Cutting Edge Leadership is an innovative program that unites leadership principles with the highly disciplined and decisive sport of fencing.  You "step out of the box and onto the strip," learn new skills, and connect them to your workplace. 

Programs that build leadership competencies call on our minds and attitudes but often fail to capture our leadership experience in a physical metaphor.  Cutting Edge, in contrast, uses the classical discipline of fencing:

¤  Inspiring a Shared Vision.  On the strip, you practice steely concentration, similar to the strategic clarity and vision-directedness you must project as a leader.

¤  Encouraging the Heart. You learn to recognize and cultivate in others your shared passion for the fencing contest: the competition and the victory.

¤  Empowering Others to Act. Fencing moves that open the game to comrades and adversaries mirror honorable relationships with business stakeholders.

¤  Challenging the Process.  In fencing, mental agility trumps physical prowess. You become unstuck, ready to challenge what's stale in your work.

¤  Modeling the Way. A skilled fencer practices poise and self-discipline, both physical and moral. These practices are expected of ethical leaders. 

Cutting Edge Philosophy

In our workshops we "physicalize" the learning process by putting the Épée in your hand.  On the strip you'll have encounters where you make rapid choices:  you will experience leadership as the union of thought and action within an ethical framework. Dimensions of Cutting Edge are Agility, Honor and Enablement:

♥ Agility

Cutting Edge teaches personal mastery and energy management. As fencing is the thinking person's sport, the strip translates directly into choice-making in work.

♥ Honor 

For centuries, fencing has been based on honorable relationships among opponents -- directed not toward brute destruction, but toward out-maneuvering -- guided by a shared set of values.  Cutting Edge teaches how to convey and act out those values collaboratively.

♥ Enablement

In fencing we are always aware of the "other." We make openings for each other as collaborators, and face each other as adversaries, community members, and mentors.   

Results

Learning Agility, Honor and Enablement through the fencing metaphor gives Cutting Edge participants a physical reference point to respond to challenging leadership situations. You are encouraged to re-envision relationships with your team, your partners and your competitors. You return to work with a newfound sense of self-discipline, personal integrity, and responsibility to your stakeholders. 

In an age when the public doubts the ethics of many of its business leaders, Cutting Edge emphasizes integrity as a central part of the competitive process.  If you are committed to a leadership model centered on personal mastery, honor and community, Cutting Edge may be right for you and your organization.

To find out if Cutting Edge Leadership is right for you or your team, email info@worcesterfencing.com