TMP Course Descriptions: Period 1

This course provides participants and those aspiring to become a manager, or who have recently been promoted, with the skills and knowledge to become a highly successful organizational leader. The course begins by assessing participants’ current leadership capabilities and shows them how to “build on their strengths” to hone in and focus on the talents they already possess into powerful managerial skills. This course shows students how to set and clearly communicate goals for their organizations, build strong teams, nurture collaboration, guide the efforts of individuals and groups to perform at the highest levels, and focus and motivate their employees to successfully achieve the organization’s goals.

Specific skills are:

• Defining your leadership vision and values
• How to organize your staff and assign responsibility and accountability.
• Building an effective hybrid workforce.
• Identify the four basic communication styles.
• How to run an effective meeting.
• Managing dysfunctional staff.
• Cultivate employee engagement and motivation.
• Building and showing your department’s value and worth to your organization.
• Develop and pitch a new and innovative product or service to management.
• Exciting roleplay exercises that include task delegation, meeting facilitation, and holding a difficult one-on-one discussion with an employee.

Day 1
Introduction to the course and Leadership Styles, Vision, and Values
a. Introduction and what to expect from this course
b. Review of syllabus and daily agenda
c. What is leadership?
d. 4 Basic leadership Styles
e. What skills do you already have?
f. What skills do you need?
g. What makes a great leader?
h. Review various political, civil, spiritual, business, and scientific leaders.
i. Exercise: Establishing your leadership vision and values

Day 2
Organizational Management, Engagement and Motivation
a. 3 Levels of Management
b. Office politics, competition, and your position
c. Origination and Realities of your new management position.
d. Staffing and skillsets
e. Exercise: Assign and RACI matrix
f. Employee Engagement
g. Motivation and Influence
h. Hybrid Workforce
i. Motivating the team and staff
j. The surprising truth about what motivates us.
k. Case Study: Motivation

Day 3
Communication Styles and Task Delegation
a. Communication & personality traits
b. Review the Thinker, Director, Socializer, and Relator
c. Red-zone behaviors
d. Self-Assessment Exercise: Which communication style are you?
e. Developing team synergy
f. Earning and fostering trust
g. Sharing a vision with your department
h. Active listening
i. How to effectively delegate
j. Role Playing Exercise: Practice Delegation

Day 4
Performance reviews and meeting facilitation
a. The performance appraisals
b. Soft skills and difficult employee conversations
c. Role Play Exercise: Correcting poor performance.
d. How to run an effective meeting.
e. Typical meeting roles
f. Meeting mechanics
g. Zoom calls
h. Meeting dysfunction
i. Meeting close and next steps
j. Role Play Exercise: Running a Great Meeting

Day 5
Department value and develop an innovative product proposal
a. Managing in Difficult Times.
b. Inverted yield curve
c. Showing Value and working on the right projects
d. KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators)
e. Financial and project metrics
f. Being visible not invisible
g. Create a brand
h. Managing ambiguity
i. Entrepreneurial spirit
j. Exercise: Develop an innovative product and pitch the idea to the instructor

Psychology has traditionally studied individuals, couples, and organizations in difficulty. Most theories and therapies are based on the work with these groups. But this problem-oriented focus has limited the usefulness of psychology in helping people to create and sustain success. There is a body of research that has sought to understand the traits and behaviors of people and organizations that succeed in the areas of career; building healthy, productive work relationships; and maintaining good physical health. The studies reach surprisingly consistent conclusions regarding the skills that allow us to create, maintain, and enhance success. In this hands-on course, you learn the skills of creating and sustaining excellence in the workplace through a lively mix of lecture, film, live demonstrations, case studies, and role-play scenarios.

