Focus Areas
Corporate
Culture
Career Development
General Knowledge
Staff
Development
Writing Essentials
Working within the Federal Budget Process
Thinking Strategically
Running Effective Meetings
Retaining Top Talent
Promoting Creativity and Innovation
Preparing Effective Writing
Negotiating
Mentoring
Managing Projects
Managing Customer Service
Managing Conflict
Managing Change
Managing Burnout
Managing Beyond Generational Differences
Making Effective Decisions
Interviewing Techniques
Influencing
Improving Performance and Productivity
Giving and Receiving Feedback
Fostering a Public Service Mindset
Diversity and Inclusion
Diagnosing Performance Issues
Developing Interpersonal Skills
Delivering Effective Presentations
Delegating
Cultivating Motivation and Engagement
Coaching
Building Relationships through Collaboration
Building Emotional Intelligence
Building Effective Teams
Becoming a Supervisor
Appraising Performance
Applying Critical
Thinking
Description:
The transition from an individual contributor to a supervisory role is challenging. Over the years, your experiences with supervisors have shaped the leader that you hope to become. As you move into a supervisory role, it is helpful to reflect on the attributes of effective supervisors, consider key elements of the supervisory role, and explore the importance of leading others with integrity.
Module Objective:
Examine the responsibilities and challenges faced by supervisors
Module Lessons:
1. Attributes of Effective Supervisors
2. Elements of Supervision
3. Module Capstone: Supervisor Self-Assessment
Description:
The axiom that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts is true of effective organizational teams. When individuals bring a diverse set of skills, ideas, and experiences to a team setting, they produce better results. However, building teams that perform at a high level requires a conscious and sustained effort. Leaders need the ability to communicate, plan, and cultivate trust to successfully build and sustain successful teams.
Module Objective:
Analyze best practices for supporting high-performing teams
Module Lessons:
1. Characteristics of Effective Teams
2. Promoting Team Growth
Description:
Today's workforce is more diverse than at any time in history, a trend that seems likely to continue over the next few decades. This level of diversity poses unique workplace challenges, but it also provides unprecedented opportunities. Organizations with clear expectations about creating inclusive workplace environments are more innovative, efficient, productive, and successful. For this reason, leaders must understand how to build relationships grounded in a mutual respect for all individuals, ensuring all ideas, perspectives, and backgrounds are valued and welcomed.
Module Objective:
Foster an inclusive workplace environment that leverages the diverse capabilities of employees
Module Lessons:
1 Exploring Workplace Diversity
2. Building an Inclusive Workplace
Description:
Leaders and supervisors are often tasked with ensuring their employees are motivated and engaged. This can be a difficult endeavor for even the most experienced leader. Individuals are driven to work by a variety of internal and external factors that can change over time. For this reason, leaders must openly communicate with the members of their team to find out more about their individual needs. It also requires building a workplace environment that allows individuals to thrive based on their own motivations.
Module Objective:
Identify best practices for elevating employee motivation and engagement
Module Lessons:
1. Assessing Motivation
2. Fostering Employee Engagement
Description:
An organization is only as successful as the people representing it. Though human resource specialists own the talent acquisition process, organizational leaders have an important role to play in screening potential candidates. Interviews often provide the best insight into how a candidate will perform in a given role. Taking the time to sufficiently prepare for interviews ensures the right questions are asked and the best candidates are selected.
Module Objective:
Use effective interviewing techniques to hire the best talent, manage internal promotions, and ensure consistent processes
Module Lessons:
1. Preparing Interview Questions
2. Conducting Effective Interviews
Description:
Delegation is more than just unburdening yourself of unnecessary work. In fact, it can be one of the most challenging skills for leaders to master. Delegation is crucial to the overall functioning of your team as well as the organization. When done well, delegation communicates trust to your team and provides opportunities for growth. It also affords you the opportunity to pursue other leadership capabilities, such as mentoring, coaching, and supervising.
Module Objective:
Use effective principles of delegation to assign tasks and responsibilities to team members
Module Lessons:
1. Delegation Overview
2. How to Delegate
Description:
Very few of us have advanced to this point in our lives and careers without the help of a trusted teacher or mentor. These relationships help us navigate uncharted territory in our personal and professional lives using guidance and advice from someone who has been through it already. In this way, mentorship provides significant opportunities for growth among individuals and for the organization as a whole. By sharing knowledge and experiences with others, we enrich the skill sets of those around us and provide enormous benefits to our teams and organizations.
