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Executive Education

Developing Star Performers

Stars are made, not born

It’s easy to spot a natural star performer—someone with an instinctive grasp of what can accelerate organizational success and how they can apply their ideas to the work they do. But star potential is not restricted to the lucky few. In fact, many people can be transformed into star performers given the right guidance and support. 

Based on Robert Kelley’s 30 years of rigorous research and drawing from his best-selling book How to be a Star at Work, this program aims to help leaders activate the star potential in people. See what separates stars from average performers and the key work strategies of the most productive employees. Recognize stumbling blocks that prevent people from giving their best. Learn to leverage star work strategies that result in major performance improvements for yourself, your team and your organization.

Note: Developing Star Performers shows how employees can up their game, while The Critical Path describes what employees should work on. While there is no significant overlap between them, the two programs share a common research base and together they form a natural progression of learning. 

How you will learn

This online program provides a research-based framework for developing and leading star performers. In a highly interactive environment, you’ll engage in hands-on exercises designed to build real-world skills, and you’ll get feedback from the program leader to strengthen your approach. You’ll walk away with ideas and strategies you can implement immediately back at work.

 

Who is this for?

  • Middle managers and team leaders in public or private sector organizations
  • Senior-level leaders such as directors and department heads
  • High-potential employees and other individuals who want to be star performers

 

The impact

Embarking on an Executive Education leadership program can be a transformative experience for individuals seeking to enhance their professional impact. Participants stand to gain a multitude of benefits:

Betterment begins with the self:

  • Analyze what you do that helps or hinders your performance
  • Assess your leadership style and its impact on others 
  • Learn strategies to amplify your inner star

Help people knock it out of the park:

  • Know what they need to do to achieve star performance
  • Provide the right balance of autonomy and guidance
  • Engage and motivate them by developing their talents

Create a platform for star performance:

  • Recognize what adds value and what does not—then focus on the critical work
  • Identify the contribution potential of those you lead
  • Allocate the amount of attention you give to various employees

Become a catalyst for change and success:

  • Implement work strategies that move the organization forward
  • Raise the bar on productivity
  • Enrich the organization’s leadership pipeline
  • Learn how career success trajectories evolve
  • De-bunk common myths about star performance, and remove obstacles to achievement
  • Understand what separates star from average performers
  • Adjust your leadership style to align with your people’s needs and expectations
  • Give everyone the amount of support they require
  • Leverage the work strategies of star performers to enhance productivity and achievement
  • Develop average employees into star performers, while promoting the prospects of your “naturals”
  • Improve your career trajectory by making your career assets increasingly valuable to the organization and the marketplace
  • Get a research-based framework for employee development
  • Know what to look for when recruiting and hiring new employees
  • Establish a “value-based” approach to performance evaluation of star performers
  • Reach a higher level of organizational productivity
  • Strengthen competitive advantage by ensuring people are focusing on the right priorities
  • Support organizational success by supporting your star performers 

Value-Added/Time Chart

  • Which performance group drives the contribution and profitability of your part of the business?
  • What is the “leverage” differential in your part of the business?
  • How are you allocating your time and energy to the various performance groups? 
  • Which people can you help become star performers in the next 6 to 9 months?
  • What can you do to create more star performing teams that have a significant positive impact on the destiny of the organization? 

Star Performer Model

  • How star performers at work are made
  • Ways that star performers do their jobs differently than others
  • Strategies for turning average performers into stars

Star Performer Characteristics and Work Strategies

  • The five styles of followership; identifying your style and those of your direct reports
  • How stars see the big picture to break out of tunnel vision and change the status quo
  • Knowledge networks and their impact on high performance
  • Self-management: adding critical value vs. simply putting in time and effort
  • Evaluating initiatives that will move the organization forward, and aligning them to critical work

Leveraging Leadership

  • Why successful people fail as leaders
  • What is your definition of Leadership?
  • What are the skills of Leadership?
  • Big “L” vs. small “l” Leadership
  • What do your star followers expect from you as a leader?
  • How does your leadership style interact with the followership styles?
  • Follower-leader interactions that lead to successful partnerships

Kelley, Robert

Dr. Robert Kelley

Adjunct Professor

Robert is a Distinguished Service Professor of Management at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he consistently is rated one of the top teachers and was nominated by students for Carnegie Mellon University’s Doherty Teaching Prize. Conducting career-propelling programs for managers by leveraging his acclaimed research, he leads sessions on developing star performers, followership-leadership, managing intellectual capital, designing customer-driven strategies and services, and getting everyone on the critical path.

As the author of the national bestseller How to Be a Star at Work: Nine Breakthrough Strategies You Need to Succeed, Robert has attracted international attention from media such as the NBC Today Show, CNN, CBS, and National Public Radio. His book was honoured as one of "The 100 Best Business Books of All Time" and the #1 career book by the New York Daily News. His other bestsellers include: The Power of Followership, The Gold-Collar Worker, and Consulting. His ideas have also appeared in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, Business Week, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, People, Cosmopolitan, and other major publications. 

Robert is an intellectual entrepreneur in the marketplace of ideas. Widely considered the founder of “followership” studies, he legitimated the topic and, in the process, changed the prevailing view of leadership. Likewise, he coined the term “gold-collar worker” which brought national recognition to brain-powered workers and spurred research on intellectual capital and the “creative class.” 

In addition to his academic duties, Robert is currently is teaching, consulting and writing about how to turn average performers into workplace stars, how to cultivate follower–leader partnerships, how to manage intellectual capital as the firm’s key competitive asset, and how to make organizations customer–driven. His research focuses on how to be a star performer in a global, virtual, multi-cultural, and 24/7 world; how minorities and women can avoid career de-railers; and the implications of intellectual capital on the individual, the company and the economy. 

Robert’s clients include 3M, H-P, Merck, Intel, AT&T, Wal-Mart, Alcoa, Ford, PNC Bank, Ontario Teachers’ Pension and Planning Board (Canada’s largest pension fund), the U.S. Federal Home Loan Bank Board, and the Fred Rogers Company (the organization behind the award-winning TV program Mr. Rogers Neighborhood). 

His educational background includes post-doctoral work at the Harvard Business School, Ph.D. from Colorado State University, M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, and a B.A. from Drake University.
 

[Executive Education Programs] Developing Star Performers, The Critical Path to Competitive Success

Upcoming sessions

calendar Program dates
price_tag Fees and Taxes
notebook Format
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Jun 19, 2025
$1390.00 + tax (5%)

Online

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Online format is delivered virtually in real time and are not recorded. 

Online format is delivered virtually in real time and are not recorded. 

Online

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Elevate your career and organization with UBC Sauder. Recognized as a global leader in executive education by the Financial Times, our programs deliver a transformative learning experience, resulting in tangible impact.

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