Custom Training — Management Skills

· Set Goals

· Manage Performance

· Coach Employees to Success

· Manage Time

· Take Corrective Action

Set Goals
“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else.”

I was facilitating a management training course for a major company and asked, how many of your people can tell you these three things:

• The strategic directives of the company
• The department goals and how they contribute to the strategic directives
• Their individual goals and how they contribute to the department goals

You should have seen the blank stares I received in response to my question. And, believe me, many of their problems could be traced directly to the fact that “if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else.”

All employees should have a mission statement and goals that tie into the company goals. Goal setting is also a huge motivational tool. This course can be a stand-alone or a part of a performance management session.

Manage Performance
There should be NO surprises during a performance review!

There should be no surprises during a performance review. Employees should receive year-round, ongoing feedback on how they are performing against goals. In this course you will learn to

Include the employee in defining performance goals.

• Establish requirements for “meets” and “exceeds” performance.
• Show employees how to document their own performance.
• Monitor progress against goals.
• Provide tools and coaching for ongoing improvement.
• Develop employees.
• Give supportive and corrective feedback.
• Adjust goals when necessary.
• Evaluate performance against goals.

Coach Employees to Success
Turn performance problems into opportunities for growth and learning.

New managers often assume that once employees “get it,” they no longer need guidance. Some managers are too hands-on, and some are too hands-off. Ken Blanchard wrote the book (literally) on Situational Leadership in which he distinguishes between “directive” and “supportive” behaviors. Managers need to know

• How to coach employees in both skill and attitudinal domains.
• When to intervene with help and suggestions and when to step back and let employees figure it out for themselves.
• How to turn performance improvement issues into opportunities for growth and learning.
• How to provide tools for success.

Take Corrective Action
The longer you wait to correct behavior, the worse it will get!

Has anyone ever told you to be “more organized” or “less abrasive” or “more assertive” or “more decisive”? And was that feedback helpful and instructive?! Probably not.

Instead of my manager telling me to “be more organized,” she sent me to a time management course, THEN had me teach the course to the entire company. That was effective performance improvement! In this course, you will learn how to

• Give specific, outcome-based feedback.
• Match the corrective action tool to the situation.
• Turn corrective active into a coaching opportunity.
• Address sensitive issues while preserving the dignity of the employee.

Manage Time

If you read the above course description on Take Corrective Action, you will see that I had a problem with being organized. My manager solved the problem by sending me to a course that provided a system for managing time, work, and projects. Not only did it change the way I work, but also, I can now retrieve five-year old information in less than three minutes. This course focuses on the following:

• Aligning goal setting with daily planning
• Assigning priorities to individual tasks
• Tracking daily work
• Keeping records in one place
• Cross-referencing information for easy retrieval