Looking for additional leadership opportunities for your new supervisors and aspiring and emerging leaders? Want to bring training to your team? Join us for our GROW classes, indicted on our Classes & Training page by the icon at left. These affordable courses are designed to help you improve your skills in areas like conflict management, emotional intelligence, delegation, communication, performance management, and more.
Overview
Chances are you’ve heard some positive – and perhaps more dubious – leadership advice over the years. Yet have you ever taken the time to consider how leadership actually looks for YOU? Is there a leadership quote or philosophy that guides your work? What are your top leadership values? What is your primary leadership style, and when should you adjust and use the strengths of other styles?
In Maximizing Your Leadership Potential, you will have the opportunity to explore these topics for yourself. In addition, the program is designed to help you with practical skills to achieve lasting, sustainable results through people. This course will enable you to sharpen your skills in four fundamental areas of leadership: self-awareness, learning agility, communication, and influence.
Who should attend:
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- Managers and supervisors of individual contributors
- First-level managers who are facing new challenge
- People who have recently been promoted to a management role
Key Topics:
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- Identifying your leadership style and what your personal strengths and weaknesses mean for leading your team
- Increase commitment and engagement to improve team effectiveness
- Build and strengthen relationships in ways that allow for better performance, effective delegation, and contribution of others
- Find constructive responses to conflict by understanding self and others
- Learn how and when to adjust leadership style and draw on others to understand and solve problems
Registration Summer 2025
Location: Grainger Hall, UW-Madison
Date: August 6, 2025
Time: 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Course Fee: $289
Register here for Summer 2025 or call 608-262-2451 to register. This course can be taken as a standalone course, or as part of the Learning to Lead Series. By registering for the full series (3 courses), participants will save 15% off of their registration fee. To sign up for the Series and receive discounted pricing, click here and register for all three courses in the same transaction. Additional discounts do not apply.
Not taking the Learning to Lead Series? Place 2 or more paid SBDC courses in your cart, and use discount code SBDC10 for 10% off. Classes must be purchased in the same transaction.
Registration Deadlines
| Registration type | Date | Fee |
| Earlybird | Earlybird closes: 7/16/2025 | Earlybird Registration Fee: $260.10 |
| Late Registration | Late Registration begins: 7/29/2025 | Late Registration Fee: $317.90 |
| Course registration closes | August 5, 2025 | — |
Registration & Cancellation policies
- Payment will be required at time of registration. You must have either a credit card or valid UW-Madison funding string to be able to register.
- Cancelations at least 24 hours before the program begins will incur a $25 cancellation fee. Cancelations less than 24 hours before the start of the program will incur the full program fee. To cancel, call registration at 608-262-2451. Please note that in the case of a cancellation (by either the participant or the SBDC), participants can only be transferred one time into a new course.
Disability Statement: Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact the UW-Madison SBDC office at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu to request accommodations.
The Small Business Development Center at UW Madison is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP®.
[I really enjoyed the] guided sharing stories, real examples [and] learning what time of leader/coach I tend most to be. Thank you Sarah!
Pastry Chef, Madison Sourdough
Taking this course in person with others is very edifying, and I think those insights and discussions were invaluable!
Tracey Mac Murchy, Dimension IV Madison Design Group, 2024 Participant
[The class included] really good real-world examples and great interpersonal discussions. The instructor is clearly experienced in the subject, [and is] upbeat, fun, and educational.
Business Development Lead, Midwest Solar Power, 2024 Participant
[It was so valuable] being able to discuss with peers good ways to manage employees and discuss issues we've been running into.
Service Manager, Baer Insurance, 2024 participant
I enjoyed the references to books, TED talks, videos, and other tools that can be utilized; Sarah did a fantastic job!
2024 participant
Sarah is very knowledgeable and has incredible insights, and her teaching style kept me engaged.
Amanda Snow, Senior Warehouse Lead, Diesel Forward
[Sarah was] very easy to follow and understand, and she genuinely cares what people have to say/add. [I liked] the discussions with other people who face similar situations to me but are in very different positions than I am.
2023 participant
[I appreciated] discussing real situations from each of our workplaces. Sarah was very personable and humorous – very enjoyable and a positive presence.
Clinic Manager, CI Therapies, Summer 2022 Participant
I loved learning about situational leadership! I had no idea that there were so many different approaches to leading people.
-General Manager, Float Light Float Center, 2023 participant
“The instructor was knowledgeable and gave real life practical methods on how to implement the strategies that were discussed throughout the class to maximize leadership potential! Would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in growing as a leader.”
Hamdi Munishi, Quality Manager Automation Components, Inc.
Wonderful class with a lot of engagement and personal experiences.
Safety Director, Daniels General Contractors, Summer 2022 Participant
Instructors
SARAH SMYRK, RCC™, CLF®, CCMP®
Assistant Director | Multi-Year Strategy Orchestration
Sarah’s career is driven by her desire to understand and relate to people. Throughout her career she has worked in many roles to help business leaders drive product and program strategies that are rooted in strong relationships, made by data-driven decisions, and centered around the holistic customer experience. She is passionate about working closely with individuals to help them achieve top levels of success and take their business to the next level while providing an outstanding client experience. Using her leadership skills and experience as a Registered Corporate Coach™ (RCC), she has excelled at helping teams build and implement programs that help strengthen and reinforce goals and top priorities.
Sarah joined Northwestern Mutual in 2016 and has held several leadership roles across the organization. In her current role, Sarah is responsible for helping enterprise teams effectively execute on multi-year strategy initiatives and ensuring alignment on change readiness plans across business partners and the organization. Sarah currently holds several industry designations including FINRA Registrations Series 7, 63, 9, and 10 and her Chartered Leadership Fellow (CLF®) through the American College. She is certified through PROSCI as a Change Management Professional (CCMP®) and LaMarsh Global as a Certified Change Practitioner. In December (2023), Sarah will earn her Masters degree from The University of Alabama with a concentration in Organizational Leadership.
Previously, Sarah was with CUNA Mutual Group in Madison, WI, from 2007-2016, where she was responsible for leading the strategy and execution of training initiatives for CUNA Brokerage Services, Inc. (CBSI) and its financial advisors. In addition, she was responsible for training for CUNA Mutual Group’s Life, Annuity and Health Product Sales Teams. While at CUNA Mutual Group, she developed and led CBSI’s Women of Distinction program, a group of the company’s top female financial advisors. The group focused on mentoring advisors who were either new to organization or to the industry.
Sarah lives in Madison, WI with her husband Sam and dog Andy. She was recognized by Madison’s InBusiness Magazine as “40 Under 40”, is a competitive bodybuilder, enjoys working out, and always being active.
The Wisconsin SBDC Network is a proud part of the Office of Business & Entrepreneurship within the Universities of Wisconsin.
It is funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact us at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu or call (608) 263-2221.