Leading Organizations and People

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I. — Supervisory Training

Half-day (4 hour) modules may be selected from the following list. The modules are designed to introduce new supervisors to their responsibilities and develop skills of current supervisors.

Objectives

• Role of the Supervisor
  • Experiential exercise – importance of role
  • Key components of the supervisor role
  • Making the transition to supervisor
    
• Conflict Management
  • Conflict management styles
  • Sources of conflict
  • Conflict resolution process
    
• Creating a Motivating Environment
  • Identify and eliminate barriers to motivation
  • Determine motivators within the work environment
  • Individual motivation
    
• Coaching
  • Setting performance expectations
  • Guidelines for feedback and coaching
  • Follow-up
    
• Communication – Listening
  • Barriers to effective listening
  • Key skills for improving listening
    
• Communication
  • Communicating upward
  • Stating positions clearly
  • Providing information to employees
    
• Problem Solving
  • Six step problem solving process
  • Identifying root causes rather than symptoms
    
• Team Building
  • Characteristics of effective teams
  • Stages of team development
  • Effective team leader behaviors
    
• Effective Meetings
  • Making the most of meeting
  • Before, during and after the meeting
  • Documenting results

One to two-day classes are designed to develop management skills through the introduction of key concepts and practice of tools and techniques. Programs can be structured to include follow-up sessions, which allow participants to assess the application of skills and plan for continued improvement.

• Building an Effective Team
  • Characteristics of effective teams
  • Team start-up process
  • Team operations
    
• Team Leadership
  • When to use teams
  • Team chartering process
  • Leader roles and responsibilities
• Integrated Product Teams (IPTs)
  • What makes IPTs unique
  • Customer and supplier roles
  • IPT tools and processes
    
• Problem Solving
  • Determine the right people to include in the problem solving process
  • Implement a six step problem solving process
  • Select and use the appropriate problem solving tools or technique
  • Follow-up and track implementation of solutions to verify that the problem is solved
    
• Process Mapping and Improvement
  • Key steps in process mapping
  • Identify opportunities for improvemen
  • Develop processes to meet identified criteria
    
• Manage Conflict Effectively
  • Value of conflict (constructive vs. destructive)
  • Surfacing and resolving conflicts
  • Facilitating conflict discussions
    
• Facilitation
  • Role of the facilitator
  • Key facilitation skills
  • Practice with feedback
    
• Quality Improvement Tools
  • Overview of quality tools
    Selection and application of tools
  • Tracking improvement
    
• Excellence In Customer Service
  • Importance of providing excellent customer service
  • Provide what customers value
  • Use questions to gather information
  • Respond effectively to angry or upset customers
    
• Delegation and Follow-up
  • Analyze tasks to delegate
  • Develop employee skills to effectively accomplish tasks
  • Key steps for delegation and follow-through
• Presentation Skills
  • Target the presentation to the audience
  • Develop presentations with impact
    Key delivery techniques
  • Practice with feedback
    
• Communication Skills
  • Importance of communication in the organization
  • Key listening skills
  • Active listening
  • Organize and present ideas clearly
  • Use questions effectively
    
• Effective Meetings
  • Is this meeting necessary
  • Alternatives to meetings
  • Meeting preparation
  • Key steps to structure and facilitate meetings
  • Meeting follow-up
    
• Understanding the Basics of Finance
  • How businesses operate from a financial perspective
  • Key components of the Income Statement, Funds Statement and Balance Sheet
  • Ways to positively impact corporate performance
  • Key financial terms and concepts
    
• Financial Decision Making for Business Professionals
  • The difference between cash flow and profit
    Impact of the time value of money
  • Determine cash inflow and outflow for a project
  • Use evaluation methods to select and rank viable capital projects
  • Present projects demonstrating the financial impact
    
• Operating Plans and Budgets
  • Types, advantages and uses of budgets
  • Budgeting weaknesses
  • Key budgeting terms and concepts
  • Develop a master budget and cash budget
  • Budget variances

III. —Effective Meetings

In most organizations managers and employees spend significant amounts of time in meetings. Most of these meeting are less effective than they could be, use valuable time when people are not needed at the meeting, fail to produce the desired results and cause frustration. All of these problems are avoidable. Meetings can be planned for efficient use of time and structured to produce results. This class focuses on tools and techniques to make meetings useful and productive.

Objectives

At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Identify alternatives to meetings
• Plan for effective meetings
• Structure meetings to achieve desired goals
• Implement follow-up steps

IV. —Facilitation Skills for Meetings

Meetings are more productive, run more smoothly and keep focused when they are effectively facilitated. This workshop will provide leaders with key facilitation skills to make meetings highly productive.

Objectives

At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Describe the role of a facilitator
• Demonstrate key facilitation skills including focusing the discussion, summarizing and allowing for equal participation
• Structure discussions to achieve a specific end

V. —Presentation Skills for Meeting Effectiveness

Presentations must be targeted, concise and clear if they are to be effective. Many meetings get bogged down in long, unstructured presentations. This workshop focuses on key presentation organization and delivery skills.

Objectives

At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Target the presentation to the audience
• Develop presentations with impact
• Key delivery techniques
• Practice with feedback (additional day)

VI. —Stress Management

High levels of stress have consistently been shown to negatively impact our physical, mental and emotional well being. Many companies are also starting to see the positive impact on performance when stress management programs are effectively implemented. Stress can also be a positive, motivating part of life – but not when we feel out of control, under pressure and dissatisfied with our work.

This workshop will focus on identifying sources of stress in your daily work, determining how to minimize negative impacts and constructively respond to stress producing situations.

Objectives

At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Describe physical reactions to stress
• Identify stressful situations at work
• Compare positive and negative aspects of stress
• Assess how stress is impacting you and deal with stress in a positive way
• Determine how to effectively respond to stressful situations
• Implement stress reducing techniques

VII. —Time Management

Most of us would like to have more time in our day, yet we often do not use the time we have effectively. As a result we have more pressure, more stress, missed deadlines, long hours and a feeling that we are not in control of our time.

This workshop will provide participants with the tools and techniques to analyze how they spend their time, assess priorities, improve organization and use time more effectively. The focus is on both routine tasks as well as one-time projects.

Objectives

At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Identify barriers to effectively using time
• Describe time wasters and how to minimize them
• Assess personal time usage
• Prioritize activities
• Plan work effectively
• Identify ways to create balance
• Organize tasks for maximum output
• Analyze how your style impacts your ability to manage time
• Locate organization provided resources (calendars, on-line scheduling …)

VIII. —Work Environment and Employment Practices

The goal of all policies related to Employment Actions should be to create a positive work place where all individuals are treated with respect. The set of policies and practices must cover harassment prevention and equitable treatment in hiring, promotion, reassignment and work assignment. The following workshops focus on developing key management and employee skills.

Objectives

At the conclusion of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Definition of employment actions
• Developing comprehensive policies regarding harassment and employment actions
• Corporate / individual exposure
• Assessment of risk
• Implementing policies related to employment actions

At the conclusion of the manager and supervisorsí implementation workshop, participants will be able to implement:

• Importance of effective employment policies & procedures
• Promoting fairness in employment decisions
• Communicating policies
• Promoting high standards of conduct regarding employment practices and harassment prevention
• Manager’s role in responding to potential harassment or bias in employment decisions
  

At the conclusion of the employeesí workshop, participants will be able to understand:

• Description of employment policies
• Your role in creating a positive climate for all employees
• What to do if you see a problem