Course List 2025-27  Call 949-887-1525 for course descriptions.

Email us today: jbwhitneyandassociates@gmail.com

JB Whitney is eager to announce the following new courses this fall:

  1. Diplomacy for Leaders

      This class enables leaders to influence others without creating divisiveness. Practice includes the following:

  • Communicating with tact—discussing hard topics in a way that preserves relationships and fosters growth
  • Managing conflict without escalation—seeking common ground instead of fueling division
  • Balancing honesty with strategy—telling the truth, but in a way that’s constructive and effective, not disparaging and cruel
  • Representing something larger than yourself—whether it’s your family, your company, your community, or your country

Diplomacy in everyday life is about bridging divides without betraying values. It’s not manipulation; it’s effective, elegant            influence.

       Why Study Diplomacy?

  • Preserves Relationships: Builds stronger, broader social networks
  • Expands Influence: Enhances loyalty as it circumvents autocracy
  • Navigates Variety: Coalesces variety into synergy and enables true collaboration
  • Avoids Unnecessary Battles: Creates non-reactive open communication
  • Builds Legacy: Espouses a “moving forward” mentality

A diplomatic approach usually will establish you as the leader whom others trust to remain unbiased and impartial, to hear             all points of view, to smooth tensions by role-modeling calm, assertiveness, and to find the way forward.

  1. Business Acumen for Ascending Professionals

Some professional adults seem to ascend quickly—so exactly what are they doing to stand out without being ostentatious?                Covered in this class are tricks of the trade gleaned from a variety of executive coaches spanning the last 40 years. Topics                include the following:

  • Polishing the resume and CV
  • Personal branding: positivity; problem-solving not problem stirring; obliterating gossip
  • Interviewing tips
  • Finding a mentor
  • Leading upwards
  • Never jumping the chain of command
  • Grooming your competitive side: tossing your hat into the ring often
  • Giving and receiving constructive feedback
  • Resolving conflict before it escalates
  • Working within a hierarchy—Doing what you’re told to do without complaining
  • Disagreeing vs insubordination
  • Dressing professionally on a shoestring budget
  1. Leading with Fairness and Influence: Building a Culture of Trust & Accountability

This course empowers emerging and established leaders with the tools to foster a culture of fairness, mentorship, and trust.            Participants will explore the following:

  • How to mentor team members
  • How to distribute workload equitably
  • How to recognize contributions to increase engagement

Students will also examine the principles of merit-based promotions and cover exactly how to address any misperceptions of           favoritism through use of a transparent leadership style—no more guesswork. Lastly, this course will introduce practical                 frameworks for communicating and managing organizational change while ensuring cultural shifts are inclusive and aligned           with team values. Emphasis will be placed on building psychological safety and trust—the cornerstones of high-performing           teams.

  1. Rapid Decision-Making Skills: Think Fast and Decide Smart (1 Day)

In today’s fast-paced environments, hesitation can be costly—but so can rushed decisions. This course dives into the                          psychology of making fast, accurate, and strategic decisions when the stakes are high.

Focus topics will include the following:

  • What exactly is heuristics? The science of bias, the brain’s shortcuts under stress, programming, fast vs slow thinking (Kahneman’s system one and system two)
  • Common decision-making traps and how to escape them (confirmation bias, sunk-cost fallacy, analysis paralysis)
  • The role of intuition: when gut instinct serves and when it misleads
  • Decision-making frameworks every leader should know

Takeaway Tools: Students leave with plug-and-play frameworks, a rapid response decision checklist, and mental models that          build confidence and clarity when choices can’t wait.

The following courses are also available for the period of 2025 through 2027:

 Air Force Courses

  • Air Force Professional Writing Level One—1-3 days
  • Air Force Professional Writing Level Two—1-3 days
  • Air Force Pro Writing Intensive—5, four-hour days spread over 5 weeks
  • Better Briefing—1 or 2 days
  • New Lead Engineer Training—1 day
  • New Engineer Professional Communication—1 day
  • Surviving Deployment—Before, During, & After—practical tools for mindset & focus both for those leaving and for those left caring for the home/family—1 or 2 days
  • Technical Writing—Test Plans & Test Reports—1 day

Communication

  • Assertive Communication—Learn the formula for speaking up and for assuaging anger before you communicate—1 or 2 days
  • Powerful Body Language—Harness Your Human Lie Detector—1 day
  • Professional Communication—Polish external & internal, spoken & written correspondence for optimal effectiveness and promotion—1 or 2 days
  • Quantum Communication—1 day: This class covers alignment of thoughts, words, and body language ultimately leading to interpersonal success both at work and at home. Sounds great, right? Yet, how do we get ahold of our 6,200 thoughts per day? And how much control do those thoughts really have? Attending this course will provide empowering techniques to use before you enter a room and before you speak. Students will learn to identify and to reframe any accidental bias and thereby to stop it before it leaks out in micro-gestures and eventually in words and tones. Professional boxers figured it out a long time ago—let’s bring intuition back into our daily language as we conquer it and human communication—more kindergarten and less college please?
  • Rapid Reading, Retention, and Recall—1 day
    • How to speed up reading skills
    • How to improve focus and build a larger brain battery “willpower”
    • How to enhance comprehension
    • How to sharpen memory

