Professional Development Opportunities

Welcome to SEA's Professional Development Portal. Below you will find on-demand webinars exclusively for SEA members. These are available for access at any time by logging in to the website.

Not yet an SEA member? Join today to access professional development webinars and more!

Wednesday Webinars

Brought to you in partnership with TeamResults USA, these webinars provide easy to digest doses of leadership insights, refreshers, and thought provoking conversations. Webinar topics include:

An online Masterclass on Teamwork and Leadership
Featuring a new distinguished expert guest for every episode
These episodes were first aired over 1 April – 30 September 2020.
All episodes are Copyright © 2020 Team Results USA LLC – All Rights Reserved

  • Dealing With The Worried Team

    Description: 
    How do the world’s leading organizations handle worry and uncertainty in work teams? Right now there’s an obvious shared worry over health and welfare, but in fact team members always have survival concerns that can affect their work. These dynamics are not new, and by understanding them, you as a leader will be at a significant advantage over those who just hope for the best. Discover five leadership tips for handling the worried work team, based on 25 years of working in this field with world-leading clients like IBM, Toyota, Pfizer, the State Department, the FDA and NASA – as well as many small businesses. Note: This first episode has no outside expert guest, just our CEO.  All other episodes have guests.

  • Handling The Distributed Work Team

    Description: 
    How do you successfully run a work team when people are far away or working from home? It’s one of the biggest challenges in leadership, because you're denied some critical tools in human communication at the very moment you most need them. Right now, distributed work teams are on our minds through necessity – but in fact running a distributed work team as either a leader or a participant is not new. A lot is known about how to do this well, both from leading case studies and from modern discoveries about work teams and groups. Discover five leadership tips for handling the distributed work team, based on 25 years of working in this field with world-leading clients like Toyota, Cisco, Hitachi, the State Department, Homeland Security and NASA – as well as many small businesses.

  • Creating Persuasive Work Teams

    Description: 
    How can your work team be convincing to stakeholders? A good team is not enough in the online age – they also have to be able to persuade others. Getting support for your plans in a virtual world is not a new problem, because organizations like the State Department, FEMA, the FDA, IBM, Pfizer and Intelsat have to do it all the time. We have gathered the best team-based persuasion strategies from clients like these and others, and will be offering them at this webinar.Discover five ways in which your work team can successfully convince others, based on 25 years of working with world-leading organizations.

  • Keeping Work Teams Productive and Motivated

    Description: 
    How can you keep a work team productive and motivated? It’s even harder when they're not in direct sight, because productivity and motivation can be tricky to observe. It’s usually clear when productivity and motivation drop sharply, but by then it’s getting very late to take action. Luckily we are not alone in this leadership quest, and some aspects of ensuring productivity and motivation in work teams, even in difficult times, are quite well understood. Discover five ways to keep a work team productive and motivated, based on 25 years of gathering the best thinking and ideas from organizations like NASA, FEMA, the FDA, Toyota, Cisco and Pfizer.

  • Handling Unexpected Change

    Description: How do you handle and lead unexpected change? Coping with planned change is hard enough, but handling unplanned and imposed change adds a new level of complexity. Luckily there are well-understood methods for creating certainly and confidence in work teams - even when there's doubt and confusion all around. Modern thinking on how teams operate, and modern approaches used by organizations which routinely cope with uncertainty, both yield some very useful answers for working leaders. Discover five ways to handle and lead unexpected change, based on 25 years of gathering the best thinking and ideas from organizations like FEMA, the DoD, Intel agencies, Toyota, Pfizer and IBM.
  • Maintaining Humor and Good Mental Health in a Team

    Description: 
    How do you maintain humor and good mental health in a team? It's one of the things that characterizes great leaders, but it can be hard to do.  Luckily this is not a new problem, and there are leading people and organizations willing to share their secrets  - even in very stressful environments. Their ideas and successes offer useful tips for working leaders. Discover five ways to maintain humor and good mental health in a team, based on 25 years of gathering the best thinking and ideas from very "serious" organizations like the DoD, Homeland Security, the FDA, Toyota, Pfizer and Intelsat.

