Know what winning looks like.
Get clear on the result you own, how it’s measured, and the standards you won’t trade to hit the number.
Detroit Economic Club Emerging Leaders
GDD Foundations · Six-session emerging leaders installation
Lead people. Stop carrying all the work.
Handle the hard conversation. Get clear on who owns what. Help people think without becoming the answer to every question.
GDD Foundations is a six-session installation for new and mid-level leaders in the Detroit Economic Club emerging leaders community. Bring a real challenge from your job. Practice a better way to handle it. Put it to work between sessions and bring back evidence of what changed.
Your first step into Guide, Don’t Drive™ starts with the work you already own.
Six live sessions. Real work between sessions. Progress you can show.
The challenge
Being good at the work doesn’t make leading people easy.
You explain what needs to happen. Somehow, the work still comes back to you.
Your boss wants results. Your team needs answers. You’re trying to keep people moving without becoming the person who makes every decision.
Maybe you’re leading former peers. Maybe you’ve managed people for years and still take over when the deadline gets tight. Or you’re responsible for a project without having authority over everyone involved.
You’ve heard the advice: delegate more, communicate better, hold people accountable.
Fine. What do you actually say when someone misses the same commitment again? What do you hand back when doing it yourself would be faster? How do you push for a clear priority when everything is supposedly urgent?
Those are the moments we work on.
Why this is different
Knowing what to do isn’t the same as doing it under pressure.
You may already know good leadership advice. The test comes when you’re frustrated, the deadline moves, and taking over feels easier.
In Foundations, you bring one real work challenge through six connected sessions. You practice the conversation, use it at work, and return with what happened. A weekly peer check helps you keep going between sessions.
If a new approach doesn’t hold, we examine why and adjust it. If it works, you build the habit that helps it repeat.
That’s what we mean by installation. The goal is a change in how you lead that someone else can see.
Participant outcomes
What you’ll put into practice.
Stay steady when pressure rises.
Catch the moment you’re about to react, rescue, or avoid. Practice a response people can count on.
Help people think for themselves.
Ask questions that uncover facts and build judgment. Make the next decision and its owner clear.
Have the conversation sooner.
Address a missed commitment with a clear standard and a next step owned by the person doing the work.
Turn commitments into follow-through.
Check what happened, correct what slipped, and recognize what should repeat.
Show how you’re growing.
Build a record of changed behavior and real work results. Give yourself and your manager evidence of your progress.
The experience
Six sessions. Six places your leadership gets tested.
Each session answers a question you face at work. You’ll learn the approach, practice it on a real situation, and leave with something specific to use. The next session builds on what actually happened.
01
Installation focus · Clear Winning
When everything is urgent, what actually counts as winning?
You can work hard all week and still miss what your manager expected. When the target is vague, more effort won’t make it clearer.
What you’ll learn
- 01Turn a broad expectation into a clear result, a way to measure it, and a next commitment.
- 02Ask your manager or project owner to resolve competing priorities before you promise everything.
- 03Set guardrails: the standards you won’t trade away just to hit the number.
Why it matters
You can’t own a result you don’t understand. Clear expectations give you a sound basis for decisions, tradeoffs, and conversations about progress.
What you’ll put to work
One clear result from your actual role, its score and guardrails, and a seven-day commitment. You’ll identify what needs agreement from the person with authority and begin a weekly progress check.
In real lifeTwo people give you conflicting deadlines. You bring the tradeoff into the open and get the priority agreed before one deadline gets missed.
02
Installation focus · Guiding Identity and Behavior
Who gets the worst version of you when pressure hits?
You want to be supportive. Then the deadline slips, you interrupt, take over, or stop asking questions. People experience what you do, even when you meant something else.
What you’ll learn
- 01Spot the moments that trigger controlling, rescuing, assuming, or avoiding.
- 02Turn “I want to be a better leader” into a specific action someone else can observe.
- 03Ask for facts before reacting, and check what the person needs to do the work well.
Why it matters
If bringing you a problem means getting a lecture, people may wait until the problem gets bigger. Your response helps determine how early you hear the truth.
What you’ll put to work
One behavior to stop, one to start, and a real conversation to practice them in. You’ll ask someone affected for feedback and check whether your actions match the leader you intend to be.
In real lifeSomeone brings bad news. You get clear on the facts and support needed before deciding what should happen next.
03
Installation focus · Ownership
Why does every problem end up back on your desk?
Someone asks what to do. You give the answer. It feels helpful, until they need your answer for the next decision, too.
What you’ll learn
- 01Ask questions that help someone examine the facts and think through a decision.
- 02Make the result, decision boundaries, and available support clear before handing work over.
- 03End a conversation with the next action owned by the right person, including in peer relationships.
Why it matters
Being the fastest problem solver can make you the bottleneck. People need room to think and enough clarity to act. Guiding includes instruction when someone lacks the knowledge to move forward.
What you’ll put to work
A real ownership conversation, a clear agreement about who decides what, and a check on the result. You’ll practice asking useful questions without turning your advice into a question mark.
In real life“What should I do?” becomes a conversation about the facts, the options, and the decision they can own.