 Communication (Written)

  • Business Writing Level One—Brush-up on Basics—1 or 2 days
  • Business Writing Level Two—Paragraphing, Letters, Memos—1 or 2 days
  • The Writer’s Options—Advanced Writing Techniques—2 days
  • Business Writing Level Four—2 days (reports, executive summaries, abstracts, résumés, CVs)
  • Technical Writing (general level—how it differs from business writing and why)

Business Skills

  • Administrative Executive Assistant 101—1 day
  • Benchmark Note Taking—1 day
  • Branding & Business Etiquette—1 day
  • Coaching—1, 2, or 3 days (Theory & One-on-One)
  • Creating High-Performance Teams/Strategic Planning—1 day
  • Customer Service—2 days
  • Difficult People—2 days
  • Emotional Intelligence—1 or 2 days
  • Engaging & Motivating Yourself & Others–2 days
  • Interviewing for Success—1 day
  • Leading Without Authority—1 day
  • Managing Stress—1 day
  • Powerful Presentations (public speaking, briefing)—2 days
  • Resilience, Failure, Success, & Growth Mindset—1 day
  • Successful Meetings—1 day
  • Team-Trust Building (Esprit de Corps)—2 days
  • Time Management (Stop Chasing Your Tail)—1 day

Leadership

  • Coaching—How Is It Different and Why Don’t More Leaders Do It?—1day
  • Creating “Collaborative” Teams—What should I do if they don’t get along? What if they don’t produce?—1 day
  • Design Innovation—How to create an environment for creative genius to thrive: prototypes, story boards, & iterative process—1 day
  • Ethical, Value-Based Leadership—1-day: Guides leaders through their decisions and actions according to the following principles: integrity, responsibility, accountability, transparency, empathy, & fairness.
  • Leadership Communication for Maximum Impact: Storytelling—1 day Topics to be covered:
    • The power of the “Branding-You Audit”
    • The impact of a great story through visual mind maps
  • Leadership Through Marketing—1 day Topics to be covered:
    • How and why to focus on the customer’s perspective
    • What is leadership’s role in analytics?
    • Obtaining a working knowledge in data science
    • Storytelling through crisis and into innovation
  • Persuasion, Social Influence, & Negotiation—1 day
  • Servant Leadership—1 day
  • The Leader’s Foundation—The Magical 3x5s—1 day
  • The Essentials of Influence—1 day

Through the lenses of psychology and neuroscience, this course is designed for any person to understand the techniques of             the experts and to utilize them in everyday life both at work and at home. It examines the following topics:

  • The human needs of conforming and belonging
  • Generational prototyping vs stereotyping
  • Acknowledging and utilizing zeitgeists
  • Networking, coalition-building, and leveraging

 

  • Transformational Leadership 501 A—1 day
  • Transformational Leadership 501 B—1 day
  • Understanding, Managing, and Resolving Conflict—1 or 2 days
  • Vanguard Leadership Program—(3 years)
    • Year One: 4, three-day workshops; 12, one-day coaching sessions
    • Year Two: 3, two-day workshops; 6, one-day coaching sessions
    • Year Three: 2, two-day workshops; 3, one-day coaching sessions

Professional Self-Care

  • Energy, Vitality, Better Health, & Longevity for Professionals—1 day
  • Focus, Mental Clarity, & Memory—1 day
  • Peak Performance Under Stress—Of course you are stressed! We thrive with it, get bored without it, use it as fuel—until we fail, get passed over for promotion, or get sick—So just when is stress good and when is it debilitating? This class discusses the fine line between good and debilitating pressure and the warning signs to heed as you ascend the corporate ladder—1 day
  • The Neuroscience of Change—Understanding our brains waves and their frequencies in order to change any unwanted programs/habits—1 day
  • The Neuroscience of Personal Excellence—1 day: Enhance your brain’s ability to solve problems, to reason strategically, to make powerful decisions, and to persevere under pressure.
  • The Psychology of Getting Things Done—1 day: It’s time to understand the “Zeigarnik Effect.” Stop feeling guilty! You’re not lazy! It’s not about muscling through! This class is about knowing why you may not be getting things done. Once you understand, the spiral of disappointment stops and practical tools have a chance.
  • Think Like a Scientist—Let’s build a new, dogged personality together by studying the failures of the greatest scientists in history! Attend this course and learn how to apply the iterative process to all endeavors and reframe any soul-crushing aspect of so-called failure. We’ll study failure, debriefing, and redirecting. Students will understand the neuroscience behind building tenacity. Content includes a formula for success which includes creating a “never say die” mindset.—1 day