Module Objective:
Promote continuous learning through mentoring relationships
Module Lessons:
1. Mentoring Roles and Responsibilities
2. Building a Mentoring Relationship
3. Mentoring Conversations
Description:
When the term coaching is used, many people immediately think of athletics. Effective athletic coaches motivate and inspire their players to perform to the best of their abilities and improve on a daily basis. In the business world, coaching plays a similar role in cultivating performance improvement. While coaching in professional athletics requires years of experience, the skill of coaching in the workplace is accessible to anyone willing to help others reach their full potential. By practicing the fundamental skills of coaching and engaging in meaningful conversations that encourage continual growth, supervisors can maximize the effectiveness of their teams.
Module Objective:
Use effective coaching practices to improve everyday interactions with employees
Module Lessons:
1. The Role of Coaching
2. Effective Coaching Practices
3. Coaching Conversations
Description:
Feedback is an essential ingredient to successful leadership. Feedback not only improves communication and drives performance, it also builds motivation and trust. Leaders who create an environment on their teams where feedback is used consistently and effectively have happier, healthier, and higher performing teams. Feedback is a two-way street. Supervisors must be willing and able to give helpful feedback to their employees. They also need to be willing and able to solicit and accept feedback from others.
Module Objective:
Demonstrate the ability to give and receive feedback effectively
Module Lessons:
1. Characteristics of Effective Feedback
2. Providing and Receiving Feedback
3. Module Capstone: Giving and Receiving Feedback
Description:
Have you ever been expected to complete an assignment without proper direction? These situations occur frequently in the workplace, leading to confusion, rework, and inefficiency. Setting and communicating clear goals are crucial steps in advancing the mission and vision of an organization. This requires leaders to communicate openly with their colleagues and identify work practices that maximize productivity and time management.
Module Objective:
Participate in performance planning to support the mission of the organization
Module Lessons:
1. Aligning Goals and with Individual Performance
2. Performance Planning Conversations
3. Productivity and Time Management
Description:
What causes employees to underperform? This can be one of the most difficult questions for a supervisor to answer. Performance issues often have complex causes and cannot be resolved by disciplinary action alone. As a supervisor, it is your responsibility to uncover the underlying performance issues of your employees. This requires an ability to suspend immediate judgment, check your assumptions, and identify how you can collaboratively forge a new path forward.
Module Objective:
Identify strategies to effectively diagnose employee performance issues
Module Lessons:
1. Common Performance Issues
2. Elements of Performance Diagnosis
3. Supervisory Responsibilities
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Description:
As a supervisor, you are asked to measure employee performance on a regular basis. But how do you communicate that measurement in a meaningful and effective way? What types of preparations and planning are necessary to ensure effective appraisals are provided to the employee? Where do these plans fit into the performance cycle as a whole? Mastering the art of giving performance appraisals means creating a respectful and trustful workplace where employees know what is expected of them and providing them with clear opportunities to succeed.
Module Objective:
Apply best practices for conducting performance appraisals
Module Lessons:
1. The Performance Cycle
2. Elements of Performance Appraisals
3. Module Capstone: Conducting a Performance Appraisal Meeting
Description:
Meetings are an essential part of business communication but can easily lead to wasted time, inefficiency, and ineffectiveness. As a meeting organizer and facilitator, you can combat these issues by taking the time to carefully plan your meeting, create a meeting agenda, and follow up on action items. Meeting facilitation skills are valuable for helping groups and organizations determine clear solutions to their challenges.
Module Objective:
Demonstrate how to plan and facilitate effective meetings
Module Lessons:
1. Principles of Effective Meeting Planning
2. Facilitating Meetings
Description:
What makes some people easier to work with than others? If you spend enough time working in a group setting, you will likely gravitate toward people with certain personality traits. We like to surround ourselves with people we trust, who listen and communicate clearly, and who demonstrate empathy. These people-centered abilities are at the core of interpersonal skills. As with any ability, interpersonal skills are not fully innate and can be learned and improved over time. Developing successful interpersonal relationships contributes to better performance, enables effective problem-solving, and assists in appropriate decision-making.
