effective leadership in public service
15 Years of Praise
6 cornerstone benefits
2 Day Training Agenda
Your American Facilitator
How’s it’s Different
High-performing agencies don’t rely on compliance alone—they cultivate cultures where officers are supported, challenged, and inspired to serve at their best. This 2-day program equips public sector leaders with the psychology, tools, and presence to build those cultures of excellence.
Officers today seek growth, meaning, and leaders who bring out their best. Without inspiration, agencies risk disengagement, attrition, and stagnant performance.Leaders who balance challenge with support become magnets for talent and drivers of lasting impact.
10 Benefits
2 DAYS - 8 benefits
Learn Strategies to raise performance while strengthening trust and engagement.
Deploy new skills to stretch officers without eroding morale or safety.
Gain new tools to motivate through transformation and uncertainty.
Leverage on frameworks to help break performance plateaus.
Motivate officers beyond compliance.
Reclaim performance lost to disengagement.
Build agency cultures that sustain excellence.
Strengthen your own leadership impact and career trajectory.
2 Day Training Agenda
Training Day 1
Day 1
MASTERING INDIVIDUAL MOTIVATION AND CHALLENGE
Morning Session (9:00 AM – 12:00 PM)
Module 1: Advanced Motivation Psychology and Individual Differences (75 minutes)
Learning Objectives:
• Master the complete spectrum of human motivation drivers
• Understand personality types and their response to different challenge approaches
• Learn to identify hidden barriers to performance and motivation
• Develop sophisticated ability to match challenge style to individual psychology
Activities:
• Comprehensive Motivation Assessment: Deep-dive into what drives each team member
• Personality and Challenge Matrix: Map optimal challenge approaches by type
• Barrier Identification Workshop: Uncover hidden obstacles to performance
• Individualized Strategy Development: Create person-specific challenge approaches
Module 2: Reading Organizational and Cultural Context (45 minutes)
Learning Objectives:
• Understand how organizational culture affects response to challenge
• Navigate political dynamics when raising performance standards
• Recognize systemic barriers that limit performance elevation
• Learn to work within constraints while still inspiring excellence
Activities:
• Cultural Assessment Exercise: Evaluate organizational readiness for higher standards
• Political Mapping Workshop: Identify stakeholders and influence patterns
• Systemic Barrier Analysis: Recognize and address structural obstacles
• Constraint Navigation Practice: Inspire excellence within limitations
Afternoon Session (1:00 PM – 5:00 PM)
Module 3: Advanced Challenge and Feedback Techniques (90 minutes)
Learning Objectives:
• Master sophisticated feedback delivery that challenges and supports simultaneously
• Learn to address performance issues that inspire rather than deflate
• Develop skills in challenging high performers to even greater excellence
• Practice giving feedback that creates breakthrough moments
Activities:
• Advanced Feedback Laboratory: Practice complex performance conversations
• High Performer Challenge Workshop: Elevate already excellent performers
• Breakthrough Conversation Practice: Create moments of insight and commitment
• Difficult Performance Issue Navigation: Handle serious challenges supportively
Module 4: Designing Transformational Development Experiences (90 minutes)
Learning Objectives:
• Create stretch assignments that naturally elevate capabilities
• Design learning experiences that build confidence while increasing challenge
• Learn to use failure and setbacks as growth opportunities
• Master the art of progressive skill building
Activities:
• Stretch Assignment Design: Create development opportunities that challenge appropriately
• Confidence Building Workshop: Structure experiences that build capability and belief
• Failure Recovery Practice: Turn setbacks into growth opportunities
• Progressive Development Planning: Build systematic skill elevation pathways
Training Day 2
Day 2
TEAM DYNAMICS AND SUSTAINABLE CULTURE CHANGE
Morning Session (9:00 AM – 12:00 PM)
Module 5: Team Performance Elevation Strategies (75 minutes)
Learning Objectives:
• Learn to challenge entire teams while maintaining psychological safety
• Create healthy competition that elevates rather than divides
• Master group dynamics that inspire collective excellence
• Develop skills in managing diverse motivation levels within teams
Activities:
• Team Challenge Design Workshop: Elevate group performance collectively
• Healthy Competition Creation: Design systems that inspire without dividing
• Group Dynamics Management: Handle varied motivation and performance levels
• Collective Excellence Practice: Build team identity around high performance
