Monthly Archives: January 2016

General, Human Resources, IAE, Legal, Risk Mgmt

Manager Orientation Training – What’s In It for You!

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Know the Resources Available to You

Businessman taking file from co-worker
SMU knows that managers play a key role in living out the mission and achieving the goals of the University. The primary objective of this orientation program is to support a new manager’s successful transition to a supervisory role within the University.  It’s important to note, however, that the training is not just for new managers!

Manager Orientation is designed to provide anyone who supervises staff with essential skills and key information needed to successfully manage both employee performance and organizational initiatives. All managers can benefit from understanding University policies and procedures, knowing the right people to contact for assistance, and learning critical skills that support successful working relationships.

The Program consists of 3 required and 3 elective workshops.

Who Should Attend?

  • Newly hired and newly promoted managers are required to complete the program within their first year of hire or status change.
  • All managers can benefit from a refresher on these topics — especially the three required workshops covering SMU policy, practices and work culture.
  • Employees aspiring to a manager role in the future —  help them get a jump start on the program by encouraging them to start the training before the promotion.  Having the information ahead of time helps the employee know what to expect in the future and may help them develop the needed skills more quickly.

Upcoming workshops include (* indicates a required workshop to complete the program):

Project Management Essentials for the
Unofficial Project Manager		 Jan 26 8:30 am-5:00 pm
*Legal and Risk Management for Managers Feb 2 3-5:00 pm
Coaching – Power of Questions Feb 16 1-5:00 pm
*Workplace Diversity Issues for Managers Feb 18 10:00 am-noon
Presentation Advantage March 1 8:30 am-5:00 pm
*Introduction to Human Resources  March 2 2 – 4:00 pm
Managing and Coaching for  High Performance March 22 1-5:00 pm
Speed of Trust March 29 1-5:00 pm
*Legal and Risk Management for Managers March 31 10:00 am-noon
5 Choices April 6 9:00 am-5:00 pm
Employee Relations Essentials April 7 9:-11:00 am
*Workplace Diversity Issues for Managers April 12 3-5:00 pm

Enroll via my.SMUat  https://my.smu.edu and navigate to Self Service>Learning and Development> Request Training Enrollment.  Follow the on-screen directions to select and submit an enrollment request.

Resources:

Questions?  Email us at DevelopU@smu.edu.

The SMU Managers Blog provides timely and relevant information to support managers in their roles.
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General, Human Resources

The 5 Languages of Appreciation at Work

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Did You Know?

  • 79% of employees who quit their jobs cite a lack of appreciation as a key reason for their leaving!
  • 87% of job seekers report the #1 characteristic they desire in a workplace is to feel valued!
  • 65% or North Americans report that they received no recognition or no appreciation at their workplace in the past year!

Lack of Appreciation Results in Stress in the Workplace

The impact of authentic appreciation when staff feel valued is measurable and includes the following:

  • improved relationships between manager, employee, and co-workers
  • increased job satisfaction
  • reduction in tardiness and absenteeism
  • decreased staff turnover
  • diminished internal tension and conflict
  • increased productivity
  • improved customer satisfaction
  • a more positive workplace
  • managers like their jobs more!

Want to Build a Stronger Team Through Appreciation?

Thumbs up

The program consists of 4 modules of training with an Motivating By Appreciation assessment so team members can learn their primary, secondary, and least valued language of appreciation.

 

 

The training covers:

  • the importance of appreciation
  • the 5 languages and what they mean
  • how to put the languages to                                                                               work in your organization
  • making it stick

Join us at the Staff Association sponsored Lunch and Learn Series in the month of February or contact Mary Stall directly to learn more about offering the training with your intact team.

Questions?  Email us at DevelopU@smu.edu.

The SMU Managers Blog provides timely and relevant information to support managers in their roles.
Sign up for the RSS feed and immediately receive posts in your Outlook inbox.

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.

rssThe SMU Managers Blog provides timely and relevant information to support managers in their roles.
Sign up for the RSS feed and immediately receive posts in your Outlook inbox.