Whether working with your highest performers or the ones with the most room for growth, smart leaders are constantly contemplating how to motivate and influence their teams to succeed. So often we rely on external rewards – like motivating a horse to run with the carrot on a stick – yet these can only work for so long. In this workshop, we take a deep dive into the psychology of motivation, and explore specific strategies to directly influence your teams to operate at peak performance.
Leaders Aren’t Born – They’re Made.
At The Leadership Laboratory, we craft dynamic team + leadership development workshops tailored specifically for emerging leaders and individual contributors transitioning into leadership roles. We understand that new leaders face distinct challenges as they navigate the shift from individual performance to team influence, requiring practical leadership skills that build confidence while maintaining authenticity. Our approach focuses on developing emerging leadership capabilities that thrive through workplace transitions, team dynamics, and professional growth opportunities.
From teams of project coordinators and team leads to department supervisors, first-time managers, and high-potential individual contributors, our engaging, expertly-designed methodology ensures immediate applicability and measurable skill development. We recognize that emerging leaders bring fresh perspectives, technical expertise, and innovative thinking – our workshops amplify these natural strengths while introducing essential leadership frameworks.
Suggested Leadership Workshops: Emerging Leaders
The DNA of Engagement & Motivation
Leveraging Motivation to Spark & Inspire Engagement
Learning Objectives:
- Explore the three types of motivation and engagement, taking a pulse on current organization-wide strategies and opportunities for the future
- Experiment with three unique theories to immediately increase intrinsic motivation
- Develop an action + implementation plan for positive, long-term behavior change
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Engagement + Motivation
- Talent Strategy + Development
- Leading with Values
- Active Listening
Learning Objectives:
- Experiment with interactive exercises to enhance active listening, setting others up for success, challenging the status-quo, and confidently stepping outside of our comfort zones
- Embrace the concept of “YES, AND” to build upon the ideas of others in an effort to strengthen interpersonal, team, and organizational relationships
- Develop an action + implementation plan for positive, long-term behavior change
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Collaboration + Trust
- Effective Communication
- Openness to Change + Innovation
IMPROVing Team Collaboration
Embracing “YES, AND” to Foster Leadership & Build Trust
Understanding the fundamentals of improvisation enhances core communication in personal and professional settings. Improvisation requires participants to think on their feet, be in the moment, and use enhanced active listening skills, all of which play a role in our success in the work we do on a daily basis. In this workshop, participants will gain an understanding of how to fully embrace “YES, AND” and other core principles from improv for increased collaboration, trust, and enhanced team dynamics.
Bouncing Back from a F**k Up
Approaching Setbacks with a Learning Mindset
F**k ups may be inevitable, though staying stuck doesn’t have to be. This workshop helps participants break free from the mental traps that keeps us dwelling on past mistakes, learning how to shift our focus toward growth, resilience, and action. Through a mix of cognitive reframing techniques and practical action-oriented strategies, participants will learn how to bounce back with confidence, reignite our motivation, and turn failures into fuel for future success.
Learning Objectives:
- Explore the five common THINKING TRAPS where individuals get stuck, and discover the ESCAPE ROUTE strategies to help ourselves and others to break free
- ILeverage positive psychology to move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset
- Inspire a culture of resilience, trust, and psychological safety
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Confidence
- Emotional Intelligence
- Effective Communication
Learning Objectives:
- Leverage feedback conversations to transform and inspire performance of peers, direct-reports, and other frequent collaborators
- Identify the theories behind three common negative reactions when receiving feedback
- Discover the three types of feedback to more effectively inspire peak performance
- Develop an action + implementation plan for positive, long-term behavior change
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Giving + Receiving Feedback
- Navigating Conflict Conversations
- Positive Psychology + Trust
Thanks For The Feedback
Inspiring Performance through Effective Feedback
We are constantly receiving feedback. Through formal and informal words and actions, each dinner invitation, speeding ticket, book recommendation or annual performance bonus says something about who we are and how we are perceived by others. This workshop introduces us to key strategies for both giving and receiving feedback, taking a deeper dive into understanding the types of feedback, discovering why and how we react, and how to more effectively deliver feedback in the future.
Why Emerging Leaders Choose The Leadership Laboratory
Emerging leadership development requires a fundamentally different approach than senior executive training. New leaders need practical tools, confidence-building experiences, and peer support as they develop their leadership identity. The Leadership Laboratory delivers emerging leader workshops that are interactive, skills-focused, and designed to address the real challenges facing today's developing leaders.
Our evidence-based emerging leadership workshops are thoughtfully structured and hands-on – accelerating your leadership growth and team effectiveness. We recognize that emerging leaders possess incredible technical skills, creative problem-solving abilities, and authentic engagement with their work. Our role is to build upon these existing capabilities while introducing leadership competencies that enhance team collaboration, communication effectiveness, and influence without authority.
