Leadership Essentials for Energy Professionals

INTERNATIONAL TRAINING ON LEADERSHIP ESSENTIALS FOR ENERGY PROFESSIONALS
COURSE BACKGROUND

In the dynamic and highly competitive energy industry, effective leadership is paramount. Mid-level to senior managers and supervisors require a refined set of management skills beyond technical expertise to navigate complex challenges, drive performance, and lead their teams and organizations towards strategic goals. These essential skills encompass leadership itself, alongside negotiation, business communication, and strategic planning.

ECAS Institute understands the unique demands placed on leaders within the energy sector. This two-week program is meticulously designed to enhance four critical management skills that are vital for success in today’s oil and gas environment. We bring together highly regarded instructors with extensive practical experience in the international energy industry to deliver this specialized training.

This program offers an in-depth focus on key leadership competencies, including practical negotiation, talent management, effective business communication, financial acumen, and strategic thinking. By blending theoretical fundamentals with real-world case studies and practical applications, ECAS aims to empower rising managers and new leaders to significantly enhance their leadership capabilities and drive organizational excellence.

COURSE OBJECTIVES OF THE TRAINING

By the end of this two-week program, participants will be able to:

  • Enhance their understanding of leadership fundamentals and critical competencies relevant to the energy industry.
  • Develop practical negotiation skills for achieving positive results in complex scenarios.
  • Master strategies for building and managing talent and high-performing teams.
  • Improve effective business communication techniques to influence and inform stakeholders.
  • Demonstrate financial acumen to understand organizational performance and drive strategic decisions.
  • Apply strategic thinking concepts to anticipate industry trends and effectively plan for the future within the energy sector.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

This two-week program is designed for rising managers and new leaders from all sectors of the energy industry who seek to enhance their understanding of leadership fundamentals and critical competencies. You will obtain an in-depth understanding of five key leadership competencies: Practical Negotiation, Develop Talent Management, Effective Business Communication, Demonstrate Financial Acumen and Strategic Thinking. The program is taught by highly regarded instructors who have broad and practical leadership experience in the energy industry or are specialists in the area in which they teach.

You will learn about:

  • Leadership Fundamentals and Key Competencies: What leaders do, leadership theory and styles, motivation, emotional intelligence, self-assessment, management vs. leadership, leading self, others, organization, stakeholders, effective power and influence, organizational climate, and leading change. Includes case studies like “What Do Leaders Do?”, “What Makes a Great Leader?”, and “Power is the Great Motivator.”
  • Building Talent and Teams: Essential skills for acquiring, developing, and retaining high-performing employees and teams, talent management processes, recruiting, building a competent workforce, developing effective teams, and the leader’s role in achieving HR goals.
  • Essential Negotiation Skills: A Process for Positive Results: The Harvard Negotiation Workshop’s process applied to a petroleum case study, including steps like discovering underlying interests, generating options, using independent standards, dealing with people problems, generating alternatives, and reaching closure.
  • Effective Business Communication and Influence: Setting a communication strategy (credibility, persuasion, channel choice), presentation structure (writing vs. presentations vs. meetings vs. one-to-one conversations), writing more effectively, making effective presentations, running efficient meetings, and speaking effectively one-on-one. Includes case studies and workshop sessions.
  • Demonstrating Financial Acumen and Driving Performance: Introduction to the accounting process, the four major financial reports (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, equity statement), their interrelationships, major indices for measuring company performance, and financial decisions impacting performance. Includes analysis of an emerging company and review of actual financial statements of energy companies.
  • Strategic Thinking: Major trends and drivers of change in the international oil and gas industry, anticipating the future across value chains, latest approaches to strategic planning, importance for setting company vision and goals, effective strategy implementation, planning and implementing using the Balanced Scorecard. Includes historical structure of the international oil and gas industry and examples of strategic planning by key international companies (Petrobras, Mobil Oil, etc.).
DURATION AND PROGRAM

This is an intensive two-week program designed for mid-level to senior managers and supervisors, and new leaders from all sectors of the energy industry. The program will feature highly regarded instructors with extensive practical management and leadership experience in the energy sector. It combines theoretical sessions, practical exercises, and case studies to provide a robust learning experience. The detailed two-week schedule, including daily topics and activities, will be provided upon registration.

TARGET PARTICIPANTS

This program is designed specifically for:

  • Mid-level to Senior Managers and Supervisors from all sectors of the oil and gas/energy industry.
  • New Leaders within energy organizations.
  • Professionals seeking to enhance their understanding of leadership fundamentals and specific competencies such as Negotiation, Talent Development, Business Communication, Financial Acumen, and Strategic Thinking.
  • Those whose major areas of formal studies were technology or other specialty fields and wish to enhance their practical knowledge of core business management areas.
TRAINING MODULES

The program is structured into two main parts, each addressing critical leadership and management competencies:

No Module Details
Part 1: Leadership Competencies, Talent Development and Essential Negotiation Skills
1. Leadership Fundamentals and Key Competencies This session summarizes leadership fundamentals and the most compelling competencies required of today’s leaders. It includes such topics as: what do leaders do? leadership theory and styles; motivation and social motives, emotional intelligence, self-assessment, management versus leadership competencies; leadership competencies: leading self, leading others, leading the organization; leading stakeholders; leading effective power and influence, leading the organization, organizational climate, organizational climate survey, improving organizational climate, leading change. Case Studies Include: “What Do Leaders Do?”, “What Makes a Great Leader?”, and “Power is the Great Motivator.”
2. Build Talent and Teams One of the essential skills of a leader is to acquire, develop and retain high performing employees and teams. This session is devoted to the talent management processes, the recruiting and building of a competent workforce, the development of effective teams and the active role that the leader should play to assure that the HR function achieves the strategic personnel goals of the organization.

