DURHAM, N.H. -- The Center for Family Business at the University of New Hampshire will launch its next Leadership Development Program Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010.

The Leadership Development Program assisting the next generation to assume greater leadership roles in their family businesses. Attendees develop confidence, plan for the future, learn to apply new management skills to company projects and build a peer network of support.

The program is taught by Vanessa Druskat, UNH associate professor of organizational behavior and management.

The program includes sessions on:

• Understanding effective leadership.
• Building self-awareness and a personal vision.
• Motivating employees.
• Building a synergistic team.
• Managing confrontation and conflict.
• Becoming a resonant leader in the organization.

The eight-session program meets once a month for full-day work sessions. A certificate in family business leadership will be awarded to those who successfully complete the program. All sessions are taught at the University of New Hampshire at Manchester. For additional information about the 2010 program and dates of the work sessions, visit http://www.familybusiness.unh.edu/leadership/index.html.

"While my son, Chris, and I have a solid business relationship, his participation in the leadership class has taken that good relationship and opened doors to a broader and better one," said Flip Hamblet, Hamblet Electrical Contractors.

"The Center for Family Business Leadership Development class dramatically improved my leadership skills by exposing me to a unique program that highlighted my strengths and weakness along with providing the tools necessary to implement changes," said Jason Wilder, non-family executive, Electronic Imaging Materials, Inc.

Tuition is $1,995 for members and $2,450 for nonmembers. For more information contact Barbara Draper at barbara.draper@unh.edu or (603) 862-1107.

The center, under UNH's Whittemore School of Business and Economics and the UNH Graduate School, is sponsored by Mass Mutual Financial Group, Moitoza Consulting, Baker Newman & Noyes, Pierce Atwood, Management Planning, Inc., and Optima Bank and Trust. It is a membership program to provide owners and managers of entrepreneurial businesses with an opportunity to exchange ideas and information and to discuss business challenges and solutions.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 11,800 undergraduate and 2,400 graduate students.

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