Sinikka Waugh, President and Founder of Your Clear Next Step, is a recognized leader in understanding people and in adapting tools, techniques, and processes to meet the demands of the situation at hand. As a popular presenter and trainer, her energetic and engaging style drives home the art and science of making business better for individuals, teams, and organizations.Her background in languages and literature, her natural inclination as a relentlessly positive "people-ist", and her career in project management and business analysis have prepared her to easily connect with people to lead and coach them to even better.

Session 1: Facilitating Good Stakeholder Relationships Through the Languages of Appreciation

Expressing appreciation at work is critical to building healthy employee morale, but sometimes it's easy to forget, and it's even easier to overlook when it's unfamiliar territory. Designed as a realistic and applicable "How-To" guide for busy professionals, this class will help you take those critical first steps to appreciate those around you for the valuable work they do within your organization. The keys to expressing appreciation in a meaningful way are consistency, personalization, and accountability. So how do you express sincere appreciation appropriately in your environment? We'll introduce the 5 Languages of Appreciation and take a closer look at who and where they fit, along with tactical tips to help you get your appreciation across. Designed as a realistic and applicable "How-To" guide for busy professionals, this session will help you take those critical first steps to appreciate those around you for the valuable work they do within your organization.

Session 2: Harnessing the Power of Your Team

Putting a group of people together in a room doesn't make them a team: unless we're intentional about it, they're still just a group of individuals. Building team dynamics demands some attention to the forming and storming and norming of teams before we get to performing – but we don't always have the luxury of time to go through these stages. And sometimes, we're accountable for leading the team, while other times, we can influence from our non-leadership seats. Each of us has the ability to be a helpful team member and help influence those around us to adopt the characteristics of a high-performing, psychologically safe, effective team, regardless of which seat in the team we occupy. Sinikka Waugh will share five characteristics of a healthy and high-performing team and explore specific ways we can influence our teams to good health.

Practical and tactical as ever, with real-life examples and tools you can use, this session will offer insights to help you ensure your team has the five characteristics of a healthy and high-performing team:

• a common goal
• a healthy level of self-awareness
• a reality-based set of mutual expectations and norms
• an effective standard of communication
• at least a dose of unconditional positive regard

Looking at each of these individually, as well as in the context of a reusable tool, Sinikka will walk through an approach to team health, from any seat, and even address some of the most common "yeah, but…" responses. Regardless of how much or how little time you have with your team, and how much or how little authority you have over the team itself, this approach will help you positively influence your team to greatness, setting the stage both for holding each other accountable for effective behaviors and for offering grace and forgiveness when we misstep. 

Both Sessions are categorized under the Leadership Talent Triangle.