ProLEAD Certificate Program - Advanced Leadership Training
Boost your knowledge and skills for a comprehensive leadership approach.
Becoming a great leader takes an entirely different skill set from where you started as an entry-level employee. Unless you have been taken under the wing of a great mentor or participated in an immersive training program at your organization, you're learning to swim in an ocean of uncharted waters with unpredictable challenges and obstacles every day.
The ProLEAD program is designed for those with basic managerial skills who are seeking more guidance and insight on tough topics that keep them up at night, such as terminating employees, handling budgets, and internal politics.
ProLEAD will provide you with the knowledge and skills for a well-rounded leadership approach.
Who Should Attend?
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Managers who already have the basic leadership skill set and are now seeking additional information for situations that require further insight and coaching.
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Professionals who want to advance their career, but may be struggling to fill a knowledge gap.
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Managers who are stuck or plateaued and need a boost of knowledge, advice, or momentum to get back on track.
Prerequisites
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Individuals should have completed a comprehensive management or leadership training program, such as Hawkeye’s LEAD Certificate program, or earned an associate or bachelor’s degree in business management.
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Leaders must also have at least one year of experience managing someone directly.
Program Format
The ProLEAD Certificate program includes:
- Ten four-hour classes that meet monthly
- Two one-hour individual coaching sessions with a professional coach
- One one-hour Habit Builder Webinar
Participants will use the Habit Builder tool, which will help them integrate new leadership skills into their job.
Participants have the choice to attend in person at Hawkeye Community College, Buchanan Hall, Advanced Technology and Business Center or tune in remotely via Zoom.
Certification
To earn the ProLEAD Certificate, participants must attend at least seven of the ten classes, dial in to both individual coaching calls, and attend the required one-hour Habit Builder webinar.
2025 ProLEAD Certificate Program Classes
Feb13Leadership: It Starts with You
We have all heard the saying, “Put your mask on first before helping others.” Leadership is much like this. Meaning you, as a leader, must first have your mindset and emotions right in order to lead others to the highest level. In the session, you learn how to develop a growth mindset and leverage your emotions to better serve yourself, your employees, and the company. The results of a growth mindset include seeing new opportunities not seen before, more employee productivity, creativity, innovation, engagement, and commitment.
Date: Thursday, February 13, 2025
Time: 8:00am – 12:00pm
Facilitator: Ronee Anderson
Ronee Andersen helps leaders and small business owners reach their potential by leveraging leadership, a growth mindset, emotional intelligence, team building, and company culture. Ronee has her Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification, an MBA with an emphasis in HR, and is certified through Coach Training Alliance. She has an Advanced Certificate in Strategic HR from Cornell University and a Certificate in Organizational Analysis from Stanford University.
Habit Builder Webinar
In this introductory webinar, leadership coach, Joel Bennett, will help participants identify leadership behaviors they would like to improve throughout the certificate program. Using an individualized process and the Habit Builder tool, each participant will implement these new behaviors into their daily work habits.
Date: Thursday, February 27, 2025
Time: 9:00 – 10:00am
Leadership Coach: Joel Bennett
Joel Bennett has more than 20 years of human resource experience and excels at building organizational capacity by providing customized consulting, training, and coaching services to growth focused businesses. His expertise in leadership and organizational development, performance management, and recruiting allow him to assist leaders in tackling challenging personnel and organizational issues. Joel has worked with clients in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, construction, service, education, and healthcare.
Joel graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Geography, and a Master's in Organization Management from the University of Phoenix. He is also a certified practitioner of the DISC assessment and an Actionable Consulting Partner for the Actionable Conversations line of leadership development tools.
Maximizing Your Productivity
Are you stressed because you spend all day working and at the end of it you have nothing to show? Gain insight on when your peak performance time is during the day and what activities you should be doing during that time. Also, receive solutions for time wasters, review tips for utilizing work resources, and examine how super productive people get it done.
Date: Thursday, March 13, 2025
Time: 8:00am – 12:00pm
Facilitator: Terry Whitson
Terry Whitson is an independent training and development consultant with more than 25 years of experience in corporate training. She earned a master's degree in training and development from Drake University and an undergraduate degree in business with a marketing emphasis from the University of Iowa. Terry has been an adjunct faculty member at Kirkwood Community College since 1988 and Mount Mercy University since 2010. She has worked as a training manager and corporate trainer for several large companies. She also gained valuable insight into customer communications from her early work experience as a customer service manager.
