Tag Archives: conversations

Human Resources, OIT, Risk Mgmt

Professional Development as a Tool to Connect With and Retain Your Employees

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Professional development, when properly utilized, helps organizations attract and retain top talent, increase employee engagement and satisfaction, and boost innovation within the team.  When a manager supports and encourages professional development, employees are more likely to translate their knowledge into team success.

What can you do to ensure your employees are growing in the ways that support your team’s goals?

1. Make professional development part of your regular conversations

manageManagers should include professional development as part of their regular goal setting conversations to ensure any gaps in hard (the “what” they do) or soft skills (“how” they do it) are identified and managed before they become an issue.   Asking the employee to look for ways to close the gap (through workshops, readings, job shadowing, cross functional teams, etc..) encourages employee ownership of the learning.  Additionally assessing a team’s needs and having the team identify ways to fill the gap encourages employees supporting each other toward success.

2. Create opportunities for your employees to share and learn from others

team5People enjoy learning from others. Finding ways to allow those with expertise share their knowledge or skill with others fosters collaborative environments and strong connections. This can be as simple as bringing the team together to hear what a team member learned in a workshop or conference session or to discuss a book they just read.

3. Share your own experiences about your professional growth

team4Help your team understand how you got to your current role and where you hope to be in the future. Your team will learn that you value growth and development and, if you are candid, will be more likely to discuss their own concerns and take advantage of opportunities to get better.

Regular conversations about personal goals and professional development shows your employees that you care, that you support them, and that you encourage their personal success.

Professional Development resources available at SMU:

HR Professional Development Workshops: open to all employees, free of charge

HR Manager Lunch and Learn Series:  pop up sessions on topics that matter in the moment

SMU Manager Orientation Program:  open to all newly hired, current, and aspiring managers; also free of charge

Total Orientation Process for New Employees:  supporting new employees during their probationary period of employment

Tuition Benefits Program: available for regular benefits-eligible employees, their spouse, and dependents

IT Training:  open to all employees, free of charge

Lynda.com:  online learning offered via SMU OIT and available for all employees

SMU Continuing and Professional Education (CAPE):  offering an SMU employee discount.  Call or email for specifics.

SMU Cox Executive Education Professional Development: Friends and Family Discount of 50% off all Programs for Individuals, including  the Summer Business Institute.

General, Human Resources

Crucial Conversations: This Award Winning Training is Now Available at SMU

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Most of us could offer a guess as to what a “crucial conversation”  might look like.  We can also likely recall some of these conversations  we initiated or have stumbled into – often with less than stellar results!

ccCrucial Conversations is the title of a book co-authored by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan & Al Switzler.  They define a crucial conversation as one where stakes are high, emotions run strong, and opinions vary. Their signature statement is “if you feel stuck — in a relationship, in your career, at home — chances are a crucial conversation is keeping you there”.

Training Course:  Tools for Talking When Stakes are High:  quote

Crucial Conversations is also offered as a training course, developed by Vital Smarts, which teaches skills for creating alignment and agreement by fostering open dialogue around high-stakes, emotional, or risky topics throughout all levels of an organization. Skillsets covered include learning how to speak and be heard (and encouraging others to do the same), in order to begin to surface the best ideas, make the highest-quality decisions, and then act on decisions with unity and commitment.

What Makes This Training Program Successful?

There are three concepts that make the training engaging and allow for participants to build the skill to handle these conversations well.

1.  Hands-on skill-building: participants lecc4arn a new skill, apply the skill via practice, and receive helpful feedback in order to get better.
2.  Videos  which show the correct, near miss and disastrous results for situations in order to learn from the success and failure of others.
3.  Follow up tools to support the transfer of skill from the classroom to the office.

HR is Certified to Offer Crucial Conversations Training!

HR can partner with your team or organization to deliver this one day training course.  There is a cost associated with the training and we are happy to visit with you about this and investigate the most effective way meet your needs.

What Changes Can You Expect After Your Team Has Completed the Training?

With crucial conversations skills, you’ll be able to:

  • cc2prepare for high-stakes situations
  • transform anger and hurt feelings into powerful dialogue
  • make it safe to talk about almost anything
  • be persuasive, not abrasive
  • improve nearly every professional and personal relationship
  • yield professional improvements in areas like productivity, quality, safety, diversity, and change management.

Interested? Email us at DevelopU@smu.edu.

Learn about additional resources available to you on our Managing Through Change webpage.

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