  • The Anatomy of Teamwork - A Primer for Leaders

    Description: 
    What is the latest thinking about work teams and how they operate? Has anything changed?  Does more at-home work, or even a slow easing of at-home work, affect the answer? The last five years have brought a deep new understanding of how work teams really operate, primarily because of new research at UCLA, Sandia Labs, the University of Arizona and other leading institutions.  Share in the practical results and find out what every modern leader ought to know. Discover five significant insights into how to run a work team, based on pro-bono research work by UCLA, Sandia, U of Arizona and others in which the presenters have had a role - and also on 25 years of work with organizations like Toyota, IBM, the FDA and the State Department.
  • Coaching the Coaches - Secrets of Senior Leaders

    Description: 
    How do successful leaders influence people far and wide? Reaching just your own circle of coaches and helpers is not enough in these new times. Discover how the best leaders and project managers do it, and some of the approaches they use to influence groups and teams at multiple levels. Organizations like Toyota, Pfizer, FEMA and the State Department are expert at this and we’ll share their secrets. Find five practical ways to coach the coaches, and to spread your influence and your ability to make a difference to every corner of the organization. Case studies include the Wolf Trap center, Toyota, some leading ideas from Harvard university, and 25 years of practice with about 60 large organizations.

  • Practice Makes Perfect - How to Lead With Simulation

    Description: 
    How can you get your team into an efficient work rhythm? It’s especially tricky now, with normal work patterns disrupted by a pandemic. When lectures and webinars are not enough, organizations like NASA, the State Department, the FDA, IBM, Toyota and Pfizer rely on Simulation.  But what is Simulation, and can it work in your department or organization? Discover five tips for running your own great team Simulations - without needing outsiders. It’s surprisingly easy. We’ll look at what Simulation really is, and at how leaders at DHS, the State Department, Pfizer and IBM are very successfully running their own Simulations for team and leadership development.


  • Pivot - Entrepreneurial Thinking in the Age of Change

    Description: 
    “Just pivot.” It’s simple to say during these times of change in the workplace, but hard to do. What is the reality that underlies all the easy rhetoric? And what advice do successful business leaders have for us when we need to roll with the punches and to improvise rapid shifts in direction for our own companies, departments and people? Discover five expert tips for redirecting your own team. This webinar features a very special guest, Chef Jacques Haeringer of the famed L’Auberge Chez François, taking us through 66 years of challenge and change – including Coronavirus – both as a leader of a large staff and as one of America’s best-known celebrity chefs.  Also featured will be collected advice from organizations like IBM, Pfizer, FEMA and the FDA.

  • Writing a Book to Help Your Career or Business

    Description: If you've ever thought about turning your story into a published work that others will read, this is the webinar for you.  Your book may or may not be a global best-seller, but it will definitely be the best career-booster and business card you ever had. Featured presenter Meredith Maslich is a book publisher and the CEO of Eaton Press, and she will talk about how to get your book published in the modern era. Social media expert Leila Gilbert-Rivera will demystify the art of making your book successful through social media. And co-presenter John Kolm will tell you how he turned his expertise at running team and leadership programs into a career as a best-selling author.All three presenters have an extended network of authors, publishers and promotional contacts, and will be at your disposal.

  • Running Work Teams in a Virtual Workplace

    Description: We've all had enough time now to realize that Virtual Teams run very differently to regular teams.  But are there any simple, proven strategies that allow you to be at the forefront of leadership and success in running a virtual work group? With the help of a distinguished guest and collected Virtual Space team and leadership approaches from clients like IBM, Pfizer, Toyota, FEMA,NASA and the FDA, we'll look at five proven insider strategies for running elite Virtual Teams - and also at five mistakes that are  very easy to make. You'll leave this session with some key tips and hard-to-find resources that you can use immediately.
  • Surviving The Siege - How to Lead Through Lockdown Fatigue

    Description: We’re at an interesting stage with lockdown now, where we’ve mastered the basic rhythms. Lockdown is no longer exciting or new, and weariness has begun to set in.  That fatigue can be one of the hardest challenges for leaders. Join us on September 16th for some expert advice on how to deal with siege fatigue. Siege fatigue is not new, and we’ve brought together the experience of many government agencies and corporate groups - and a special guest expert in the field. You’ll leave with five practical steps you can take right now to help your team avoid the worst of lockdown fatigue and siege mentality.


  • What Now - Leading The Aftermath

    Description: There's no shortage of advice and commentary on lockdown, but very little useful help and leadership thinking on how to handle the aftermath. Yet steering work teams through the "next" - through the difficult return to a post-lockdown world in the coming months - will be one of the biggest leadership challenges of the last hundred years. Join to hear some top-level thinking from a special guest expert, and to sample the plans being made in places like Toyota, IBM, FEMA and the FDA. Leave with five practical insights you can use to prepare your own work team for whatever comes after lockdown.