Natural Foods Leadership Development Training

Produced & Presented by

Carolee Colter, Mark Mulcahy, and Allen Seidner

Just For You

Our multi-day trainings are for 20-50 of your store’s top, middle and department managers, and their key leads and assistants.

What’s New?

For 20 years people have traveled from all over the U.S. and Canada to engage in three full days of dynamic and career-changing work in our Original and Advanced 3-day seminars. While this set the standard for natural foods retail training we, like the marketplace and our clients, need to keep evolving. So we’re changing our model to better suit our clients’ needs and to create the best possible learning experience.

We’ll Personalize the Training

Bringing decades of our content development and presentation experience, we’ll personalize our famous Rising Stars leadership development content to create a custom training workshop just for you!

We’ll review with you a quick-and-easy assessment form to help you select an optimal mix of topics. Later, we’ll request some materials (e.g., your staff handbook) so we can refer to your store’s policies and procedures.

Of course, we’ll work on the areas your staff most need — but with a deeper dive. We’ve redesigned much of our content to give participants more hands-on practice, so your team will more fully own and use what they learn.

Check out our Leadership Development Workshop Topics. We look forward to customizing a multi-day workshop to meet your training and leadership development needs on a whole new level!

Customized and Presented Exclusively for Your Store

Our public seminars are great for a wide range of organizations. But, if you have a big crew or prefer our training be specifically focused on just your organization, we’ll design a training that’s Just For You!

We’ll come to work with up to 100 members of your team, right there in your own town — saving you money on travel and hotel costs to boot.

And We’ll Personalize the Training

Bringing decades of our content development and presentation experience, we’ll personalize our famous Rising Stars leadership development content to create a custom training workshop just for you!

We’ll review with you a quick-and-easy assessment form to help you select an optimal mix of topics.

Of course, we’ll work on the areas your staff most need — but with a deeper dive. We’ve redesigned much of our content to give participants more hands-on practice, so your team will more fully own and use what they learn.

Check out our Leadership Development Workshop Topics. We look forward to customizing a multi-day workshop to meet your training and leadership development needs on a whole new level!

Inquire for info

Leadership Development Workshop Topics

Note which topics are of interest and we’ll help you make an optimal workshop agenda.  We have either basic or advanced content for most topics, so most are relevant for all audiences.  A few topics are (A) exclusively for experienced managers, or (B) only for new managers, leads and assistants.

Emotionally Intelligent Customer Service

Practice and develop the five skills of emotional intelligence— self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy and social skill—to deliver outstanding customer service (and be a better supervisor).

Staffing For Success

Motivational fit is the degree of alignment between what a person seeks in a job and what the job is actually like. Identify what you’re looking for in a new employee, learn how to tell if an applicant has it, and determine if there is motivational fit between the person and the job.

Structuring the New Staffer Introductory Period

Start new hires off on the right foot, and take advantage of the opportunity to address hiring mismatches promptly.

Training That Works

Create conditions for optimum learning and use techniques for training right the first time. (B)

Bringing Your Passion to Work

Connect with what you love about your work. Rediscover your capacity for playing while working, and inspire others with your enthusiasm.

Controlling Your Calendar

Techniques for using your time effectively.

Developing Your People,
Level I + II

Grow your people’s skills and move tasks off your platter, freeing your focus for the most important parts of your job. (B)

Level II: Create succession plans for management positions, and learn tools to implement the plans. Prepare staff for promotion. (A)

Conducting Evaluations That Inspire

Using your co- op’s (company’s) existing evaluation instruments, practice conducting performance evaluation meetings that focus on development. Learn how to handle particularly challenging evaluations.

Building a Shared Vision

Using SWOT analysis to set a group’s agenda.

Paying for Performance

Handling pay raise decisions when raises depend at least partly on individual performance. (A)

Accountability Counseling & Consequences

Understand the factors that motivate behavior. Learn how to give effective positive reinforcement and critical feedback. Practice skills needed at each stage of progressive corrective action, from verbal feedback to coaching to written warnings to termination.

Conflict Resolution

Tools for resolving workplace conflicts and building better work relationships between coworkers and between supervisors and employees.

Daily Huddles

Learn and troubleshoot (?) an effective two-way communications tool for keeping all members of a team informed and giving them input on decisions that affect their work. (B)

Teamwork on the
Leadership Team

Forge a group of managers into a team with a meaningful purpose, specific performance goals, agreed-upon operating rules, mutual accountability and effective meetings. (A)

Sampling and Impulse Merchandising

Involve staff in increasing sales through sampling, cross-merchandising and display ideas.

Playing by the Numbers:
Sales, Margin & Labor

Understand the basics of department financial statements and how all staff members can make a difference. (B)

Managing Up

Master the skills of middle management and build a better relationship with your own boss. Learn how to propose investing in equipment and labor to increase department results. (A)

Burn Out & Renewal

Practice self-care for a sustainable career in your workplace.

Embodying Leadership Integrity

Explore what integrity means in the workplace, assess your own integrity and provide leadership in your own team and organization. (A)