Topics include:

• The 4 Skills of Successful People and Organizations
• How Successful People Change
• Strategies for Coping with Adversity in the Workplace
• The Essential Skill to Look for in an Employee or Colleague
• Preventing Conflict and Maximizing Collaboration
• Dealing with the Emotional Challenges of Managing People

In this highly interactive class, you will develop actionable strategies for building your brand as an inclusive leader, learn effective approaches for addressing the dynamics that undermine engagement and inclusion in many STEM environments, and build the skills you’ll need to lead the cultural changes that foster retention and top team performance while enabling all employees to thrive.

Leading in the 21st century is characterized by several challenges that result from highly disruptive market conditions and a rapidly changing workforce. The days when managers primarily control output and resources are behind us; and a new leadership mandate is in place that requires leaders to be inclusive, adaptive, flexible, empathetic, and fair to attract and retain top talent. Achieving this mandate is particularly challenging in STEM industries, which have been observed to operate in ways that are non-inclusive and inhospitable to people in underrepresented groups.

But there is good news for leaders: those who develop the skills and cultures that foster inclusion and engagement will create more positive environments, stronger collaboration, and better performance and retention outcomes with less effort. In this course, you will learn how to achieve these outcomes through applying the principles of strengths-based leadership, positive organizational scholarship, and emotionally intelligent leadership in environments that are psychologically safe, all while discovering how to bring your most authentic leadership brand to life in ways that encourage high employee engagement and inclusion.

Topics include:

• What effective leadership looks like in the era of DEI, marketplace disruption, and workforce disengagement
• Learning your top strengths and how to channel them toward building an authentic leadership brand that engages your team(s)
• Developing skills for leading yourself and others using the principles of growth mindset and strengths-based leadership
• Understanding how to cultivate high emotional intelligence to create stronger connections with your team(s)
• Learning effective strategies for leveling the playing field for underrepresented groups
• Developing the skills and strategies needed to lead effective culture change.

Outline of the Course

Day One

The Why: Establishing a theoretical framework for thinking about generations

The course begins with exploring the 'why' of the generational phenomenon. You will prepare to articulate the need for organizational adaptation (recruiting, training, processes, procedures, knowledge transfer, mentoring, and other dynamics).

Day Two

The What: Discussing current challenges presented in a multigenerational workforce

Once we gain a perspective on generational differences, we will identify specific challenges organizations and course participants are experiencing. The list of challenges that emerge from class discussion will inform real-world intervention strategies for leading today's workforce.

Day Three

The How: Discovering management competencies that lead to effectiveness

We will learn the competencies that differentiate effective managerial leaders from those who struggle with a multigenerational workforce. Participants are invited to suspend their perspectives and explore the values behind the behaviors of the various generations in the workforce. Participants will consider how their management approach is reflected or not reflected in the list of competencies.

Day Four

Discussing current challenges, young professionals face

We will discuss young professionals' challenges when they enter careers and how managers can help them overcome career barriers. The session will be significant for onboarding and developing young professionals.

Day Five

Preparing emerging leaders

We will identify personal challenges young professionals face when transitioning into management and how to help them negotiate the fear of disappointing their boss or isolation from former peers they experience. The ability to deal with ambiguity and decision-making will be a focus.

Team Project Assignment: Role-Play Exercise

Role-play: To act out or perform the part of a person or character, for example, as a technique in training.

Objective:

Learn how to apply the core competencies to real-life situations or help young professionals overcome a challenge they face in the workplace. Please refer to your notes for competencies and challenges. Select one of the nine competencies or one of the challenges and create two role-plays in which you use a competency or challenge in a work situation. One role-play will be utilizing a competency to engage the employee effectively. The other role-play will be an example of what not to do. The role play should be 5 to 7 minutes.

Course Learning Outcomes:

• Explain the dynamics at play in a multigenerational workforce
• Describe the theoretical framework for thinking about generations
• Use nine competencies critical to managing today's workforce
• Describe the challenges young professionals face when entering the workforce and how to coach them for success
• Recognize and address personal and organizational bias
• Develop emerging leaders
• Work cross-generationally