04
Installation focus · Standards and Recovery
How many times can you let it slide before it becomes the standard?
The commitment gets missed again. You don’t want to damage the relationship, so you cover the gap. Now the work is late and the frustration is yours.
What you’ll learn
- 01Separate an unclear expectation or missing support from a commitment someone hasn’t kept.
- 02Open a difficult conversation with facts and a clear standard.
- 03Use Recovery to help the person define how they’ll return to the standard and how progress will be checked.
Why it matters
Avoiding the conversation leaves people guessing about what you’ll accept. A clear, timely response gives the work and the relationship a better chance to improve.
What you’ll put to work
A conversation you’ve been putting off. You’ll rehearse it, prepare for pushback, and leave with a clear standard, an owner-defined approach, and an evidence check. Start with what you’ve been allowing from yourself.
In real lifeA peer misses a handoff. You address the agreed commitment directly and involve the right decision-maker if the fix is outside your authority.
05
Installation focus · Weekly Performance Discipline
Another good meeting. So why is nothing changing?
Everyone gives an update. Everyone sounds busy. Next week, you’re talking about the same problem.
What you’ll learn
- 01Check what changed instead of accepting activity as progress.
- 02Turn a vague promise into an owned change you can see within seven days.
- 03Address what slipped and recognize the specific actions that should repeat.
Why it matters
A commitment needs a return visit. A simple weekly rhythm helps you catch problems early and keep follow-through from depending on your memory or constant chasing.
What you’ll put to work
A weekly check using your real result, last commitment, evidence, and next action. You’ll strengthen the rhythm begun in session one and use it to surface a blocked decision or handoff that needs attention.
In real life“I’m working on it” becomes a clear account of what changed, what’s blocked, who owns the next decision, and when you’ll check again.
06
Installation focus · Proof the Foundations Hold
What changed at work because you were here?
Feeling ready after a session is a start. Keeping the practice when work gets messy is the real test.
What you’ll learn
- 01Compare where you started with evidence of your current results and behavior.
- 02Test whether the practices hold through pressure, competing priorities, and fewer reminders.
- 03Name what still needs work and build a clear plan for the next 90 days.
Why it matters
Your manager and teammates experience what changes in your work. A record of that change gives you a more useful growth conversation than saying you attended a program.
What you’ll put to work
A record of your progress, feedback from someone affected, and a 90-day plan you own. You’ll identify what holds, what still needs support, and what hasn’t been proven yet.
In real lifeYou can show the decision someone now owns, the conversation you handled sooner, or the commitment that holds with less chasing.
Bring the challenge you’re dealing with now.
The work that keeps coming back. The conversation you keep delaying. The priorities nobody has made clear.
You’ll use a real responsibility throughout the six sessions. Weekly checks and Recovery begin in session one, so you can start applying the work before the next session.
Book a ConversationAsk about the DEC cohort, time commitment, and investment. Decide whether it fits your next step.
The larger system
Your first step into Guide, Don’t Drive™.
Guide, Don’t Drive™ is the Human Performance Operating System. It connects how an organization defines Winning, assigns ownership, holds standards, and delivers performance. The full system starts with the CEO and runs through the organization.
GDD Foundations is where you begin as an emerging leader. You start with Guide Yourself™ and install the first practices you can use within your own responsibilities. You build the foundation to guide others and contribute to the larger system.
Completion is based on evidence that those starting practices are taking hold in your work. Attendance alone doesn’t establish that. Installing GDD across your company is a separate, CEO-led commitment.
Your guide
Practical work with a guide who knows the challenge.
Leadership gets real when a deadline moves, someone misses a commitment, or the easy answer is to do it yourself. That’s the work we bring into the room.
Lowisz Leadership Institute brings Steve Lowisz’s Guide, Don’t Drive™ system and its work with Detroit Economic Club emerging leaders into this six-session installation.
“The biggest change for me was understanding the difference between driving people and guiding them.”
Ebonee Patterson-Martin
Senior Compensation and Performance Analyst, Dakkota Integrated Systems
Who it’s for
Start where you are.
Foundations is built for new and mid-level leaders, including managers, project leads, and people leading through peer relationships. You’ll need a real responsibility to work on and a willingness to use the practices between sessions.
You don’t have to wait until you lead a department. If you own work, support a team, or influence decisions, you have a place to begin.
Which program is right for you? This branded six-session program is for Detroit Economic Club emerging leaders. For a general 12-session readiness program, explore Preparation for emerging leaders.
A simple plan
How to get started.
Request information.
Tell us who you’re considering the DEC installation for and what you want to change.
Confirm the fit.
We’ll share DEC cohort details, eligibility, time commitments, and investment so you can decide.
Begin the installation.
Bring a real challenge, put the practices to work, and build proof of progress.
Common questions
DEC GDD Foundations FAQs.
You already have the responsibility. Build the way you’ll lead.
Tell us a little about yourself or the emerging leaders you want to support. We’ll help you decide whether the DEC six-session installation is the right place to begin.
Take the next step
Request Information
Get the DEC cohort details, time commitment, and investment for GDD Foundations.