Lead with Influence (September 2025)

$600.00

Apply Now

Lead with Influence (September 2025)

This is an interactive, virtual training for leaders who manage big responsibilities — such as processes, products or platforms — and have no direct reports. 

This virtual training is also being offered in February.

September 10, 2025– October 1, 2025

Overview

  • Meet online weekly from Sept. 10-Oct. 1 (four 4-hour sessions).
  • Learn about your dominant tendencies through exercises, brief assessments and discussions.
  • Discover how best to work with people with different tendencies.
  • Learn and practice effective strategies in giving and receiving feedback.
  • Use a pop-up Slack channel to connect with your peers and participate in weekly leadership challenges.
  • Discuss your career questions with experienced industry leaders during 45-minute AMAs.
  • All main sessions are recorded and will be available to participants after the program is over.
  • Apply for this program as soon as you know you want to participate. The deadline is July 31, 2025.

$600.00

Apply Now

Learning Outcomes

In this course, you will learn how to:

  • Build strategic and productive relationships throughout your organization.
  • Design user manuals that will be helpful to you and your colleagues.
  • Approach feedback conversations as an opportunity.
  • Market yourself and your work.
  • Lead your leaders by challenging and managing up.

$600.00

Apply Now

Overview

  • Meet online weekly from Sept. 10-Oct. 1 (four 4-hour sessions).
  • Learn about your dominant tendencies through exercises, brief assessments and discussions.
  • Discover how best to work with people with different tendencies.
  • Learn and practice effective strategies in giving and receiving feedback.
  • Use a pop-up Slack channel to connect with your peers and participate in weekly leadership challenges.
  • Discuss your career questions with experienced industry leaders during 45-minute AMAs.
  • All main sessions are recorded and will be available to participants after the program is over.
  • Apply for this program as soon as you know you want to participate. The deadline is July 31, 2025.

Training five or more people?
Check out our custom training.

You want to pitch a new idea to your boss and you want to make sure it gets heard.

You need to give constructive feedback to a colleague and you’re afraid of hurting their feelings.

You have a hard time saying no when someone asks for help, even when you’re overloaded. 

Why?

These are just some of the challenges that Lead With Influence participants will work through in the four-week virtual program, set weekly from Sept. 10-Oct. 1, 2025.

Designed as a career/leadership development 101 course, Lead With Influence guides participants as they learn more about themselves so that they may better work with others. This will not only help them to effectively use the influence they currently have, they will set themselves up for success in the next steps of their careers.

If you have the title of project manager or product manager, or are in the position of being responsible for outcomes without formally supervising anyone (no direct reports), this program is for you. 

You might oversee a big investigation, a rewrite of your organization’s standards and ethics policies, or the launch of a community partnership. You might be in audience development, where you’re building a workflow to accommodate a new product, or training the staff on best practices, yet you have no team of your own. You may be in communications, and have to navigate getting buy-in and collaboration across departments ahead of a launch announcement.

In essence, you’re the driving force behind initiatives that are critical for the success of your organization. Lead With Influence gives informal but influential leaders like you the skills needed to be as effective and successful as possible.

This virtual program will be offered twice in 2025: in February and September. All the main sessions are recorded, so it’s easy to review and catch up if you must miss a session. 

Questions?

If you need assistance, email us at info@poynter.org. Some tuition scholarships may be available. Let us know if you require financial aid in your application.

This online group seminar takes place Sept. 10-Oct. 1, with live sessions from 1-5 p.m. Eastern. Participants will need to block off these time slots:

Week 1:

Wednesday, Sept. 10, 1-5 p.m. Eastern

The currency of leadership: Understanding your strengths and leadership styles

Week 2:

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 1-5 p.m. Eastern

Getting (and giving) better feedback: Learn and practice a framework for giving and asking for feedback.

Week 3:

Thursday, Sept. 25, 1-5 p.m. Eastern

Communication up, down and across: Get comfortable with marketing yourself and your ideas.

Week 4:

Wednesday, Oct. 1, 1-5 p.m. Eastern

It’s ME time: Learn what motivates you and your colleagues.

Who should apply

Leaders in journalism or journalism-adjacent organizations who have lots of responsibility but no direct reports. This might include people with such job titles as product manager, project manager, audience engagement editor or specialist, visuals editor, analytics editor, producer, senior reporter, or communications specialist.

If you think you would benefit from learning about demonstrating leadership without formal authority, you should apply now. This course has limited enrollment and will fill up quickly. 

Application process

The process to apply is straightforward and simple. No letter of recommendation or reference is required. Please be prepared to answer questions about your professional experience, areas of interest and basic demographic information. The deadline to apply is July 31, 2025.

Cost

Tuition for this online workshop, which includes four weeks of live instruction, is $600. Payment is due after we process applications and confirm your participation.

Instructors

Lead Faculty

  • Kathy Lu
    Adjunct
    Kathy Lu has spent more than two decades in journalism as a leader and manager. She is an alumna of several leadership courses, including through...
    Read More