Local Government Special Topic Workshops

Basic Supervision
Local government supervisors will gain the fundamental tools and knowledge they need to achieve team goals. Topics include:

• Supervisory leadership
• Planning work and time
• Selecting, orienting and training employees
• Evaluating performance
• Communicating, counseling and mentoring employees
• Resolving employee grievances and complaints
• Working with the budget
• Ethics in the workplace

Change Management
Managers and supervisors will learn techniques for effectively implementing change in their organizations. Participants review change management theory and discuss the impact of change on employees, including strategies for addressing change resistance.

Communication Skills
Managers will learn how to maintain positive workplace relationships by improving interpersonal, written, oral, group and organizational communication skills. Practical and interactive exercises allow participants to reflect on their communication skills and become more effective at work.

Conflict Management
This course teaches supervisors, managers, administrators and other team leaders how to resolve and avoid conflicts between employees. Participants will learn about the effective use of conflict management tools and strategies in supervisory relationships.

Customer Service for Employees
This course examines internal customer relationships as supervisors and managers work to break down barriers between divisions and departments. Participants will learn to assess the needs of internal customers to allow for better working relationships and more efficient processes, ultimately resulting in seamless services to external customers. Techniques for handling difficult customers will also be addressed.

Customer Service for Managers
This program shows customer service managers the tools they need to effectively lead a team. Participants will learn the skills necessary to create, manage and maintain a productive, customer-focused climate.

Discipline Strategies
Managers will discover techniques for handling potentially difficult situations when discussing work performance, giving negative feedback and disciplining team members. This class provides the tools necessary to reduce problem behaviors and performance issues.

Elected Officials and Staff Relationships
This workshop will help reduce friction and miscommunication between county or municipal officials and local government staff by exploring their different roles and perspectives. Participants will look at ways of finding commonality between the two groups, resulting in improved public service delivery. The distinction between policymaking and administration and other council/commission staff-related issues will be explored using exercises, case studies and group discussion.

Ethics
Local government leaders will examine the importance of ethical conduct in the administration of their public duties. Participants will learn about state ethics laws and regulations that apply to employees. They will also discuss ethical dilemmas that often confront government employees and the value of local ethics ordinances.

Interviewing Skills
Participants will sharpen their abilities in open-ended questioning, active listening and reading body language. They will learn to apply these techniques to various business interviews, from hiring and coaching to assessment and termination. They will also receive clear guidance on key legal issues and specific do's and don'ts.

Leadership Development
This course will address the essential skills of successful leadership that go beyond technical expertise, such as the ability to inspire and direct others. Participants will evaluate their leadership perspective—how they see life, analyze problems, negotiate issues, make decisions and interact with others. They will also explore the value of good communication and the importance of maintaining relationships.

Leading During Difficult Times
Participants will explore ways in which the possibilities of cutbacks, reorganizations or restructuring, job reassignments and radical changes in service delivery can be opportunities for making positive change.

Media Relations
Elected officials and managers will learn how to interact with the media and convey their organization’s message effectively. Participants will learn how to best prepare for interviews, how to answer questions carefully and succinctly, and how to stay on message.

Motivating Today’s Workforce
Managers and supervisors will address what truly motivates today’s workforce and learn low- and no-cost methods to reward and recognize staff. Participants will learn how to build and harness their influence to motivate their teams and explore the powerful role of informal leaders. They will discuss the difficulties of maintaining morale when organizations must do more with less and learn how to keep staff focused during major organizational changes.

Organizational Excellence
Managers will discover ways to improve performance and employee retention by investing time and resources in people. This course will deliver workplace tools to build return on investment (ROI). Managers will learn the essence of coaching high-performance teams, coaching for succession planning and improving communication skills to support the mission of the organization.

Performance Appraisals for Managers
Managers will learn how to refine and maintain systems for effective employee management by setting and tracking goals to meet community and personal objectives. Managers will learn how to conduct performance appraisals and discover techniques to effectively coach, train and support team members.

Performance Measures
Managers will learn how to maximize the potential of their teams by evaluating employee performance. Training will cover different performance measures, and participants will learn to identify what they need to measure and how to do so through comprehensive workload, efficiency, effectiveness and productivity measures.

Power and Influence
Organizational leaders will focus on techniques for maintaining their authority and producing results by transforming their power into influence. They will discuss ways of selecting an appropriate influence strategy and acting assertively.

Problem-Solving
Managers will learn to use a variety of thinking styles, methodologies and creative processes to achieve their organization’s mission. They will discuss strategies for enhancing their critical- thinking skills and finding creative solutions to problems. Participants will learn to leverage their personal thinking preferences using tools and techniques based on cutting-edge technologies.

Project Management
Managers will enhance their decision-making strategies by adopting quantitative and qualitative techniques to evaluate alternatives and recommend the best choices. They will conduct a task analysis to generate a network diagram, Gantt chart and Risk Analysis. With project tasks, cost data and resource information, they will analyze conflicts and develop a project budget.

Public Speaking
Participants will learn how to better convey their messages when speaking to groups and presenting ideas, concepts, projects, recommendations and reports. Participants will gain skills in developing presentation content, delivering an effective presentation and dealing with the media. All participants will make a presentation during the class. 

Strategic Planning
Participants will learn a system for establishing a common direction for their organization to help guide future activity and plan for long-term health. This course will introduce participants to the principles and methods of strategic planning for organizations and will make them aware of various types of plans and planning terms. They will also learn to critique existing plans and design a planning process for their organization or a case study organization of their choosing.

Stress Management
This course will help participants understand and diagnose the stress in their lives, identify the stressors that can and cannot be controlled, and assess their readiness to make changes. There will be methods to help participants develop a systematic approach to eliminate stressors, manage their time and implement short- and long-term coping mechanisms.

Succession Planning
Upper and middle managers will have an introduction to the concepts behind succession planning and their role as managers in it. They will learn the importance of training and developing future leaders so that their organization has “bench strength” ready when needed.

Team Building
Managers and supervisors will learn the appropriate uses of teams in the workplace. In understanding how to promote cooperation, trust and cohesiveness, they will be better able to advance the goals of the organization. Participants will review current literature and best practices on successful development of teams and become comfortable giving other team members feedback.

Time Management
Participants will gain personal insight and practical skills for successful time management. Participants will adopt proven tools and techniques to make better day-to-day choices about investing their time and achieving their goals, improving both employee output and organizational competitiveness.

Train-the-Trainer
Personnel conducting internal training in their organizations will discover the conditions and ways in which adults learn best. Trainers will develop instructional techniques tailored to their content. They will also demonstrate their teaching style, which will be evaluated during practice sessions.