Blog Archives

Leading Across Generations

The leaders who attract and retain top talent across generations are the ones who understand what drives each of them.

Description

Today’s workforce spans up to five generations, each shaped by different experiences, values, communication styles, and expectations. One thing is the same--every generation wants to be seen and contribute meaningfully. Effective leadership requires understanding people deeply enough to lead everyone to their varying definitions of success.

This full-day workshop equips leaders with the understanding and practical tools to attract, engage, and retain talent across every generation. Moving from self-awareness to organizational action, participants will examine their own generational assumptions, develop deeper curiosity about others’ lived experiences, and build management systems that allow everyone to do their best work.

Participants will explore how generational assumptions are formed and how they impact leadership decisions. Then, attendees will discuss adapting their communication and management practices to meet the needs of a diverse workforce.

Audience

Professionals of all levels who develop, retain and engage with a multigenerational workforce.

Outcomes

Participants will walk away with these skills:

  • Identifying and challenging their own generational biases and assumptions
  • Building empathy and curiosity through shared generational experiences and perspectives
  • Adapting communication and feedback approaches to meet each generation where they are
  • Creating team agreements, accountability structures, and recognition systems that work across generations
  • Developing a personal action plan to strengthen leadership effectiveness with every generation represented on their team

Discovering Your Genius

Even the most capable teams can feel stuck, misaligned, or frustrated - why does work that should feel energizing sometimes feel draining instead?

Description

In today’s complex and fast-paced work environment, productivity challenges are rarely caused by a lack of intelligence or effort. More often, they stem from misunderstanding how work flows from idea to execution and how each person is uniquely wired to contribute to that process. When individuals spend too much time working outside of their natural strengths, frustration increases, collaboration weakens, and burnout follows.

This interactive program introduces The 6 Types of Working Genius®, a practical framework developed by The Table Group that helps professionals understand how they contribute best to getting work done. Participants will discover what types of work give them energy and fulfillment, where they may experience frustration, and how to collaborate more effectively - without restructuring roles or changing teams.

Unlike traditional personality assessments, Working Genius is designed as a productivity tool. It provides a simple, shared language that clarifies how work moves from idea to execution. Participants will explore how different strengths show up in meetings, projects, and cross-functional collaboration and how to regulate their own contributions to reduce friction and improve outcomes.

Through guided reflection, structured discussion, and real-world application, participants will learn how to apply the model immediately to improve alignment, increase momentum, and elevate team performance.

By the end of the session, professionals will leave equipped with a practical framework that enhances execution, strengthens collaboration, and promotes sustainable performance.

Audience

Professionals at all levels across industries who want to better understand how they contribute to work, improve collaboration across teams, and increase productivity without increasing burnout.

Outcomes

Participants will walk away with these skills:

  • Understanding their Working Genius®, Competencies, and Frustrations - and how each impacts energy, effectiveness, and burnout.
  • Using the Working Genius model to pinpoint where work gets stuck (Ideation, Activation, Implementation) and improve collaboration across roles and functions.
  • Reducing guilt and judgment by recognizing how different geniuses show up at work and how to better partner with others.
  • Regulating their genius in meetings and projects to reduce “turbulence,” strengthen handoffs, and keep work moving forward.
  • Designing more effective meetings aligned to the right type of work, with clear expectations, roles, and follow-through.
  • Creating practical commitments to apply immediately, improving results within their current role and team.

Influencing and Persuading for Results

When ideas are met with hesitation, influence bridges the gap between being heard and making things happen.

Description

In today’s dynamic work environment, success depends on engaging others, building trust, and moving forward together. Influence is the ability to guide people through credibility and integrity, while persuasion turns ideas into cooperation by connecting logic and emotion to shared values.

This one-day program equips you to influence and persuade ethically and effectively. You’ll learn how to strengthen relationships, communicate with purpose, and navigate resistance with confidence, enabling collaboration and meaningful results.

Audience

Employees at all levels who need to effectively influence others up, down, and over in order to achieve personal, team, and organizational goals.

