Fundamentals of Leadership

(Formerly Known As Fundamentals of Supervision)

Leadership development is one of the highest-return workforce investments a company can make.

Leadership isn’t built in a day—it’s cultivated through coaching, practice, and reflection. Strong frontline leadership is consistently identified by employers as one of the most critical factors in employee retention, engagement, and productivity. WCEDA’s Fundamentals of Leadership (FOL) program helps emerging and existing leaders develop the soft skills that drive measurable results: better communication, higher engagement, and stronger teams.


FOL provides practical, skills-based leadership training focused on the real challenges faced by supervisors and managers in today's workplace.

Why This Program Matters

Employers consistently report that new supervisors are often promoted because of technical skill — not leadership ability. Without leadership training employees disengage, turnover increases, productivity declines, and workplace culture suffers.


Leadership development is one of the highest-return workforce investments a company can make.


Coaching that Builds Corporate Gains

Our approach goes beyond traditional “training.” Participants are coached to apply what they learn—turning ideas into habits, and habits into measurable improvement. Because the program is informed by your organization’s needs assessment, coaching conversations are grounded in real workplace dynamics rather than generic scenarios.

Fundamentals of Leadership is WCEDA's foundational, cohort-based leadership development program for current and emerging leaders.

Participants from businesses throughout Walworth County learn together through four integrated modules designed to build practical leadership skills that can be applied immediately in the workplace. The multi-business format gives participants the opportunity to learn not only from the instructor, but from one another—sharing experiences, challenges, perspectives, and solutions with leaders from other organizations.

48 Hours | 4 Integrated Modules | Multi-Business Cohort | In Person at Gateway Technical College

Leading and Communicating

  • The Leader's Job
  • The Qualities of Leadership
  • My Dysfunctional Work Family
  • Beyond "Don't Do That!"

Doing the Right Things

  • Onboard, Not Overboard
  • Fear No Review!
  • From Colleague/Coworker to Boss
  • You Can't Manage Time, But You Can Manage Energy
  • The Gorilla in the Room

Different Employees, Different Needs

  • The Ethical Supervisor/Leader
  • The Respectful Workplace
  • Psychological Safety at Work
  • It's Not Your Parents' Workforce
  • The Power of Difference

Attracting, Retaining, & Engaging the Best People

  • Call Me Irresistible
  • Finding, Keeping
  • Rethinking Conflict
  • The Good Fight
  • Change Leadership

Elizabeth Oplatka, Like Minds Business Psychology

Liz is an experienced consultant, coach, manager, educator, and business/government journalist with a unique combination of proven competencies in organizational psychology, organizational development, communication, strategic leadership, and change management. Liz coaches and teaches current and future leaders; supports and influences businesses; uses proven tools to assess current behaviors, need and program effectiveness; builds lasting teams and coalitions; improves employee engagement; revitalizes struggling enterprises and helps developing organizations through growing pains.

She has been coaching, consulting, and training in organizations and teaching at the undergraduate and graduate programs for more than 15 years. Prior to that, she practiced what she preaches as a business and government journalist known for turning around floundering enterprises and offering leadership expertise to the industries she covered. She also worked as an employee assistance professional, coaching and counseling in the Loyola University Health System Employee Assistance Program.

Liz earned a dual master’s degree in organizational psychology and counseling from the Adler School of Professional Psychology; a master’s degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism of Northwestern University; and a liberal arts BA from Illinois Wesleyan University.

Questions? Ready to discuss in more detail? Contact us below.

The following are companies that have found WCEDA's training programs valuable.

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