Trust, Respect, and Ethics
More than ever people are looking for leaders who they can trust and respect. This is built on a foundation of ethics. In this class you will learn the vital role that the values of trust, respect and ethics play in the workplace. Behaviors that exemplify each of these values will be clarified, and the class will observe how each of the values play a role in a leader’s influence. This class will challenge and inspire you to be that kind of leader we all need now and in the future.
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Time: 8:00am – 12:00pm
Facilitator: Heather Woody
Heather L. Woody is a success coach who assists individuals personally and professionally to help them experience their greatness. She has a passion for working with people as they pursue their own road to success, goal achievement and fulfilled lives.
Heather is a master certified coach through the Certified Coach Federation and a graduate of Coach Inc., one of the largest international training organizations for professional coaches. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations and Communications from the University of Northern Iowa. She is also a FranklinCovey consultant/facilitator and certified in The 5 Choices, The 7 Habits Signature, and Great Leaders, Great Teams, Great Results Leadership.
Individual Coaching Calls
During this week you will have a scheduled one-hour, one-on-one coaching call with leadership coach, Joel Bennett. This is your time to reflect on what you are learning in the program and target new leadership behaviors you want to practice. This is a wonderful opportunity to get personalized coaching, integrate key learnings from the program into your daily leadership habits, and build a plan to measure the impact your efforts are having.
Date: April 14 – 30, 2025
Facilitator: Joel Bennett
Leaders are Career Architects
We take proactive steps to build a retirement plan, to manage our health, even invest in cars and properties to maintain and create value, but too often leave our own careers to chance. Be the architect of your professional life, starting now. Step one as a leader happens in your current role and decisions – at the place where your expertise, your brand communication, and your relationship network meet – a blueprint. Step two is building out a career vision through strategic learning – digital technologies, industry trends, and people knowledge transfer. This course will touch on topics from LinkedIn and productivity tools to hiring and seeking feedback. Learn how to architect your career, as a professional and as a leader, like a pro.
Date: Thursday, May 8, 2025
Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm
Facilitator: Sandra Flikkema
Sandra delivers a unique combination of experience in coaching, training and career management, leading managers and high potentials to make strategic changes in communication, business, and relational skills. Throughout her career, she has partnered with directors, managers, and professionals to leverage their full career potential using practical, skill-building techniques to support business results. Topics she has covered include upgrading customer service, resilience, change management, coaching & leadership skills, and career management.
Sandra is notable for her tech-leaning instructional design, highly engaging interaction, capability to discern and uncover core issues, future-focused and confidence building coaching, and her ability to promote real and effective learning. She lived for several years in Europe and has traveled extensively in pursuit of her passion for diverse ideas and effective, global communication.
Currently taking engagements in corporate training, career consulting, and executive coaching, Sandra began her career with successful stints in human resources and consulting in the Chicago area, where she completed her Bachelor of Science in Business at DePaul University. She has a Master of Arts in Organizational Communication from the University of Northern Iowa and is a knowledgeable and trusted advisor to assist clients reaching for optimal performance and success.
Skillful Negotiation
Managers negotiate every day - from convincing a direct report to come in on Saturday, to reaching a starting salary for a new hire. In this class, you’ll discover how to approach different situations, ask better questions, frame the discussions, and analyze the risks along with weighing the various options. You will practice your new negotiation skills in a safe environment with positive feedback from the instructor and other class participants.
Date: Thursday, June 12, 2025
Time: 8:00am – 12:00pm
Facilitator: Helena Long
Helena Long is a seasoned professional with over 25 years of experience in Strategic Planning, Human Resources, and Learning and Development, holding senior and executive roles in various organizations. She provides training and consulting services to Fortune 500 companies and small to mid-sized businesses across diverse industries, including manufacturing, financial, and local government. Helena has led successful company-wide transformations and offers customized, high-energy training sessions focused on achieving tangible results.
Team Engagement Through Leadership Conversations
According to the 80/20 principle, 80% of the work gets done by 20% of your employees. It’s very likely those employees are probably the most engaged at the company, which is why they are the most productive. What if you, as the leader, knew what to do to get more employees engaged? This class will share the key conversations leaders need to have with their teams to impact their company culture and give them a competitive edge.
Date: Thursday, August 14, 2025
Time: 8:00am – 12:00pm
Facilitator: Joel Bennett
Joel Bennett has more than 20 years of human resource experience and excels at building organizational capacity by providing customized consulting, training, and coaching services to growth focused businesses. His expertise in leadership and organizational development, performance management, and recruiting allow him to assist leaders in tackling challenging personnel and organizational issues. Joel has worked with clients in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, construction, service, education, and healthcare.
Joel graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Geography, and a Master's in Organization Management from the University of Phoenix. He is also a certified practitioner of the DISC assessment and an Actionable Consulting Partner for the Actionable Conversations line of leadership development tools.