Outcomes

Participants will walk away with these skills:

  • Build credibility and trust that encourages others to listen and follow.
  • Adjust your approach to influence different audiences and situations.
  • Listen to understand, not just to respond, so you can address real needs.
  • Present ideas in ways that motivate action and support.
  • Handle resistance constructively, transforming disagreement into progress.

Build Your Own Certificate

Business professionals need a variety of skills and tools to complement their diverse industries and achieve their unique success. Build a certificate from our large list of offerings to match your exact needs!

Description

XLC is proud to offer all working professionals the ability to build their own custom certificate programs by choosing four unique one-day programs that target their specific needs. Participants can focus on business acumen tools, communication skills, or any combination in between! No matter what the selected one-day programs are, professionals will learn and gain tools and skills that can be immediately incorporated into their professional and personal lives.

One-Day Program Options:
Participants select 4 one-day programs offered within the same semester.

Audience

Professionals at any level who want a customized solution for their challenges, obstacles, and areas of improvement.

Venue

Cintas Center
1624 Musketeer Drive
Cincinnati, 45207 United States + Google Map
Phone
513-745-1094

Influencing in a Business Environment

Professionals become frustrated, aggravated, and discouraged when they feel like they are limited in what they can do, are not being heard, or their ideas are not grasped or appreciated.

Description

Organizations oftentimes have many different departments that work together to achieve the overall mission and vision. However, these departments can become siloed and develop agendas of their own. How does a professional get buy-in from colleagues at all levels of the organization in this type of business environment?

The key is influencing. This one-day program will provide strategies to influence others no matter their position or title to achieve common goals that will propel the overall organization toward success. Goal setting, preparation to be persuasive, and crafting an effective message for specific audiences will all be discussed through conversations and experiential activities.

Audience

Employees at all levels who need to effectively influence others up, down, and over in order to achieve personal, team, and organizational goals.

Outcomes

Participants will walk away with these skills:

  • Understanding and leveraging various ways to be influential
  • Creating a plan to become a trusted advisor that colleagues seek out for guidance
  • Strengthening the ability to have a voice that is heard
  • Defining clear outcomes and identifying objectives, obstacles, strategies, and tactics
  • Responding to concerns and hesitations in an impactful way
  • Maintaining commitments to earn trust and credibility

Venue

Cintas Center
1624 Musketeer Drive
Cincinnati, 45207 United States + Google Map
Phone
513-745-1094

Communications Excellence Certificate

Sharpen your leadership voice and gain skills to become an excellent communicator by earning this certificate. This certificate provides techniques that will allow you to create clear written and verbal messaging, engage confidently in critical conversations, provide impactful presentations, and develop a clear leadership presence. The requirements to earn this certificate and digital badge are:

Participants must attend 4 of the following one-day programs within the same semester:

 

Digital Badge:

Xavier Leadership Center is proud to offer each participant a digital badge once participants have met program completion criteria. Digital badges include a direct link to view program credentials and can be utilized by participants on social media and digital resumes.

Description

Business Communications:
The first part of this interactive workshop focuses on improving verbal communication skills including providing meaningful feedback, resolving conflict, and meeting everyday workplace challenges. The second portion of the class emphasizes effective written communication in the digital age, including crafting clear and concise messages, being other-centered, and increasing the professionalism of your writing.

Business Storytelling:
More than ever, there is one thing that truly separates many brands and companies today—that one thing is STORY. When it comes to creating powerful brand connections, engaging innovations, and inspirational business strategies, a good story can make whatever brands share more impactful. For this full-day workshop, presentations include surprising insights, engaging personal stories, fun movie references, hands-on exercises, and “Hollywood-esque” tools. Participants will leave with a series of inspiring story fundamentals, examples, and methods that can be applied by ANY role within an organization and in ANY industry. Using the building blocks of storytelling, participants will be able to develop strategies to bring innovative ideas and methodologies back to the organization.

Difficult Conversations:
Drawing on principles from Crucial Conversations, behavioral decision-making practices, and organizational theory, participants will learn to confidently navigate challenging interpersonal dynamics and high-stakes conversations. Through real-world application and engaging exercises, they’ll build the skills needed to foster trust, reduce conflict, and create stronger workplace relationships.

