Two months after Toronto-based leadership training company Raw Signal Group held its first Betterboss training program, the company is now announcing Betterboss will be returning in March 2020.
“The idea that this event resonated globally was a really big deal.”
– Jonathan Nightingale, Raw Signal
The program focuses on developing strategies, setting realistic goals and targets, how to engage your team, and navigating the roles of coaching, mentoring, and feedback in leadership. Through this program, participants can work on mechanisms to keep themselves accountable, develop techniques to help team members grow and take on new challenges, and consider their personal leadership style.
The three-day program, targeted toward founders, executives, investors, and managers, will run from March 2 to 4. Raw Signal Group’s founders and partners, Melissa and Jonathan Nightingale, said they were very happy with the response with the September iteration and they want to replicate and carry over what they learned into the next program. (Note: the Nightingales have previously been regular contributors to BetaKit)
“We knew bosses needed time to work on themselves and their skills,” the Nightingales wrote for the program’s Eventbrite page. “We knew that a room of nearly 100 bosses from different industries and around the world would find they had a lot more in common than they initially thought. And we were right.”
What surprised the Nightingales was the networking value attendees saw in the September program. Johnathan told BetaKit they hadn’t thought of the program as a networking event, but found that they were able to create a new kind of opportunity for founders and leaders to connect and learn from each other, one that diverged from the standard corporate-run events or cocktail parties.
RELATED: Raw Signal Group explains when to mentor, when to coach at #FutureMakers
Melissa told BetaKit Raw Signal Group’s approach has historically been to help one company at a time, and that the structure of Betterboss was new for her and Jonathan, as their first multi-day, multi-company program.
She added the organization wanted to go in-depth to determine the values and individual stories of each organization they were working with, ensuring there was an atmosphere of honesty and openness throughout. She added that despite the diversity in seniority of the program’s participants, she noticed many of them came with a similar mindset and with kindred challenges.
“The neat part for us is how much those folks have in common,” Melissa told BetaKit. “Yes, they’re operating at really different levels of seniority, and different levels of accountability within the organization, but the commonality of those challenges is really where Betterboss shines.”
“The neat part for us is how much those folks have in common.”
– Melissa Nightingale
Jonathan said another gratifying part of the September program was early in the process, where Raw Signal Group sold more tickets outside of Toronto that from inside the city. For Jonathan, this demonstrated the universal need for the kind of training Betterboss was offering.
“We were just thinking about how many of the people there weren’t from Toronto, that were from across Canada, that were flying in from the states, that were flying in from Europe,” Jonathan said. “The idea that this event resonated globally was a really big deal.”
RELATED: Raw Signal Group wants to make managers uncomfortable with new book on leadership
Early-bird pricing for group and individual tickets is on now and will be available until the end of 2019. Raw Signal Group also has a limited number of discounted tickets for nonprofits (those interested can reach out to Raw Signal Group directly). Raw Signal Group is currently scouting for a March venue and plans to announce a location soon.
The company was also recently certified as a B Corp, a private standard issued to for-profit companies that meet strict social sustainability, transparency, and environmental performance standards. Raw Signal Group is one of approximately 3,000 companies globally that have reached that certification. Raw Signal Group was founded in 2017 by the Nightingales, who are both former employees of companies like Mozilla, IBM, Hubba, and Wattpad.
“Melissa and I really wanted to build this company and wherever possible, lock in the stuff that we talked to all these other leaders about,” Jonathan added. “We’ve got to be able to walk that walk too.”
Photo by Laura Crowell