Workshops for Public Leaders
Management Education Group Inc. offers a variety of customized workshops for public-sector executives and managers. To set up any of these workshops, or design a custom workshop, call or email us at 480.705.9394 or info@managementeducationgroup.com.
Painless Performance Management: A Practical Approach to Managing Day-to-Day Employee Performance
One of the most essential skill sets a manager or supervisor must use every day are those skills related to the management of employee performance. Helping employees be successful and guiding those employees who may not be performing up to expectations is a critical activity used by all effective managers. This program, based on Marnie E. Green’s book, Painless Performance Evaluations: A Practical Approach to Managing Day to Day Employee Performance, offers the essential skills in managing day to day performance including how to establish and communicate clear expectations and how to conduct performance-related discussions. And, since performance management usually culminates in a regularly scheduled performance evaluation, tools for completing the performance evaluation documentation and for conducting the discussion are offered in this practical, hands-on program.
Target Audience: Any lead worker, supervisor, or manager who is responsible for setting expectations, giving performance feedback, or delivering performance evaluations should attend this course.
Course Objectives:
Participants can expect to:
- Implement a performance management plan together with their employees
- Establish a work climate that is results-based and focused on objectives
- Initiate and maintain positive communication about work performance through documentation and feedback
- Prepare and conduct performance discussions that encourage an exchange of information and produce better results
Course Topics:
- The performance management process
- Performance planning
- Establishing performance expectations
- Criteria for setting SMAART goals
- Documentation and keeping an employee log
- Providing performance feedback
- Writing the performance appraisal document
- The evaluation discussion
Engaging Employees through Painless Performance Conversations: Practical Tips for Boosting Morale and Employee Performance
Why do we most avoid the conversations that are likely to have the greatest impact and meaning on our relationships with employees? One of the most essential skill sets a manager or supervisor must use everyday are the skills of conversation and dialogue. Helping employees find success and guiding those employees who may not be performing up to expectations is a critical activity that all effective managers must perform. By facing up to often-difficult conversations, managers and supervisors can create an atmosphere of enhanced accountability and performance. This session explores how to establish and communicate clear expectations for others and how to conduct difficult performance-related discussions. Based on the book, Painless Performance Evaluations: A Practical Approach to Managing Day to Day Employee Performance, the program presents a useful discussion model that will be applied by the participants.
Participants will be expected to prepare an individual case study which will form the basis of intense practice and feedback on their ability to conduct “difficult” performance conversations. In small groups, participants will practice the skills presented in the course and receive immediate, practical feedback. This process, repeated several times throughout the course, is intended to build the confidence and competence of managers who are required to address performance challenges in the workplace.
Target Audience: This course is essential for all executives, managers, and supervisors. It is also applicable to anyone in the workplace who is required to initiate and conduct difficult performance-related conversations with others.
Course Objectives:
Participants can expect to:
- Establish a work climate that is conducive to productive conversations about performance in the workplace
- Initiate and maintain positive communication about work performance by using a sound approach to management
- Provide clear and direct feedback to others without risking the relationship
- Prepare and conduct performance discussions that encourage an exchange of information and produce better results
- Receive direct and specific feedback on their performance conversation and documentation skills
Course Topics:
- Customized written feedback on actual performance documentation they have created
- Specific feedback and extensive practice on real life, participant-created scenarios
- A fully developed list of performance expectations that apply to their work unit
- Practical tools for preparing for a difficult performance conversation
A Hands-on Academy: The Art and Practice of Public Leadership
The Management Education Group’s Art and Practice of Public Leadership workshop provides a solution for public organizations to aggressively address the challenge of developing and retaining leaders. A revolution is taking place in how public leaders are cultivated and managed. Organizations can no longer expect that when they face a leadership void, a pool of qualified and motivated candidates will miraculously appear. The concept of “growing your own” in terms of leadership is permeating organizations of all types. While many organizations have recognized this need, few have sustained a successful method for developing and retaining leaders.
The Art and Practice of Public Leadership is more than a training program. To successfully implement the effort, the organization’s top leaders must be committed to the design and delivery of the curriculum. Our experienced consultants work with your organization’s top executives to design a curriculum that includes organization-specific examples and case studies. Once the agenda is agreed upon, a comprehensive candidate selection process is designed so that it supports the organization’s succession planning efforts.
The delivery of the Art and Practice of Public Leadership can be tailored to the organization’s needs. Some organizations implement the program by offering workshops weekly and others choose to hold workshops monthly. However the schedule is arranged, the content of the program focuses on practical, thought-provoking, and challenging concepts that apply to the real life experience of a public leader. Typically, the Art and Practice of Public Leadership content includes a multi-rater feedback process, individual development planning, action learning through an organization-specific project, and a variety of subjects including risk taking, collaboration, and political savvy.
Target Audience: Our goal is to develop executive-level public leaders. As such, the target audience for the Art and Practice of Public Leadership is typically those managers who are one step away from a director-level position. Successful candidates should:
- Have at least six months experience with organization.
- Understand clearly why they have been nominated and why they are expected to commit their time to the program.
- Have direct reports or current, relevant supervisory experience.
- Currently are accountable for the performance of others.
- Plan on a long career with the organization.
- Are seen by their peers as a leader
- Show an active interest in their own professional development.
Course Objectives:
Participants can expect to:
- Enhance the leadership skills of selected public-sector managers
- Prepare selected leaders for taking on the organization’s current and future organizational initiatives
- Upgrade the organization’s talent pool
- Enhance communications at all levels throughout the organization
- Facilitate individual development planning for selected leaders
Course Topics:
- 360-degree feedback and individual development planning
- Behavioral assessments
- Action learning through an organization-specific project
- Extensive, experiential learning activities
- Role play
Develop Your Organizational Talent: Lead the Workforce of the Future
This course emphasizes the importance of making employee development a regular part of a manager’s job, and presents practical tips for how to accomplish this task. The focus is on preparing the current workforce to be more productive and flexible to meet future demands. Organizational leaders are the critical link to retain and develop the organization’s staff of the future. However, often they are immersed in the daily activities of the work unit in a reactionary mode. Focusing on the “crisis of the day” causes leaders to ignore the critical task of preparing the workforce for the future. Managers and supervisors often neglect one of their most vital roles: that of coach and mentor to their employees.
Target Audience: Any organizational leader, manager, or supervisor will benefit from this course which provides strategies for developing the skills of their direct reports. Human resource professionals who may be charged with creating employee development programs will also benefit from this course.
Course Objectives:
Participants can expect to:
- Define and explain changing workforce beliefs and how they have evolved
- Recognize the implications of an impending leadership drought and develop recruitment strategies to attract top candidates to the organization
- Plan workplace activities that will enhance the retention of star performers
- Use personal development plans in the organization and draft a coaching plan for an individual employee
- Write an action plan to make employee development a priority within their work unit
Course Topics:
- Fostering new organizational beliefs about loyalty and trust
- Defining the problem: A leadership drought
- Managing talent: The key to future organizational stability
- Developing and retaining top talent using retention strategies that work, personal development plans, coaching skills, and mentoring programs