Feedback and Conflict Management:
This program begins by exploring the major causes of conflict in the workplace. Then, strategies are discussed for building psychological safety and managing emotional reactions during difficult and critical conversations. Next, participants will gain the confidence to deliver and receive feedback in a respectful, yet honest, way. Through experiential learning and real-world examples, participants at any level will be able to alleviate conflict before it becomes a serious issue.

Fostering Teamwork and Trust:
This program empowers individuals to become catalysts for effective collaboration, strong working relationships, and positive team dynamics. Participants will gain tools to enhance communication, navigate conflict, strengthen accountability, and build trust which is the essential thread that connects and sustains high-performing teams. Whether you’re leading a team, working within one, or building new connections across departments, this program helps you create the kind of environment where teams thrive and people want to contribute.

Influencing and Persuading for Results
In today’s dynamic work environment, success depends on engaging others, building trust, and moving forward together. Influence is the ability to guide people through credibility and integrity, while persuasion turns ideas into cooperation by connecting logic and emotion to shared values. This one-day program equips you to influence and persuade ethically and effectively. You’ll learn how to strengthen relationships, communicate with purpose, and navigate resistance with confidence, enabling collaboration and meaningful results.

Presenting Yourself with Confidence:
Participants will explore the factors that shape their professional image and learn practical strategies for strengthening their executive presence. They will examine how performance, image, and exposure contribute to career success while identifying opportunities to increase their visibility and impact. The program also addresses common barriers to confidence, such as imposter syndrome, and provides techniques for communicating strengths and accomplishments with authenticity. Through discussions and applied practice, participants will refine their approach for a variety of workplace situations including networking, internal meetings, presentations, and career discussions. They will learn to intentionally use body language and storytelling techniques to build stronger connections and take control of the impressions they make.

Audience

Professionals at any level who want to increase their communications skills.

Venue

Cintas Center
1624 Musketeer Drive
Cincinnati, 45207 United States + Google Map
Phone
513-745-1094

Business Storytelling

More than ever, there is one thing that truly separates many brands and companies today—that one thing is STORY. When it comes to creating powerful brand connections, engaging innovations, and inspirational business strategies, a good story can make whatever brands share more impactful.

Description

For this full-day workshop, presentations include surprising insights, engaging personal stories, fun movie references, hands-on exercises, and “Hollywood-esque” tools. Participants will leave with a series of inspiring story fundamentals, examples, and methods that can be applied by ANY role within an organization and in ANY industry. Using the building blocks of storytelling, participants will be able to develop strategies to bring innovative ideas and methodologies back to the organization.

Audience

Any professional within any industry can benefit from developing storytelling skills.

Outcomes

Participants will walk away with these skills:

  • Defining and leveraging the most distinctive quality of the brand idea in the stories
  • Understanding how empathy serves as the foundation for both the story and innovation strategy
  • Knowing where to look to find the best “stories” to learn from
  • Utilizing story principles to ensure data and analytics are delivered in the most powerful and compelling way
  • How to use a story sequel plan for the brand’s strategy and long-term pipeline
  • Creating focused and clear presentations by leveraging a powerful story theme
  • Crafting and using an elevator pitch to leave the audience wanting more

Venue

Cintas Center
1624 Musketeer Drive
Cincinnati, 45207 United States + Google Map
Phone
513-745-1094

Storytelling with Data

Data is needed to make smart and appropriate business decisions. However, if data is not presented in a compelling way, the decisions can be undermined.

Description

Data provides the foundation for making smart and appropriate choices in many contexts. However, it is not unusual for managers to be overwhelmed by the amount of available data within their organization and the marketplace. To tell an effective, data-inspired story, it is important to know the intended audience and present the most applicable information in the most effective way.

This session will begin by helping participants understand what questions need to be addressed and discerning what data is relevant to answer those questions. Then, the program will focus on what makes a story convincing and how to adapt stories to the needs of different audiences. This will be followed by applying that understanding to create powerful, data-driven stories that will change mindsets and facilitate the right business choices. Participants will also explore the interpretation of data and ensure that data is used accurately and completely.

