Date

Wednesday 22 April 2026 (bookings close at 12noon Monday 6 April 2026 unless sold out prior)

What you'll learn:

A critical juncture in the leader’s journey is their transition to leading through others. This course is designed to support middle managers in making what is often one of the most important transitions of their leadership careers

There are a few distinguishing skills that separate those that make the transition successfully including: demonstrating strategic thinking skills, delegating, and empowering effectively, and developing others who can build high performing teams.

This course is for those who have made the step up or are preparing to. In coaching leaders across New Zealand, we’ve observed that ‘getting out of the weeds’ and working at a more strategic level.

In this leadership development offering - designed specifically for those aspiring to or recently appointed to more senior roles – you will learn:

how the leadership development journey unfolds, and the unique skills needed at this level of delivery, responsibility, and leadership of people;

where the time goes and how this needs to shift to be successful in what is essentially a new role for the leader;

how your priorities need to be managed to ensure a focus on activities that will have a strategic impact; and

how to communicate key priorities to others so that they can see the group’s direction of travel and the position they play as stakeholders in the process.

This 1-Day practical course, Rising to the Next Level, is designed for those who have been or will be appointed to roles in which they meet organisational objectives through the work of teams and other leaders.

Who should attend:

Middle managers who are responsible for implementing the strategy of executives through the contributions of teams and specialist leaders
Rising leaders in the organisation who are leading groups for the first time or want to be more effective and make the transition to a larger, more strategic role
Experienced HR and OD leaders who are leading teams who coach and support leaders in making the transition
Executive leaders who want to help their leaders bridge the gap from ‘doing the work’ and ‘leading the work.’

What you'll get:

Self-awareness of Key Strategic Leadership Skills: Develop greater understanding of your strengths in thinking and working at a strategic level.

Practical Application of a Time and Priority Management Audit: Analyse key time usage to understand the distribution and impact of important activities contributing to success.

Strategic insights on Key Deliverables: Assessing projects to understand the critical contributions each makes and the influencing relationship between projects.

A Draft Plan-on-Page for communicating to others your group’s key focus areas and priorities.

Course Facilitator

Michelle Shields, PhD (Psychology), MSc (Organisational Development and Behaviour), is an independent Organisational Development Practitioner. With over thirty years’ experience in industry, she brings a unique blend of evidence-based applied learning to the organisations she works with.

Michelle has worked with numerous New Zealand organisations in their transformation efforts including her most recent work with the Orion Group on network transformation skills, the former CDHB and the implementation of the ServiceNow enterprise system implementation, and Canterbury Health Laboratories’ testing response during the pandemic including the implementation of new technologies for sample sorting, analysis and reporting.

She is the founder of Fulcrum Associates and a lecturer of leadership on the University of Canterbury’s MBA programme. She was awarded the 2023 L&D Consultant of the Year by NZ Association of Training and Development and is a 2025 recipient APAC’s Elite Women in the HR Industry.

This course is $1050pp including GST and Humanitix booking fees.
Course fees include catering (all dietary requirements catered for) and booking fees.