Professional Development Events

LAPICS May 2008 Professional Development Meeting: Leadership - The Key Success Ingredient

Date: Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. – Networking
6:30 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. – Dinner
7:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. – Presentation
8:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. – Conclusion

This presentation will provide some food for thought on the topic of what it takes to be an effective leader. Napoleon Bonaparte once said: "No person can lead other people except by showing them the future. A leader is a merchant of hope." The secret is to determine what makes one a "good" leader – and then – work to develop those characteristics. Before he retired, General Colin Powell delivered a "Leadership Primer" to his staff which listed some 17 lessons a leader must learn to be effective. This presentation is built around these lessons, plus some ancillary information which may help the listener uncover his or her own talents in this vital arena. Some leadership notions revolve around what it means to be "responsible," while others look at where ego fits into the act of leading and still others deal with where enthusiasm factors into the leader’s toolkit. Along the way in our discussion we'll meet the Tates, a family whose members all of us have seen and, perhaps, emulated in our experience as team members in the business world.

All of us are called upon to lead others at one time or another -- in business, family, church and the community, APICS or any number of other areas. While no one spends every waking hour worrying about "What Ifs?", if we think about what makes a leader effective before a "sticky" situation arises, we can be better prepared to face it when the time comes. As Louis Pasteur said, "Chance favors the prepared mind." Considering sound leadership characteristics may provide the necessary preparation to help us address our daily challenges. What on earth does this have to do with APICS and our move to supply chain/operations management excellence? Times of change and new ideas, when coupled with the global economic and business environment, create high levels of stress to those in positions of leadership and management. John Kotter wrote that “Management is about coping with complexity and leadership is about coping with change.” And while some of the supply chain concepts and directions are complex, it is really the leadership challenge which may spell the difference between success and failure. Understanding the challenges of leadership and some of its basic tenets can prepare one to help those around him or her to face change confidently and assist them in becoming a willing part of the solution rather than drawing back into the past and remaining part of the problem. One cannot effectively steer a boat by watching the wake – it is far more effective to keep watch over the bow in a proactive rather than a reactive mode.

After this presentation hopefully we will have learned enough about leadership that we won't have to take Yogi Berra's advice that
When you come to a fork in the road, take it"! We’ll have considered the possibilities and know which fork has the highest probability of success!

About the Speaker
Dave Johnson is a consultant in the areas of training, development, and system implementation. Previously he was the Manager, Education and Consulting Services, for Bull Worldwide Information Systems' Manufacturing Solutions organization, where he managed the provision of education, training, and implementation consulting services to external and internal manufacturing systems customers as well as Bull sales and support personnel.

Dave holds a BS in Economics from Colorado State University, an MS in Education Administration from Iowa State University, and an MS in Systems Management from the University of Southern California. He has APICS CPIM Certification, is a certificated Arizona Community College instructor, and has taught materials, quality, and change management courses at GateWay Community College and the University of Phoenix as well as fundamentals and certification classes for the Phoenix APICS Chapter’s CPIM Program. Dave has served as the VP-Administration for the Phoenix APICS Chapter and is now an Executive Director of APICS Region 7 and is currently on the Executive Council of the Southwest District.

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FEES:

LOCATION/DIRECTIONS:
Holiday Inn Torrance
19800 S Vermont Ave
Torrance, CA 90502
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TIME: 6:00 PM

You can now Pay your PDM Registration fee by credit card using our PayPal account. Complete the form below and click on Submit. A new page will automatically appear with a list of Los Angeles APICS offerings and credit card payment instructions. You do not have to have a PayPal account to pay by credit card.