Module 6: Resistance, Reluctance, and Difficult Conversations (45 minutes)
Learning Objectives:
• Navigate pushback to higher standards with skill and patience
• Handle excuses and avoidance behaviors constructively
• Learn to work with people who resist being challenged
• Develop persistence strategies that maintain relationships
Activities:
• Resistance Navigation Laboratory: Practice handling pushback to higher standards
• Excuse and Avoidance Workshop: Address common forms of performance resistance
• Difficult Person Strategies: Work with those who resist challenge
• Persistence Practice: Maintain challenge without damaging relationships
Afternoon Session (1:00 PM – 5:00 PM)
Module 7: Creating Sustainable Cultures of Excellence (90 minutes)
Learning Objectives:
• Build organizational systems that naturally inspire higher performance
• Create peer accountability that maintains high standards
• Learn to institutionalize challenge and inspiration
• Develop leadership pipeline that perpetuates excellence culture
Activities:
• Culture Architecture Workshop: Design systems that inspire excellence naturally
• Peer Accountability Creation: Build lateral challenge and support systems
• Leadership Development Design: Create pipeline of leaders who challenge and inspire
• Institutionalization Strategy: Make high performance the organizational norm
Module 8: Advanced Leadership Presence and Authentic Authority (60 minutes)
Learning Objectives:
• Develop the personal presence that makes challenge feel like investment
• Build authentic authority that people want to respond to
• Learn to embody the standards you’re asking others to meet
• Master the energy and communication style that naturally inspires
Activities:
• Presence Development Workshop: Build the gravitas that makes challenge inspiring
• Authentic Authority Practice: Develop natural influence that elevates others
• Standards Embodiment Exercise: Model the excellence you expect
• Energy and Communication Mastery: Practice the style that naturally motivates
Module 9: Integration and Mastery Planning (30 minutes)
Learning Objectives:
• Create comprehensive development plan for sustained leadership growth
• Establish measurement systems for tracking performance elevation success
• Plan immediate implementation of advanced techniques
• Design accountability partnerships for continued skill development
Activities:
• Mastery Roadmap Creation: 90-day leadership development plan
• Success Metrics Design: Define how to measure performance elevation effectiveness
• Implementation Planning: Specific strategies for immediate application
• Accountability Partnership: Long-term support for continued growth
Your American Facilitator
Deborah is an instructor of Management Communication at the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania, and
partners with both Columbia Business School and Duke Corporate Education as a speaker and coach for their custom
leadership development programs. She also serves as a Visiting Professor of Executive Communications at the Beijing
International MBA Program at Peking University, China, where she prepares senior leaders from around the world to present more effectively (in both their native and non-native languages) in a growing global marketplace.
As a regular columnist on leadership and communication for Harvard Business Review, Inc. and Psychology Today, she
focuses on sharing practical, research-based approaches to common presentation and communication challenges, ranging from how to handle a presentation to a difficult boss to how to think on your feet. She has also been a featured expert and a contributor The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, Forbes, Fast Company, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Fox Business
Network, and American Express OPEN Small Business Forum.
Her broad range of clients range include Amazon, Bloomberg, Comcast, and Google to Kraft, Pfizer, Universal
Music, and The United States Army. She is also the author of books, including “Go to Help: 31 Strategies to Offer, Ask for, and Accept Help”, “Overcoming Overthinking: 36 Ways to Tame Anxiety for Work, School, and Life”
and “Tips of the Tongue: The Nonnative English Speaker’s Guide to Mastering Public Speaking.” She is also a contributing author to the Harvard Business Review Emotional Intelligence book series.
Deborah holds a BA in Psychology from University of Michigan, and an MSW from Columbia University.
She combines her background in cognitive and social psychology, leadership coaching, presentation skills, appreciative inquiry, and, perhaps most importantly, improvisational and stand-up comedy, to help leaders and teams think on their feet and make thoughtful decisions about their impact.
The Trainer will be flown to Singapore from the United States for 1 week in January 2026 to deliver this class