Forward Ready Leadership Pathway

BUILD

A Forward Ready Leadership Pathway to BUILD your best TEAM

The GridSmartCity (GSC) Future Ready Leadership (FRL) Essential Skills Program has been customized exclusively for GSC local distribution companies (LDCs) and consists of five CORE leadership training courses.

This Learning Pathway is designed for those looking to BUILD their best TEAM.

  • Graduates of the DEVELOP pathway.
  • Middle managers with 3-8 years of management experience.

The result is a team running on trust, alignment, and commitment, and a leader who can sustain it.

To continue to enhance participants’ learning between each course, participants will be required to complete an ‘Apply the Learning’ assignment to reinforce the learnings from the previous session and to prepare them for the upcoming session. 

Below you'll find an overview of each day of learning and the learning outcomes resulting from successful participation in the day's activities.

GSC BUILD Leadership Pathway
Who's it For?
This Learning Pathway is designed for those looking to BUILD their best TEAM.
Graduates of the DEVELOP (formerly GSC-FRL Essentials) pathway
Middle managers with 3-8 years of management experience
Day 1
Leading with Emotional Intelligence

Leading with Emotional Intelligence turns emotional intelligence outward. Where Emotional Intelligence Foundations looks at your own reactions, this course looks at the people around you: how to read what’s happening beneath the surface, create the emotional safety people need to speak up, and respond in ways that build trust and keep performance on track. ⁣

  • What social awareness really means, how to listen beyond words, and how to read the room in meetings and conversations.
  • Why emotional safety matters (drawing on Amy Edmondson’s work), and which leadership behaviours build it or threaten it.
  • What empathy is, and what it is not, including how to validate emotion while holding clear performance expectations.
  • How to tell understanding gaps from performance gaps.
  • How to respond to defensiveness and emotional resistance without escalating, and how to check in with yourself during the conversation.
  • How your leadership shapes team culture, how to repair trust after a mistake, and how to adapt your approach across different people.
Day 1
What You'll Gain
  • You’ll leave with a stronger ability to read what’s happening beneath the surface, create the emotional safety people need to speak up, and respond with empathy while keeping expectations clear.
  • You’ll practice navigating emotionally charged conversations and take away strategies you can use immediately to build trust and strengthen team performance.
  • The goal isn’t to manage everyone’s emotions. It’s to lead in a way that helps people feel understood, safe, and accountable, so teams can perform at their best.
Day 2
Building and Leading Exceptional Teams

Exceptional teams aren’t built by chance. Building and Leading Exceptional Teams explores how trust, communication, accountability, collaboration, and commitment shape team effectiveness and workplace culture, and gives you practical ways to strengthen each one in everyday situations. ⁣

  • How trust affects team success, and the behaviours that build it or break it.
  • How to strengthen communication through clarity, listening, and mutual understanding.
  • Collaboration strategies that encourage inclusion, curiosity, and diverse perspectives.
  • What creates communication barriers, and how to reduce misunderstandings and conflict.
  • How your own strengths, behaviours, and responses contribute to a high-functioning team.
  • How to turn insight into practical commitments and an action plan that strengthens team effectiveness and workplace culture.
Day 2
What You'll Gain
  • You’ll leave with a clearer view of how your team works today, practical ways to build trust, improve communication, and strengthen accountability, and an action plan you can start using right away.
  • The goal isn’t to build a perfect team. It’s to make intentional choices, every day, that help people feel safe to contribute, aligned on goals, and accountable to one another.
Day 3
Foundations of an Accountable Leader

Foundations of an Accountable Leader explores how to create clarity, delegate effectively, recognize when ownership begins to drift, and use purposeful conversations to restore it. You'll also learn how to stay connected and provide support without taking ownership back. ⁣

  • How to create clarity by defining responsibilities, expectations, outcomes and timelines.
  • How to build ownership through effective delegation and intentional leadership.
  • How to recognize early signs that ownership or accountability may be drifting.
  • How to choose your leadership impact using the Leadership Lens.
  • How to restore ownership through respectful, purposeful conversations using the 3C Conversation Model.
  • How to follow up effectively without micromanaging or taking the work back.
  • How to reinforce accountability through coaching, recognition, follow-up and reflection.
Day 3
What You'll Gain
  • By the end of the course, you'll have a practical approach to creating accountability through clarity, ownership, and consistent leadership - along with tools, strategies, and an action plan you can apply immediately.
  • The goal isn’t to hold on tighter. It’s to set people up to own their work, and to know how to step in, and step back, when ownership starts to drift.
Day 4
Problem Solving & Decision Making

Strong decisions aren’t about having all the answers. Problem Solving & Decision Making explores how slowing down, thinking critically and understanding the real problem lead to better choices. The course offers practical ways to identify root causes, prioritize under pressure, weigh risks and trade-offs, and make intentional decisions that fit your priorities, capacity and organizational goals. ⁣

  • How to understand the real problem before acting
  • How to identify root causes instead of addressing symptoms
  • How to apply critical thinking and structured problem solving
  • How to prioritize and decide under pressure and competing demands
  • How to evaluate risks, trade-offs and consequences
  • How assumptions, stress and overload affect decision quality
  • How to communicate decisions, expectations and rationale with clarity
Day 4
What You'll Gain
  • You'll leave with a more structured way to approach problems, practical strategies for prioritizing when everything feels urgent, and more confidence and consistency in the decisions you make.
  • The goal isn't to have all the answers. It's to slow down enough to solve the real problem, and to make decisions you can stand behind, even when conditions change.
Day 5
Change Management Foundations

Change is announced in a day. Transition takes longer. Change Management Foundations explores how people really experience change, and the role leaders play in helping teams adapt. The course offers practical frameworks and leadership habits to recognize emotional responses, communicate change with empathy, reduce confusion and support people through each stage of transition. ⁣

  • Why organizational change is necessary, and why change efforts often fail
  • The difference between external change and internal transition
  • Common emotional and behavioural responses to workplace change
  • How to use a model to understand resistance, uncertainty and adaptation
  • The leader's role in creating clarity, direction, empathy and support
  • How to communicate change in ways that reduce confusion and build trust
  • How to build resilience, engagement and adaptability during disruption
Day 5
What You'll Gain
  • You'll leave with a clearer understanding of how people respond to change, practical models to recognize where they are in a transition, and the confidence to communicate change clearly and constructively.
  • The goal isn't to eliminate resistance. It's to understand it, and to help people move through change with clarity, empathy and support.

Great program to be a self-realized and successful supervisor and person.

Christopher Gaunt Distribution Engineering Supervisor, Oakville Hydro

This is a high-energy, interactive course that is very engaging.

John Theriault Design Supervisor, Enova Power Corporation

Very valuable use of my time to ensure I am giving my best to a company that gives their best to me.

Karen Mathewson Director of Sales, Agilis Networks

Your MCE Business Development Officer

Business Development Officer for Southwestern Ontario - Brantford to Windsor Sue Buckley

Sue Buckley is a Business Development Officer with MCE, responsible for the Southwestern Ontario – Brantford to Windsor area.

During Sue’s career she has received a reputation for her excellent organizational skills, customer service focus, efficiency, accuracy, and outstanding interpersonal skills.

Sue has over 25 years of experience as a results-driven professional in business management. As a well-rounded professional, Sue has experience in project management, training, sales, marketing, strategic leadership, and human resources management. Sue's proven success and direct experience as a qualified Canadian Human Resources Leader (CHRL) have allowed her to partner with businesses in providing human resources expertise. Email or call Sue at 226.387.1985.