The key topics include:

  • Talent acquisition strategies in the energy sector.
  • Employee development and retention programs.
  • Principles of effective team building and dynamics.
  • The leader’s role in fostering a high-performance culture.
  • Aligning HR functions with organizational strategic goals.
3. Essential Negotiation Skills: A Process for Positive Results The essentials of positive negotiation: the process of positive negotiation developed at the Harvard Negotiation Workshop applied to a petroleum case study. The key steps you will take to successful negotiations are:

  • Step One: Discover Underlying Interests of the Parties
  • Step Two: Generate Options to a Negotiated Solution
  • Step Three: Identify and Use Independent Standards
  • Step Four: Deal with People Problems
  • Step Five: Generating Alternatives to a Negotiated Solution
  • Step Six: Reaching Closure

The key topics include:

  • Harvard Negotiation Project principles: separate the people from the problem, focus on interests not positions, invent options for mutual gain, insist on objective criteria.
  • BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement).
  • Communication strategies in negotiation.
  • Managing power dynamics and ethical considerations in negotiation.
  • Practical negotiation exercises and role-playing based on energy industry scenarios.
Part 2: Effective Business Communication, Financial Acumen and Strategic Planning
4. Communicate Effectively and Influence Others Setting a communication strategy: credibility, persuasion, and channel choice. Presentation structure: writing vs. presentations vs. meetings vs. one-to-one conversations; writing more effectively; making effective presentations; running efficient meetings; speaking effectively one-on-one. Case studies and workshop sessions.

The key topics include:

  • Developing a strategic communication plan.
  • Principles of persuasive communication and building credibility.
  • Crafting clear and concise written communications.
  • Designing and delivering impactful presentations.
  • Facilitating productive meetings and managing discussions.
  • Effective interpersonal communication and active listening.
5. Demonstrate Financial Acumen and Drive Performance Financial statements measure the performance of the organization and a leader must have a solid understanding of them in order to make decisions that achieve the strategic and operational goals of the organization. Key topics include an introduction to the accounting process; four major financial reports: balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement and equity statement; how they impact each other, the major indices that are used to measure the performance of the company and the various financial decisions that impact performance of the organization. Session will include the analysis of an emerging company to show the impact of key decisions and the review of actual financial statements of energy companies.

The key topics include:

  • Basic accounting principles and the accounting cycle.
  • In-depth analysis of the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Cash Flow Statement, and Statement of Equity.
  • Key financial ratios and performance indicators for the energy sector.
  • Impact of financial decisions on organizational performance (e.g., capital expenditure, financing choices).
  • Forecasting and budgeting principles.
  • Workshop on analyzing real financial statements from energy companies.
6. Think Strategically Major trends and drivers of change within the international oil and gas industry: anticipating the future throughout the oil and gas value chains. Latest approaches to strategic planning and its importance for setting company vision and goals; effective implementation of strategy; planning and implementation of the plan using the Balanced Scorecard. Historical structure of the international oil and gas industry. Examples of strategic planning by key international companies including Petrobras, Mobil Oil, and others.

The key topics include;

  • Environmental scanning and trend analysis in the energy industry.
  • Formulating organizational vision, mission, and strategic goals.
  • SWOT, PESTEL, and Porter’s Five Forces analysis for strategic assessment.
  • Developing and implementing strategic plans.
  • The Balanced Scorecard framework for performance management and strategy execution.
  • Case studies of strategic shifts and successes in leading energy companies.
TRAINING STYLE

The modules will be taught through PowerPoint presentations, and lectures and will include a case study/field visit, breakout sessions, case studies and other interactive discussion components.

The course will also include a few guest speakers, both in person and via Zoom and other online learning platforms for overseas speakers. This provides useful real-world insights alongside the more theoretical aspects of the course.

The conference faculty shall consist of experienced decision makers, as well as practitioners and representatives from established educational and research institutions active around climate change, engineering and international development. Throughout the course, theoretical presentation of concepts will be moderated and more group discussions and plenary engagements will be optimized. PowerPoint presentations will be made by facilitators and resource persons, to highlight key concepts before embarking on group work.

GENERAL NOTES
  • Training manuals and additional reference materials are provided to the participants.
  • Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be issued with a certificate.
  • We can also do this as a tailor-made course to meet organization-wide needs. Contact us to find out more: info@ecasiafrica.org.
  • Payment should be sent to our bank account before the start of training and proof of payment sent to: info@ecasiafrica.org.
ABOUT ECAS INSTITUTE

The ECAS Institute designs and delivers independent and targeted training, research, and consulting services. Our work focusses on climate change and resilience building, carbon markets, renewable energy, nature-based solution, biodiversity conservation, agriculture and food systems, We are located in Nairobi Kenya and work across the African region. We have implemented training and research assignments in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Somalia, Malawi, Rwanda, Congo, and South Africa. Globally, we have supported our partners from the UK, Denmark, Italy, Sweden, Germany, and USA.

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