EAGLE
Training for Frontline Supervisors
Module #1: Moving into Leadership
Course and Instructional Objectives
1-1: Leadership Roles and Responsibilities
With the changes in technology, employee, customer, and organizational values, the front-line supervisor is what would be called the, “The sandwich supervisor,” put between the two slices of organization and the employees that report to them. This introductory session looks at the role of the frontline supervisor. How to lead your group based upon the personal and job maturity of your employees, and how you present yourself to the organization.
• Identify the four major job responsibilities of the front line supervisor (crew chief)
• Identify the characteristics of a leader
• Describe the four types of supervisory styles within the task- centered/ relationship- centered model.
• As a supervisor, explain two reasons why attitude plays an important role.
Course 1-2: Managing Relations with Former Peers
A tricky subject, no matter how it's viewed. One day you are working side by side with your buddies and the next day you are picking up their time cards. How do you handle that transition? Managing your relationships with your former peers helps that frontline supervisor evaluate their transition to the new role, and identify potential pitfalls new frontline supervisor make.
• Compare and Contrast the Mission and Vision Statements as both apply to a supervisor and an employee of whom he/ she supervises
• When supervising former peers, describe at least three transition tips.
Course 1-3: Budgets, Payroll and Procurement:
The Physical Facilities Business Office and Material Expeditors give an overview of how Physical Facilities is funded. This session also covers how to fill out time cards and order materials and parts for projects.
Course 1-4: University and Departmental Policies
This is a review of University and Departmental Policies and the role and responsibility of the frontline supervisor to these policies.
Module #2: Interpersonal Skills
Course and Instructional Objectives
Course 2-1: Active Listening
The saying goes, “We have two ears and one mouth, which means we need to listen twice as much as we talk.” Listening is very vital in our daily communication and this course looks at the elements of active listening or “empathic listening,” and how it can improve communication in the workplace and elsewhere.
• Explain the difference between “hearing” and “listening.”
• List the steps for active/emphatic listening skills
• State one barrier to effective listening.
• List five ways to improve your listening skills
Course 2-2: Leadership and Diversity
Part of the Purdue's strategic plan of diversifying the staff, the session on diversity covers the meaning of diversity, how we deal with our biases and how to make the workplace more inclusive of ideas and processes. This session is also the part of the new QSP Core for Physical Facilities with a focus on the supervisor's role in diversity.
• Define Diversity, getting beyond the foods, flags, and festivals.
• Examine our biases and generalizations and how we can make constructive changes to them.
• Examine the role of the supervisor/ leader and how his/ her behavior impacts the inclusiveness of his/ her employees.
Course 2–3: Working with Customers
In years past, our colleagues in academia were looked upon as nothing more than tenants of our buildings. Today, it is a partnership of supporting learning, discovery and engagement. This course is less about smiles and being pleasant to other people; the focus here is on communicating with the customer and listening to their needs and objectives.
• Describe challenges of delivering stellar service.
• Identify those characteristics of stellar service (A STAR) provider.
• Create an action plan for delivering stellar service
• In a customer complaint scenario, resolve the complaint according to the customer focused organization standards
Course 2-4: Working with Difficult People:
Summary: you know who those difficult people are, but you are never one them! This session discusses those who have a chronic behavior that proves negatively on the organization's ability to perform. This session includes the video, “The Attitude Virus: Curing Negativity in the workplace.”
• Explain the difference between attitude and behavior
• List examples of difficult behavior
• Within your work group, identify the behavior of a difficult person.
• Develop a strategy for you to use when dealing with a difficult person.
Course 2-5: Managing Stress
Facilitator: Worklife Specialist
Module #3: Planning and Scheduling Work and Time
Course and Instructional Objectives
Course 3-1: Time Management/Goal Setting
Part 1: There are 24 hours in each day; how we use that time determines our accomplishments. This session helps people identify the best use of their time and their employee's time.
• Identify at least three time wasters
• Using a daily log sheet, record your work activities and the amount of time spent on that activity.
• Explain four methods that ensure tasks are accomplished by a given deadline.
Part 2: In order to management time well, people need to establish goals to accomplish. This session focuses on the SMART Goal setting process and how it can work in your department.
• Using the S.M.A.R.T. process, write a goal specific to your work area.
• Using S.M.A.R.T. process, write a personal goal specific to your work performance.
Course 3–2 Project Management
From moving to a new office to constructing a multi-million dollar building, both require project management skills. This session covers the major parts of developing a project management process, focusing on small projects in scope.
• Define Project Management
• Explain the four cycles of Project Management.
• Develop a project management schedule
Course 3-3: Problem Solving and Decision Making (Involving Employees in the decision making process)
Every problem has more than one solution; the trick is to select the best solution that will eliminate the highest number of root causes. Taken from Quality programs in manufacturing and business, the session will walk the participants through problems they bring to the class.
• State the current situation of a work-related problem.
• Describe the steps in the problem solving process.
• List four reasons to involve employees in the decision making process.
• Using the identified work-related problem, apply the process mapping technique that would result in possible solution to the problem.
