Owners and Senior Teams in Ajax, Ontario

Executive Leadership Training in Ajax, Ontario: What Senior Leaders Actually Need

What the program covers, how it runs over four to six months, and the results an owner can measure.

Executive DevelopmentLeadership TrainingAjax, Ontario

Malcolm GurleyPresident, Gurley Leadership Solutions Inc., Ajax, Ontario

Your company has grown past the point where you can make every decision yourself, and your senior people are still waiting for you to make them.

That gap between the owner and the executive team is where most growing companies stall, and it is what executive leadership training is built to close.

Who Is Executive Leadership Training For in Ajax?

It is for the people who run the business: owners, presidents, general managers, and the senior team that reports to them. In most Ajax companies I work with, that is between two and eight people. Some are founders who built the business themselves; others are second-generation owners taking over a family company and its senior team.

It is not the same as supervisor training. If your need is at the front line, with team leads and new managers, leadership development in Ajax is the better starting point. Executive training starts one level up, with the people whose decisions shape everyone else's week.

Why Do Executives Need Different Training Than Supervisors?

A supervisor leads the work. An executive leads the people who lead the work, and sets the direction they follow. The skills overlap, but the stakes are different.

Most owners I meet in Ajax already have capable managers. What they lack is a senior team that makes decisions together, follows through without reminders, and develops the next layer of leaders on its own. That is a different skill set, and it needs its own program.

When a senior leader leaves, the cost is highest. SHRM notes that replacing an employee can cost from 50% to 200% of their annual salary, depending on their level, and executive roles sit at the top of that range. In Durham Region the competition for experienced people is real: Invest Durham reports more than 10,000 highly skilled energy workers in the region, and the same employers recruit senior operations talent from Ajax, Pickering and Whitby.

What Does an Executive Leadership Training Program Cover?

Every program I deliver starts from your own goals, then works on the habits that decide whether those goals are reached. The core areas are:

• Direction: turning the owner's vision into three to five written goals the whole senior team owns.
• Delegation: handing over authority, not just tasks, so decisions stop returning to the owner.
• Accountability: weekly measures each senior leader reports on without being chased.
• Time and priorities: protecting senior hours for the work only an executive can do.
• Developing the next level: building managers who can step into senior roles.

Because it is a proven program from Leadership Management International, customized to your organization, the method is tested but the content is yours: your numbers, your people, your plant or office.

How Does an Executive Program Run Over Four to Six Months?

The program runs in person at your own location in Ajax or elsewhere in Durham Region, in short sessions spread over months. Behaviour changes through repetition, not in a single day.

1. Discovery. I meet the owner and each executive to agree on goals and record a baseline.
2. Goal setting. The senior team writes shared goals and personal action plans.
3. Regular sessions. Short working sessions, with practice on live decisions in between.
4. Review points. We check the baseline numbers at set points and adjust.
5. Handover. The team keeps the weekly accountability routine running without me.

You can see how the programs are structured on the LMI Canada page. For employers further east, I also cover executive leadership training in Oshawa.

What Results Can an Executive Team Expect?

The results come from decisions made faster and closer to the work. In my own senior roles at Honeywell, the operation I led saw a 20% productivity improvement in the first year and a 64% increase in throughput over four years. I tell owners to expect a return of 10:1 or better when the program is measured against a baseline recorded first.

The effect spreads downward. Gallup found that managers account for at least 70 per cent of the variance in employee engagement across business units. When the senior team leads differently, the managers below them do too.

Results also depend on the company. Manufacturers in Ajax and Whitby often see the change first in faster production decisions and fewer escalations from the floor. Service and healthcare organizations usually notice it in clearer priorities and fewer meetings that end without a decision. In both cases the owner gets hours back, and those hours go into growth instead of firefighting.

How Is This Different From National Executive Training Brands?

Large training organizations have documented why leadership development matters. FranklinCovey reports that 58% of new managers receive no formal leadership training before starting to lead a team, and Korn Ferry found that the right leadership characteristics and team environment can lift engagement scores by up to 42 percentile points. Their programs are often public courses or virtual cohorts that mix senior people from many companies.

For Ajax, Durham Region and Greater Toronto Area owners who want their own senior team to change together, I offer a better fit: in-person delivery with your executives, at your location, measured against your numbers. You can read more about my background and why employers choose Gurley Leadership Solutions.

What Do Ajax Owners Ask About Executive Leadership Training?

How long does executive leadership training take?

A full program runs four to six months, with short in-person sessions and practice between them. Most senior teams see visible change in how decisions are made by the third or fourth month.

Is executive training worth it for a small company in Ajax?

Often more so than for a large one. In a company with a senior team of three or four, one senior leader who takes real ownership frees a large share of the owner's week.

Can the owner take part in the program?

Yes, and it works best when the owner does. If the owner stays out, decisions tend to keep routing back to the top and the senior team has little room to practise.

What is the difference between executive training and leadership development for managers?

Executive training works with the people who set direction and lead other leaders. Leadership development for managers works with supervisors and team leads who run the day-to-day work.

Where is the training delivered?

In person at your own location in Ajax, Pickering, Whitby, Oshawa, Clarington or elsewhere in Durham Region and the Greater Toronto Area, so the work stays tied to your real decisions.

Malcolm Gurley President, Gurley Leadership Solutions Inc.

Malcolm Gurley brings 35+ years of senior executive experience with Honeywell, Johnson Controls and Armstrong Fluid Technology. He is LMI Canada licensed, Lean Certified and a Six Sigma Black Belt, and delivers Leadership Management International programs in person for organizations across Durham Region and the Greater Toronto Area from Ajax, Ontario. Frequently asked questions