BizWorks Small Business Leadership Institute Program

Small business owners are faced with unique challenges when it comes to leadership. Effective leadership is more critical than ever given the uncertainties and shifts in today’s workforce brought on by the post pandemic condition. 

Most mainstream leadership material is designed for large corporations and therefore may not fully apply to small businesses. This leaves the small business owner struggling on their own without the necessary leadership tools and resources to help them run more successful small businesses.

The BizWorks Leadership Institute is designed for the small business owner. We invite industry experts to take the concepts of leadership and synthesize them to be applicable to micro and small business owners. In our inaugural series of three workshops, Small Business owners will learn the key concepts of leadership that apply to small businesses. The Small Business owner will learn tools and techniques and apply them to their own business context to help them run more successful businesses.

Sponsored by Chesapeake bank, The first three sessions will be presented by VCU School of Business Professor and Executive Director of Entrepreneurship Programs and founder of JTM Global, Jay Markiewicz. These workshops are designed to be taken in a series, as each subsequent workshop builds upon the previous one. Participants are encouraged to register for all three. Individual workshops can be taken separately if a calendar conflict arises, as each one will discuss a unique topic with tools and techniques that can be leveraged to run successful businesses.

All workshops will have the following flow:

1. High engagement and activity-based learning of a new concept (we don’t lecture here)

2. Reflection of how the concept applies to yourself and your business (you are the case

study)

3. Application of a tool/technique that results in running more effective businesses (that’s

why you are here, right?)

April 19, 2023: Leading vs Managing and why it matters.

Management is bottom-lined focused: How can I accomplish certain things? Leadership

deals with the top line: What are the things I want to accomplish? More importantly,

Leadership is a set of skills we leverage to influence and empower and is the cornerstone for

building a positive workplace where employees want to be. The small business

owner is required to be both adept at management and leadership. In this workshop, you will

learn the distinction between leadership and management, will participate in activities to help

evaluate your leadership, and finally will learn the foundational skills of leadership to

immediately start applying in your own business.

May 3, 2023: Leading self and others

Employees seek jobs based on the company, and they leave the job because of their boss. Lack

of effective leadership is a main reason engagement falls within organizations and is a main

contributor to employee turnover. This workshop will take a deeper dive into the foundational

skills discovered in the first workshop. Through an interactive and engaging activity,

participants will learn tools and techniques to help build their own leadership methods that

result in effectively engaging and inspiring employees. Engaged employees are loyal and more

importantly, more productive.

May 17, 2023: Leading an effective company culture

When someone asks an employee of a company what the company is like to work for,

the answer is usually a good summary of a company’s culture. What is the work

environment like? How do the employees treat each other? How effective is the company

leadership? This workshop continues to build upon the skills and techniques for foundational

leadership. Participants will learn to apply their new leadership capacity within a specific

tool/approach for leading teams. The result is a positive workplace culture and productive

teams that get the job done.

Business Program Investment: $200 for all three sessions or $75 per session.