Course 3-5: Workplace Violence Prevention
Module #4: Shaping Job Behaviors
Course and Instructional Objectives
Course 4-1: Training and Performance Improvement
Training in the past is been the role of training department; a supervisor drops the employee off to the training department, says, “Train them,” and expects a fully trained individual. Teaching the individual skills is just one element of true performance on the job; the environment and resources need to be there to support the skills and knowledge the employee learned. Supervisors need to take a more active role in teaching and coaching their employees to optimal performance.
• Discuss the role of the supervisor as trainer/coach/ change agent
• Describe methods to identifying gaps in job performance
• Discuss the process of creating or selecting training materials
• Examine the methods of evaluation
Course 4-2: Teamwork
Do you work on a team? What are the elements of teamwork? What makes a group of people a team? What is the role of the supervisor of a team? This session covers the basic elements of teamwork, the communication and process styles of team members and ways to reduce the barriers to effective teamwork.
• List seven characteristics that describe the term “team.”
• Explain at least two ways to enhance teamwork.
• Explain the importance of establishing team goals.
• Describe at least two ways to overcome obstacles to effective teamwork
Course 4-3: Coaching
Everybody has someone in their life that helped them through learning skills and other life lessons. Coaching give the frontline supervisor the techniques in communicating performance feedback on a day-to-day basis. Using the video, “The Practical Coach,” (Media Partners), the session demonstrates ways to give feedback when performance is good, when performance is not so good, and when performance is heading down a “dead-end road.”
• Explain the three characteristics that define coaching.
• Identify coaching behaviors that produce positive results
• When dealing with an employee going down a dead-end road, demonstrate the two-minute challenge to correct the behavior.
Course 4-4: Working Safely on the Job
Presented by Physical Facilities Radiological and Environmental Management staff, this session covers the roles and responsibilities of the frontline supervisor to safe work practices. Case studies and accident scenario reports make up the primary elements of this course.
• Explain the responsibility of supervisors to ensure safe work practices by their employees.
• Explain the procedures a supervisor must follow in reporting:
1) Workplace injury
2) Incident exposure to chemicals or bodily fluids
3) EPA disposal and handling procedures
Course 4-5: Interviewing/Staffing
The way to eliminate poor organizational fit is by starting out with accurate dimensions of the job and the qualifications needed to do the job. Targeted Selection is a process that uses questions that key into the applicants past experiences with the identified elements. This course also covers what questions that can be asked during the interview. A good course even if your frontline supervisor is not involved in the interviewing process.
• Explain the procedures in determining the need for posting a position/ vacancy.
• List the questions that you can not use during an interview
• Develop questions the examine the candidates' competencies to the competencies/ skills for the job
• Explain the steps in preparation to conduct an interview
Course 4-6: Empowering & Delegating for Results
What is empowerment? Does empowerment mean that employees do what they want? Part 1: Empowerment is a term that is confusing to the best, but one element that must be in an organization for it to be empowering is trust. Trust that employees, with the right skills, knowledge and resources can do their job. Every level must have trust for an organization to be an empowered organization.
• In your own words, define the term empowerment.
• Identify three job-related behaviors that exemplify empowerment
• Create an action plan for empowering your employees in your department.
Part 2: Delegation is part of the empowerment principle; it allows others to build their skill and knowledge to the “next level” There are good practices and bad practices of delegation, which is covered in this session.
• Explain examples of good delegation practices
• Identify a task performed by a supervisor (crew chief) that can be performed by an employee.
• Using the four-step delegation process, delegate the previous identified task to an employee.
Course 4-7: In Praise of Performance
Employees need to know how they're doing, both informally and formally. This session covers what to do with performance appraisals and pitfalls that supervisors run into when not prepared well.
• List the six points to follow when conducting a performance appraisal.
• Explain the steps involved in conducting a performance appraisal to include:
1) Appraisal Preparation
2) Conducting the Appraisal
3) Setting objectives
• List five ways you can increase the effectiveness of the appraisal process
Module #5: Communication Skills
Course and Learning Objectives
Course 5- 1: Making Meetings Meaningful
Meeting can be killers of time and productivity. In John Cleese's, “More Bloody Meetings,” Cleese's character is up on charges for running a poor meeting. The session also looks at the cost of meetings and how meeting facilitators can avoid the pitfalls of a poorly run meeting.
• Identify the behaviors that can detract from the meeting's goal.
• Create a meeting agenda.
• Demonstrate how to re-direct the meeting's focus when the meeting goes away from the agenda
Course 5-2: Making a Presentation
A fate worse than death is making a public speech to a group of rats while standing on top of a ladder ( top three fears identified by people, Gallup Poll, 2001) This course, covers the elements of making a presentation and concludes with the next session of presenting a 10 minute speech on a topic of the participants' choice. (No speaking to rats while standing on top of a ladder is necessary!)
• List the four main phases of a presentation
• Develop a presentation to include: introduction, body and conclusion.
• Give a 10-minute presentation to your EAGLE colleagues.