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Parker Hannifin

Module 1

Preparation for Module 1

• Think about someone you know personally whom you admire as a leader but who you have not been managed by. This might be in a work context or in your personal life, someone senior, a peer or even someone junior to you. Prepare a 1 minute presentation about them, that you will give on the first day of the module, without slides: “A leader I admire and why”

• Take some time to review and reflect on the results of your Leadership Profile, and the Development Goals that you have begun to set for yourself from the coaching session on your Profile Results. You will be spending some time refining these in this Module.

• Module 1 is designed around the two Foundation Elements of the Vital Leader Framework, Individuality and Insight. These are explored in Chapters 1 and 2 of the book, The Vital Leader, which you can download as a PDF (link to download here). We will be not be working through the chapters explicitly in the session, but you can read them for further stimulus or thinking around these two key elements.

Zoom link for day 1 Zoom link for day 2 Zoom link for day 3

Following Module 1

There are several things outlined below for you to do in the time between Modules 1 and 2 to continue your FOL Development Journey.

Please also visit the Module 2 page on this Portal for specific preparation and to watch the video mentioned below.

And for the two pairs who have the Leadership Briefs for Initiate and Involve, you will be running your sessions in Module 2 so please be prepared to do so.

View slides View worksheets

Follow on actions

Meet with your Line Manager to share your personal learning insights and your action plan, and be specific about support you want from them. We recommend you book a time to see them just for this conversation, not as part of any operational updates you may have with them. In that meeting you could also explore the next point together…

Identify a business challenge to work on in the next module. We will be exploring the Leadership Capabilities of Initiate and Involve, so look for a real challenge, project or workstream that is either current or imminent for you to lead on, where you need to initiate and/or involve people. You will get to work on this in several ways in the sessions, practicing a number of different leadership tools, so it will be very valuable for you to choose something real as your challenge.

Meet up with your Peer Coach to share progress on applying your learnings from the module, and support/challenge one another on how to keep taking opportunities to pursue your development goals. It might well be that now you understand one another and the work contexts you operate in better, you can help each other make those development goals SMARTER. Also remember to send your Peer Coach the selfie video you made at the end of Module 1 (as if you were reporting back in Module 2) – and use this as the basis for checking progress with one another.

‘Do It Now’ cards. Have a look at the Individuality and Insight cards in the pack you were sent – and pick a couple that it would be interesting or stretching to do. Or maybe that are in line with one of your development goals. Don’t spend to long deliberating which to pick – they are called ‘Do It Now’ cards for a reason! At the next module we’ll be interested to hear what value you made for yourself out of playing with the cards.

Play ‘Blind Walks’ with a friend. This is an exercise linked to the Situational Leadership model we introduced in Module 1, and that we will look at further in the next one.

How to play:


  • Get together in the same physical space with a friend, either indoors or outdoors. One of you close your eyes for 5 minutes, or tie a scarf across them so you are temporarily blind. The other person’s task is to lead you on a physical journey wherever you are for those 5 minutes that is ‘a safe adventure’. This means it is stimulating and interesting, but that you also feel safe even while not being able to see where you are going!
  • Swap roles after 5 minutes and lead the other person on a ‘safe adventure’ while they are ‘blind’.
  • Afterwards identify and list all the things between you that your ‘leader’ did that made it interesting and safe for you, or that built your trust in them as they led you. Bring the list with you to the next module.

Watch the Victim and Chooser video. This is about 5 minutes long and outlines a model that we will work with on the next module, relating to the I of Initiate. Please ensure you have viewed it before the first session.

You can access the video on the Module 2 section of this portal, along with other specific preparation for the next module.