Whether your team includes first-time supervisors, project managers, or high-potential team members, The Leadership Laboratory develops targeted, research-supported workshops that strengthen current competencies, boost leadership confidence, and create improved team dynamics, decision-making clarity, and professional impact. Built on strengths-based psychology and adult learning principles, our methodology emphasizes capability development over skill deficits, focusing on growth and potential rather than limitations.
Our emerging leader training workshops implement proven methodologies designed specifically for developing leaders, creating meaningful improvements in leadership presence, team engagement, and professional development to inspire sustained positive growth throughout your leadership journey.
The Leadership Laboratory operates nationwide with both in-person and virtual emerging leaders development workshops. We proudly serve organizations developing new leaders across the country, including Chicago, New York, Denver, and Austin.
Building tomorrow's leaders today.
The Leadership Laboratory works across multiple industries - including start-up and established technology firms, non-profit and government agencies, finance companies, healthcare organizations and more. We are proud to collaborate with individuals and teams of all sizes.
Contact us and say hello! We're excited to get to know you and share our ideas on learning + leadership development.
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Collaborating Partners
“I laughed harder than I have in a while!”
Our workshop was engaging, informative, rejuvenating and pure fun. I laughed harder than I have in a while! This was a phenomenal way to get more comfortable as a team.
— Director of People, SpotHero
“You made this easy to apply and implement”
You listened to our needs and adapted on the spot to incorporate leadership lessons. Every element was backed up by research, and you made this easy to apply and implement.
— VP / HEAD OF PEOPLE, WARBY PARKER
Meet Jacob Goldstein
Jacob Goldstein is the founder of The Leadership Laboratory, and leverages his experiences in education, the performing arts, and corporate learning & leadership development to his work. As a performer, Jacob has sung as a backup vocalist for musical artists such as Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, and Patti LuPone, as a recording artist for Netflix series Sense8, and at venues including The United Center, The Chicago Theater, and Chicago Symphony Center. In the education space, Jacob has served as an educator for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, and has been a Guest Lecturer at Northwestern University since 2016. As a Learning & Leadership Development Consultant, Jacob has worked as a one-on-one coach and group workshop facilitator to organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies in diverse industries, including technology, healthcare, non-profit, and fashion/apparel. Jacob holds a Bachelor’s degree from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Master’s of Science in Communication from Northwestern University.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Typical Size of Emerging Leaders Workshops?
At The Leadership Laboratory, we customize each learning experience to align with to your team and culture. Traditionally, we recommend between 20 – 30 participants per workshop, though often work with groups as small as 5 to as large as 5,000+. Knowing your audience size can help us to design a workshop partnership to maximize engagement and participation, and honor each participant at their respective knowledge and experience level.
Are Emerging Leaders Leadership Development Workshops Available Both In-Person and Virtually?
Yes! All of our programming can be facilitated on-site, virtually, or in a hybrid format (virtual facilitation to an in-person audience). For both on-site and virtual workshops, we traditionally recommend a lead time of 6 – 8 weeks to get your top choice of date for a facilitated partnership.
How Do We Choose Emerging Leaders Leadership Development Workshops?
When working with a new partner, we leverage a process called backwards design theory to curate a tailored learning experience. One of the first questions that we ask is “what would you like this audience to do differently as a result of this collaboration?” – in other words, what are the skills or behaviors you’d like this group to have, or the knowledge they want to possess?
Once we know and define these learning objectives, we can work backwards and partner with you to determine what content can support in making those goals a reality. For a sample list of workshops, feel free to check our Workshop + Experiments pages, or browse the Workshop by Industry or Workshops by Role pages for additional recommendations.
How Long are Emerging Leaders Leadership Development Workshops?
Each of our workshops is designed to be approximately 2.5 – 3 hours in length. For on-site partnerships, most groups opt for two back-to-back workshop topics to create a full day of learning. For teams looking for sessions outside of the standard length, please contact The Leadership Laboratory to discuss more customized options.
Can We Customize Emerging Leaders Leadership Development Workshops?
Yes! At The Leadership Laboratory, we leverage a process called backwards design theory to curate a tailored learning experience. As we collaborate with you to learn more about your goals, we can incorporate information about your team’s culture, organizational strategy, and industry trends to design an experience that truly resonates, with easy-to-apply concepts that lead to long-term, positive behavior change.
We know that each participant has their own unique learning goals, and have designed our leadership development experiences to customize our content to each person in the moment. We kick-off each workshop with an opportunity to learn more about the goals of each participant in the room, and align the experience to what is most top-of-mind for them. This differentiated learning allows us to adjust to each unique participant, as well as honor the diverse perspectives, roles, and experience in the room.
Does The Leadership Laboratory Work with Individual Emerging Leaders?
At The Leadership Laboratory, most of our workshops are designed for teams or groups of leaders within organizations. As we focus on customizing each leadership development experience to the unique elements of each organization’s culture and team’s communication style, our work is focused on sessions that departments or groups within the same organization can participate in together, as opposed to sessions that individuals can sign up for on their own.
For individuals looking for one-on-one development, The Leadership Laboratory offers select executive coaching and thought partnership opportunities. Feel free to reach out directly for more information.