Difficult Conversations
Dealing with difficult people and conducting those conversations is one of the most challenging tasks leaders perform. This class session will review productive and unproductive conflicts. Gain a deep appreciation for the purpose and opportunity for healthy and challenging conversations affords their organizations. Engage in strategies that offer the best results and relationship outcomes, and clarify the “what not to do” strategies.
Date: Thursday, September 11, 2025
Time: 8:00am – 12:00pm
Facilitator: Heather Woody
Heather L. Woody is a success coach who assists individuals personally and professionally to help them experience their greatness. She has a passion for working with people as they pursue their own road to success, goal achievement and fulfilled lives.
Heather is a master certified coach through the Certified Coach Federation and a graduate of Coach Inc., one of the largest international training organizations for professional coaches. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations and Communications from the University of Northern Iowa. She is also a FranklinCovey consultant/facilitator and certified in The 5 Choices, The 7 Habits Signature, and Great Leaders, Great Teams, Great Results Leadership.
Individual Coaching Calls
During this week you will have a scheduled one-hour, one-on-one coaching call with leadership coach, Joel Bennett. This is your time to reflect on what you are learning in the program and target new leadership behaviors you want to practice. This is a wonderful opportunity to get personalized coaching, integrate key learnings from the program into your daily leadership habits, and build a plan to measure the impact your efforts are having.
Date: September 14 – 30, 2025
Facilitator: Joel Bennett
Effective Performance Reviews
Are your performance reports making a difference? By the end of this class, you will be better equipped to write and deliver performance reviews that are filled with evidence and value that direct reports appreciate and specifically know what to work on to improve their work performance. Class will practice phrasing sticky scenarios and will be exposed to tools to assist them in the future.
Date: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Time: 8:00am – 12:00pm
Facilitator: Terry Whitson
Strategic Thinking and Decision Making
Today’s organization must respond to dramatic shifting forces and a leading professional's ability to think through complex and changing situations is critical to future success. Practice how to scan the external environment so it improves judgment and decision-making internally. Expand your perspective further, use tools that support strategic thinking and learn ways to engage in new methods daily.
Date: Thursday, November 13, 2025
Time: 8:00am – 12:00pm
Facilitator: Dr. Celina Peerman
Dr. Celina Peerman serves as an organizational psychologist with over 25 years of experience from front line to senior level positions, in a wide range of industries and organizations. She is passionate about engaging our human resources in innovative ways to achieve even better organizational results.
While she does some traveling for nationally and internationally, Celina is focused on helping Iowa first. Making sure we are well prepared to recruit and keep the best people and companies right here is priority. Celina’s passion is for how people behave at work; the good, the bad and the worst. Her style has been described as dynamic noting the ability to draw in even the most resistant attendees through real life examples and humor.
Celina lives in Waverly with her husband David of 27 years and two teenage daughters, and a really needy dog.
Developing Self-Managing and Emotionally Intelligent Team Members
The ultimate goal for a manager is to have self-sufficient, mature employees who are proactive, trusted role models in the organization and community. This is a long road of development that progresses at different speeds and takes different routes depending on the employee. In this session, participants will be challenged to raise the bar of expectations for their staff and themselves, and leave with ideas on how to do this.
Date: Thursday, December 11, 2025
Time: 8:00am – 12:00pm
Facilitator: Heather Woody
Heather L. Woody is a success coach who assists individuals personally and professionally to help them experience their greatness. She has a passion for working with people as they pursue their own road to success, goal achievement and fulfilled lives.
Heather is a master certified coach through the Certified Coach Federation and a graduate of Coach Inc., one of the largest international training organizations for professional coaches. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations and Communications from the University of Northern Iowa. She is also a FranklinCovey consultant/facilitator and certified in The 5 Choices, The 7 Habits Signature, and Great Leaders, Great Teams, Great Results Leadership.
Cost
Register before December 6, 2024 for Early Bird Pricing of $1,795 per person for the first five employees and $1,595 for each additional employee.
Starting December 6, 2024, the price will increase to $1,945 per person for the first five employees and $1,745 per person for each additional employee.
Registration
To register, complete the 2025 ProLEAD Registration form [pdf] and email the completed form to Corporate and Business Solutions.
Registration deadline: January 31, 2025
A staff member will contact you to confirm registration and answer any questions. We will invoice your company for the total number of seats to the ProLEAD Certificate Program.
Request more information about the ProLEAD Certificate Program
Contact Corporate and Business Solutions at 319-296-4223 or complete the form below for more information.