Exceptional Leader
A Difficult Time to Lead!
Engineering leadership is not for the faint of heart. Answering to senior executives for late projects, budgetary overruns, and customer quality issues causes all of us to lose a little sleep. Holding our teams accountable while simultaneously delighting our customers and engineers is a delicate balancing act.
Would you like peace of mind? Would you like to know that when your team makes a commitment, it’s their word? Would you like to know that quality is built into the product and not dependent on a successful test run? If you’re like most leaders, these questions have been a source of stress, and you’re not alone.
There is a better way…an exceptional way
At Exceptional Difference, we’re committed to empowering elite engineers, teams, and leaders for success. By instilling a Culture of Excellence, you can lead your teams to consistently deliver quality with speed to value in an energizing environment. Innovation is both personal and cultural, and enabling the Obligations of Engineering of value, quality, speed, commitments and leading with data are accelerators to the innovation you need.
Exceptional Difference Offerings
Talks and Tools
Talks for the Exceptional Leader include From Burden to Benefit: Identifying and Managing Technical Debt, Streamlining Success: Rework Reduction, Commitment Catalyst: Reviewing the Plan, Leading the Unleadable, Lead with Speed, 100+ Questions, Essence of Systems Engineering, Navigating the Storms of Change, Building a Mindset for Exceptional Leadership, Fire/Fire Up, and more. Any of our talks can be brought to your organization and customized to your audience.
Free downloads include Technical Debt Assessment, 100+ Questions Field Guide, Essence of Systems Engineering Field Guide, and Building a Mindset for Exceptional Leadership Field Guide. These downloads are great introductory materials as well as solid complements to any of our talks or workshops.
We also have the books, Lead With Speed and Leading the Unleadable, which were written by Exceptional Difference’s award-winning author, Alan Willett.
Experiences
First 100 Days – navigate the muddy waters of a new job, or new responsiblities, by focusing on value, defining measures of success, and creating and tracking a plan to ramp you up for success
Exceptional Leadership – experience the challenges of elite leadership as you are immersed in a series of challenging discussions, situations, and exercises that provide next-level experience and confidence
Exceptional Mentoring – accelerate experiential learning of both new and seasoned engineers by applying the fundamentals and mastery techniques of exceptional mentoring
Workshops
General Engineering/Leadership Workshops:
Commitment Catalyst: Reviewing the Plan – ensure you make commitments you can meet or beat
Lead with Speed – drive speed to value
100+ Questions – review plans with a structured approach that leaves no stone unturned
Essence of Systems Engineering – gain a broader perspective of the systems engineering landscape
Leader-Specific Workshops:
Unleadable – sharpen the saw when it comes to leading those who are seemingly unleadable
Building a Mindset for Exceptional Leadership – help wrap your head around exceptional leadership so you can think strategically and keep your perspective on the bigger picture of long-term success
Book Clubs with the Author of Lead with Speed and Leading the Unleadable
Comprehensive Consulting
Mentoring Subscription: a 1-on-1 mentoring subscription where you can mentor with the Exceptional Difference experts on a regular basis.
Co-Author a Field Guide: work with best-selling author, Alan Willett, to co-author a field guide of your choosing.
Custom Consulting: Wherever you need help, Exceptional Difference is here to bring decades of expertise and problem-solving skills to you and your team.
Exceptional Engineering Experience
An exclusive program that enables leaders and engineers to master the X-Factors of Commitment, Quality, Value, and Culture.
Quality Deep Dive
Gain a deep understanding of quality management for high-tech systems development and an action plan to successfully implement them for immediate impact.
Technical Debt Deep Dive
This is an immersive and highly collaborative workshop and training experience for elite engineers and team leaders looking to tame technical debt within their organization for good.