Learning to Navigate in the Here-and-Now Has Been a Game Changer

LIOS made a huge impact in my life when I needed it. I was already in a life transition and I knew I need additional education to get where I wanted to go.

Before I came to LIOS, I was a trainer in software company and led a lot of train-the-trainer programs. I knew I was a skilled teacher with natural talents, yet I also knew I wanted to focus on leadership development and the skills around communication, emotional intelligence and related leadership skills.

I was attracted to the experiential education and the real-time practical application of the practicums (T-groups) skills. I was impressed with the way I could grow my own self-awareness about me and my leadership— and the influence of my family system, while at the same time learning theories and practices that I could immediately put into practice as a leadership coach.

The LIOS difference is experiential education. It’s not about 100s of hours of research, tons of papers and write ups and coming up with my theory of things. Not that we didn’t write papers, but the real power was the engagement. There is nothing like the in-the-moment learning that adds the oomph to the curriculum. The skill to listen and respond in the here-and-now has allowed me to navigate a wide variety of challenging conversations including conflict resolution, feedback to senior/successful leaders, and responding to challenging questions in front of large audiences.

I was leading a leadership development workshop for 200 executives, in New York, at large industrial conglomerate, at their leadership development campus that I could only dream about before LIOS. I was with a team of four other facilitators. We were in our breakout groups and everybody’s Blackberry began buzzing. The client made an announcement that they were selling a huge division and more than half of the folks in the room were being impacted.

Of course, at this point, I couldn’t continue as if nothing has happened; I had to address what was happing in the room. LIOS lesson #1. Then, when I was talking to my group about what was happening, my boss came into the room and told us we were moving back into the main room to make an official announcement and my boss said, “Jim, I’m giving you the room.” 

LIOS lesson #2: My boss recognized that my talents and ability to navigate—in the moment—were what the group most needed.

I didn’t know what I was going to do. All of a sudden, I was in a room of 200 people, half of whom may have been losing their jobs. The room was like a NASA working center: massive screens, huge stadium seating, everybody had their private desk with a light. It was called the pit, because everyone was looking down. A client representatives got up to the podium and read her script. Then, she said… “Now Jim Boneau.”

Every bit of my LIOS training told me that the only thing we could do at this point would be to acknowledge the truth of what was in the room: to recognize the emotion that was present and wouldn’t be resolved—and to listen to each other. That’s what I said and that’s what I facilitated. I didn’t try to solve their problems. I didn’t try to tell them they shouldn’t be sad. I didn’t try to build hope. I met them where they were. And, I listened.

A guy from an Ivy League school came up to me afterwards and said, “You know when this whole thing started, I thought this whole leadership thing was a bunch of BS. After what I just experience and saw what you did, I realized that I have completely misunderstood the meaning of leadership.”

LIOS learning not only supported a wonderful journey of professional success, but moreover, it helped me in my personal life to pursue happiness and authentic relationships.

~ Jim Boneau, Masters of Applied Behavioral Science, 2005 - 06