Audience

Professionals in any industry wanting to improve data-driven storytelling practices.

Outcomes

Participants will walk away with these skills:

  • Discovering the end objective that needs to be assessed
  • Identifying the data that best informs the end objective
  • Clarifying how to interpret the collected data
  • Understanding the audience and how they need to receive information
  • Translating the data into an effective story for the target audience
  • Incorporating relevant visuals to support the story behind the data

Venue

Cintas Center
1624 Musketeer Drive
Cincinnati, 45207 United States + Google Map
Phone
513-745-1094

Business Acumen Certificate

XLC’s Business Acumen Certificate gives you skills to manage with a strategy that is understood and can be implemented at all levels, along with a strong foundation of how business operates, makes money, and sustains profitable growth.

You will learn tools to effectively manage and engage the workforce. You will gain knowledge in planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the activities of an organization in order to satisfy customers’ needs.

Participants must attend 4 of the following one-day programs within the same semester:

Description

Creative Problem Solving:
This highly-interactive, fun, and fast-paced session provides a framework for understanding and applying tools to meet real business needs. You will walk away from this session with increased confidence to generate creative ideas, techniques to recognize/replace unproductive thinking patterns, and a methodology to foster creative potential and innovation.

Effective Decision Making:
In this fast-paced world, a person’s and their team’s effectiveness in getting things done at work depends on decision-making. How a person manages their time, what meetings they go to, and the work their team focuses on are all based on effective decision-making methods. In this one-day program, participants will explore various ways and methods to make decisions as both an individual and as a leader. Then, the program will focus on how to build a culture of effective decision-making within an organization. Real-world examples and interactive activities will guide discussions and showcase examples of great and not-so-great decision-making skills.

Executing Business Strategy:
In this program, you will learn how to define a business strategy and communicate it to peers, supervisors, and reports. Once participants can capture the elements of a strategy, they will explore the strategy’s execution. Creating a cohesive and comprehensive strategic plan will be guided by the OGSM method while also referencing other approaches. Filled with small and large group exercises, case studies, and concrete examples, participants will be able to immediately identify and advance their organization’s strategy.

Finance Essentials for Professionals:
In this one-day program, you will develop an understanding of key financial documents, how to interpret them, and why they are important. Financial terms and calculations will be explained in a way that makes sense for non-financial business professionals. Finally, you will also be challenged to apply what you learn in class by analyzing how your work and your decisions are related to the overall performance of the company.

Navigating Change at All Levels:
Navigating Change at All Levels goes beyond identifying what change is needed, it explores how change affects people and how individuals at any level can contribute to successful outcomes. This program equips participants with practical tools to assess and manage change, understand their role in the change process, and build action plans to overcome challenges and achieve results.

Storytelling with Data:
Data provides the foundation for making smart and appropriate choices in many contexts. However, it is not unusual for managers to be overwhelmed by the amount of available data within their organization and the marketplace. This session focuses on identifying the relevant business objective or question, assessing what data is needed, and understanding the target audience. Then, participants will discover how to utilize the most applicable data to tell a compelling story that positively impacts the right business choices and outcomes. Participants will also explore the interpretation of data and ensure that data is used accurately and completely.

Strategic AI for Business
The session begins with a practical, holistic overview of prompting and context engineering—the core disciplines that allow today’s leading generative AI systems to support work across every level of an organization. Participants will learn how to work effectively with the best Generative AI tools on the market, understanding both the art and science behind high-quality outputs.

Time Management and Productivity:
This program aims to provide practical tips, tools, and strategies to help individuals approach their use of time wisely and help managers lead their teams more effectively. Oftentimes, procrastination sets in because a certain task seems daunting or emotionally taxing. Participants will explore ways to manage their energy and mindsets to aid in their productivity. Finally, the program will discuss how accountability is created between managers and their teams, among colleagues, and within oneself.

Audience

Professionals at any level who want to increase their business acumen.

Venue

Cintas Center
1624 Musketeer Drive
Cincinnati, 45207 United States + Google Map
Phone
513-745-1094