Course Outcomes

This management training program will:

  • Thoroughly explore employee engagement and steps managers can take to create an “ownership” environment.
  • Examine best practices for communicating up, around, and down.
  • Explore the root of most performance problems and the solution for addressing it.
  • Offer concrete steps for planning and delegating work.
  • Explain the change cycle and how to best support people dealing with organizational transitions.
  • Suggest a process for real-time coaching and counseling.
  • Delve into the value of mentoring and what the mentoring process should look like.
  • Describe team-development theory and practical steps for managing each phase of the process.
  • Offer a model for surfacing issues and addressing team conflict.
  • Provide participants with substantial opportunities to put theory in practice.

Rare is the manager in today’s “lean and mean” environment who is not expected to do more with less.  Comprising four days of instruction, this comprehensive program addresses the skills managers working in a manufacturing environment must have to lead in an era of global markets, shrinking product life cycles, rapid technological advances, instant communication, and organizational turbulence.

This is not a lecture-based course.  It is hands-on, practical, and designed specifically for people who are not used to sitting behind a desk. 

Participants can expect to practice skills, work in teams, identify any barriers that would prevent them from implementing skills, and develop a plan for putting theory in practice once back on the job.

The two reading assignments may be read traditionally or listened to in audiobook form.

Workshop Overview

The following outline highlights some of the course’s key learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of the participant materials prior to the session(s).

Session One: Communication and Employee Engagement

Communication is an essential ingredient in the recipe for a strong team.  Whether done with intention or established by neglect, managers and supervisors set the tone for what is expected.  This portion of the course examines the ins and outs of communication and employee engagement.

During this part of the program, participants will:

  • Assess their current behavior and environment for their impact on employee engagement.
  • Identify their strengths and shortcomings when communicating upward.
  • Understand their direct reports’ communication needs.
  • Recognize and understand blocks and barriers to effective listening.
  • Discuss when and how they should set expectations.
  • Understand what it means to be clear and how vague or ambiguous instruction is the root cause of most performance problems.
  • Examine the importance of behavior modeling and how it can positively or negatively affect others.

Reading /Listening Assignment: The One Minute Manager

Session Two: Planning and Time Management

Managers who fail to plan often find themselves with undue stress, missed deadlines, materials waste, shortfalls, and disengagement.  In this session, we will examine the importance of planning and implementing processes that will help prevent a culture of “fire, ready, aim.”  At the end of this session, participants will form teams and decide on a project on which they will work.  The project will focus on process improvement, communication improvement, or some other activity that will improve the business.

During this part of the program, participants will:

  • Discuss the necessity of planning.
  • Understand how, when, and why to involve others in the planning process.
  • Review the change cycle, typical reactions to change, and how to best manage both positive and negative reactions.
  • Create a project/process rollout plan.
  • Practice delegation.
  • Explore actions they should and should not take when reality does not match the plan.

Reading /Listening Assignment: The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey

Session Three: Coaching, Counseling, and Mentoring

Although often used interchangeably, coaching and counseling are separate activities requiring different skill sets.  Coaching is about upgrading performance and developing people.  Counseling addresses behaviors coaching cannot or has not effectively handled.  “But I don’t have time to develop my people!”  This is a frequent complaint of many hands-on managers.  Enter the concept of real-time coaching and counseling.  During this session, participants will learn and practice a practical process free of complicated steps for providing people with feedback.  Following those exercises, we will examine progressive discipline and what to do when real-time coaching and counseling are not delivering desired results.  The session ends with a discussion around the value of mentoring and the process of finding a mentor and acting as one to others.

During this part of the program, participants will:

  • Discuss the difference between coaching and counseling.
  • Determine when, where, and how to fit coaching into their schedules.
  • Explore the value of asking questions and how to use them in coaching and counseling.
  • Practice coaching and counseling in real-time.
  • Understand progressive discipline and the manager’s role in holding others accountable.
  • Plan and deliver a complex counseling conversation.

Session Four: Conflict Resolution and Team Building

No matter how good, most teams experience highs and lows at various points of their existence.  Part of a manager’s job is to help his or her team members balance workloads, navigate conflicts, renew purpose, and build camaraderie.  In this final session, participants will look at the team evolution process, team communication, and conflict resolution skills.  The course will culminate with the presentation of the participants’ projects.

During this part of the program, participants will:

Use the Johari Window to better understand team communication.

  • Examine Bruce Tuckman’s team development theory.
  • Discuss Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
  • Practice a model for surfacing issues and resolving conflicts.
  • Present their projects.

By the conclusion of this course, participants should have the tools they need to engage their direct reports, provide clear and unambiguous instructions, give real-time feedback, build their teams, and resolve conflicts.