conversations? Do we promote individual accomplishment or encourage a team attitude? We’ve been talking about team building for decades, but how do we lead teams as opposed to leading individuals? How do we communicate with one another? How do we have crucial and critical conversations with those who look to us for leadership. As leadership is multi-directional, we lead not only down but sideways and up as well, how do we positively influence toxic leaders above us? How do we promote esprit de corps in our agencies? How do we instill discipline and accountability in our organizations while stirring innovation, creativity, and enthusiasm? Through a variety of teaching methods from facilitation to group work to role-playing, this course promises to add real-world, practical value to your leadership journey.
Class 4
Decision Point: Ethics, Morality, and Decision Making
From peaceful protests to violent riots to the psychological, political, and financial uncertainties from the Covid-19 epidemic, 2020 has been a year in turmoil. The voice for racial equality has never been louder. Rarely have we seen this level of conflict in our communities. The need for police agencies and their communities to come together has never been greater. And that means open communication, greater respect and appreciation of one another, and better education on all sides of the issues.
The push of late, clearly highlighted in 2020, has been for greater police training in "de-escalation" techniques. No doubt each of us could find benefit in learning how to better control our emotions, slow down a bit before making critical decisions, and use better communication techniques to defuse conflict. Yet, with every new course and technique that comes out, we get further from the truth, further from the root answer. If we truly want equality and fairness across our criminal justice system, we need to look no further than what we have known for thousands of years. Do the right thing. Sure, this may be oversimplifying a very complex challenge. But, we are convinced when everyone involved in tense conflict, even those situations that are highly volatile, makes choices from a starting position of “I want to do the right thing by everyone involved,” de-escalation and substantive progress has a real chance.
The problem is we all look at the world with different lens and have different baggage (experiences, cultures, demographics, influences, advocates, loyalties) informing these lenses. Even if we start with Doing the Right Thing as our compass, we often do not know what the right thing to do is.
In this two-day course, students receive Decision Point: Real-life Ethical Dilemmas in Law Enforcement, a textbook of sorts comprising 27 real-life scenarios and outcomes sure to help each of us better recognize, appreciate, and ultimately address the many considerations and consequences (intended and unintended) surrounding moral choices faced by the police officers every day. This is not your grandfather’s ethics class with boring theory and models of limited real-world value. We will look at the use of force, constitutional issues surrounding the 1st and 4th Amendment, loyalty and duty, discretion, diversity and discrimination, leadership, and so many other topics…all in the context of making moral choices towards strengthening relationships with our communities. Taught primarily through story-telling and real-life ethical challenges, this class promises to be both practical and engaging culminating with mechanisms and thought processes to help you make the best decisions possible in today’s divisive and dynamic climate.
Audience
The courses are designed for anyone in your agency who influences others.
Costs
The CPLE understands most of our participants represent public safety organizations with limited budgets and resources and a strong commitment to a sense of fiscal responsibility to their communities.
We organize our classes around two models or a combination of the two.
- Model 1 is based on individual registrations. The CPLE and host agency offer the program with open registration. Individual student tuition is $395.00 for each course.
- Model 2 is the single contract. An organization, association, or local, state, or federal government agency contracts with the CPLE to fund the event. The fixed rate is $345.00 per student for each course.
Individual Registration (Model 1)
If you are interested in hosting the program, please email us at info@cpleinternational.org, and together we'll decide which of the two models represents your best interest.
If you're interested in attending an open-enrollment course listed below, reach out to pre-register for the event. Once the course has reached the minimum number of attendees, you will receive an email from the CPLE stating the course status has moved from
Class - Tentative to Class - Confirmed.
You will be asked to submit payment at that time to complete the registration process.
As a nonprofit organization, we prefer checks as opposed to credit/purchase cards to avoid associated fees. However, we understand purchase cards are preferred by many individuals and agencies, which is perfectly acceptable. If you are able to submit payment via check, our mailing address is:
CPLE International
4080 Monticello Avenue
Suite 18-1 #126
Williamsburg, Virginia 23188
If you choose to pay via purchase or credit card, please select the Pricing & Registration button below.
Our secure, online registration process allows for easy payment. You will receive a confirmation email upon final completion of the registration.
* Please do not pay by check or card until you have received an email from the CPLE
confirming the course status as Class - Confirmed.
