Leadership/Supervision Series

Leadership/Supervision Series

“I’ve taken a lot of different leadership classes over the past 20 years and this is definitely at the top of the list!”
                                                       – An EAP employee

A seven part series teaching supervisory and leadership skills to integrate behaviors that build engagement, help reduce defensive responses when holding staff accountable, and build trust among work groups. The goal of this series is to help leaders and supervisors prevent employee relations problems and support resolution of job performance issues. This series will be offered in the Spring and Fall of 2022 and is designed for supervisors or managers, but anyone interested in the topic is welcome. See below for class descriptions.  To register visit our REGISTRATION CALENDAR.  Registration opens one month prior to first training date of series.

SPRING SERIES: 8:30am to 10:00am by Zoom invite.

FALL SERIES: 10:30am to 12:00pm By Zoom invite.

Session #1 People Smart Management

Covers fundamental skills to give positive and negative feedback to resolve job performance, problem behavior, and conflict while minimizing anger and defensiveness:

• Ingredients of Constructive Feedback: the “Breakfast of Champions”
• Consider critical variables prior to intervention
• The Ladder of Inference: Avoiding conclusions that escalate conflict

Session #2: What Kind of Leader Are You?

Are leaders born or made? Join us as we explore the wide range of leadership styles and examine the strengths and challenges of various approaches. Participants will have an opportunity to learn more about their own leadership styles and gain insights into how to develop skills and techniques to enhance their natural abilities.

Session #3: Positive Communication to Build an Engaged Team

No matter where you find yourself in life you must be able to communicate effectively in order to be successful. Everything that happens in the workplace is affected by good or bad communication. This workshop will provide an opportunity to acquire and refine those communication skills that are the keys to any successful leader’s performance.

Building an effective and engaged team involves understanding how to bring individual and organizational needs together in a way that leads to success for all parties. Effective leaders must help to motivate and inspire creativity in others, facilitate a process that will clarify common goals for the team, and involve the team in developing an effective action plan to achieve these goals. This workshop will provide specific strategies for enhancing team effectiveness:

• Create a culture that inquires about situational realities in the workplace
  • Ask strategic questions that strengthen relationships by clarifying facts and avoiding accusations: Open ended and probing questions
  • Using perception checks to open discussion and reduce anger

Session #4: Finding Paths through Conflict

Leaders know that conflict is inevitable, but many lack the skills necessary to utilize conflicts to strengthen the team rather than derail it. This workshop will provide a framework for understanding how conflict develops, ways in which a supervisor can intervene to resolve issues, and strategies to empower employees to address potential conflicts as they arise. Covers the decision model to select a conflict management strategy while holding people accountable:

• Handling Conflict with Style: Different conflicts require different conflict strategies
• Universal Job Expectations: Recognizing the importance of technical and interpersonal skills

Session #5: Coaching and Correcting Job Performance

Supervisors have many opportunities to coach their workers to be more skillful. Opportunities arise when an employee needs to learn and practice better job skills or better interpersonal skills and when a worker needs to stop certain actions as well (managing anger, for example). This workshop will focus on helping supervisors define what specific behaviors need to be changed, teach staff how to increase or stop these behaviors, set time tables, and evaluate progress. Specific strategies to encourage and motivate employees will also be discussed.

In addition, we will outline the resources at Cascade Behavioral Health & EAP that are available to assist supervisors in their roles, including supervisory coaching, mandatory employee referrals, and training opportunities. Helping employees to be more skillful is a great gift to individual workers and to the entire workplace!

Session #6: Generations in the Workplace

The 75 million baby boomers who make up 45 percent of the workplace are now starting to retire. Our workplace will change! We may understand and be accustomed to the beliefs and values of the baby boomers, but we now need to be able to understand the characteristics of successive generations. The difference in values and beliefs, views on authority, career goals, and work-life balance can be confusing and we may unintentionally harbor judgments and stereotypes. You will gain an overview of the four generations present in the workplace today and strategies for motivating and working with each one.

Session #7: Leadership in Times of Organizational Change and Transition

Contemporary leaders face challenges that were unimaginable even a few short years ago. The future promises even greater changes and challenges within the workplace and in the world at large. Leaders are in the unique position to find opportunities amidst changes and help others successfully navigate them. This workshop will focus on identifying these future challenges and utilizing tools such as creativity, networking, and empowerment necessary for success in this diverse and ever-changing environment. We will also address “emotional intelligence” in the workplace to improve effectiveness and explore ways to help organizations and individuals build resilience.