Module Objective:
Use interpersonal skills to respond appropriately to the needs and feelings of coworkers
Module Lessons:
1. Interpersonal Skills Overview
2. Effective Communication Practices
Description:
Your writing is essentially an expression of yourself. Every time you write something, you are putting forth a visible statement that represents your thoughts, feelings, and ideas. In the workplace, you are constantly assessed not just on what you write, but how you write it—writing with clarity and purpose is critical. It is imperative to improve written communication skills in order to effectively interact with any audience.
Module Objective:
Communicate business information by writing in a professional manner
Module Lessons:
1. Planning for Business Writing
2. Using Plain Language
3. Developing an Effective Writing Voice
Description:
Business documents vary in style and content, but should all follow certain fundamentals of effective writing. Effective documents demonstrate strong sentence structure with easy-to-understand language. They are grammatically correct and use appropriate spelling, punctuation, pronouns, and subject-verb agreement. Your writing must be organized with topic sentences to identify the purpose of each paragraph, supporting sentences to defend the topic, and transitions that help the reader make sense of the information. If your writing does not meet these expectations, your readers might struggle to fully comprehend or digest your message. When readers are distracted by grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors or confusing language, they are not internalizing—and ultimately acting upon—your intended message.
Module Objective:
Use writing best practices to communicate clearly in the workplace
Module Lessons:
1. Elements of Effective Writing
2. Best Practices for Strong Sentences
3. Structuring Effective Writing
Description:
We make countless decisions each day in our personal and professional lives. Many are subconscious decisions as we react to stimuli in our environment. Other decisions require higher-order thinking and the ability to weigh conflicting priorities. Asking "How can I get the most out of my career?" or "How can I keep my teammates engaged?" require careful reflection about how we want the future to look and what concrete steps we need to follow to achieve it. Organizational success is predicated on leaders making informed, rational decisions. By understanding how decisions are made and taking an intentional approach, leaders can maximize the positive impact they have on their teams while supporting the overall mission and vision of the organization.
Module Objective:
Assess strategies for making more informed workplace decisions
Module Lessons:
1. Decision-Making Overview
2. Decision-Making Framework
Description:
Spend any length of time at an organization and you will undoubtedly hear someone express the need to take a more strategic approach. Broadening our perspective in this way may seem antithetical to the ordinary tasks we need to accomplish. In fast-paced work environments, the daily pressures of our roles often force us to focus narrowly on assignments that require our immediate attention. However, this limited perspective can obscure our ability to see the bigger picture and recognize our influence over those around us. When we are able to expand our thinking to a more strategic level, we are better able to achieve long-term goals and appreciate the impact of our behaviors.
Module Objective:
Use strategic thinking to plan and achieve long-term goals
Module Lessons:
1. Thinking Approaches
2. Developing a Strategic Perspective
Description:
President John F. Kennedy famously said, "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." In both our personal and professional lives, we frequently use negotiation to improve our circumstances and build new opportunities. For some, negotiation has a negative connotation, implying an adversarial relationship between two parties with different goals. However, effective leaders use negotiation skills in a productive and principled manner, looking for opportunities to achieve mutual gain and long-term benefits for the organization.
Module Objective:
Analyze how negotiation can be used as a leadership competency
Module Lessons:
1. Understanding Negotiation
2. Planning for Negotiations
Description:
Influence is a critical aspect of leadership and takes time and effort to build. Influence comes with responsibility and must be used wisely, and entails listening, interacting, and building strong relationships. The meaningful application of influence can help leaders to overcome obstacles, inspire change in others, and generate results.
Module Objective:
Discuss appropriate techniques for influencing others
Module Lessons:
1. Principles of Influencing
2. Behavior and Influencing Techniques
Description:
Customer service is vital to every organization. Your interactions with both internal and external customers impact your organization's reputation and influence how work is accomplished. Customers expect clear communication and responsiveness to issues. By learning skills and techniques associated with exceptional customer service, you can meet the needs of your customers in a professional and efficient manner.
Module Objective:
Discuss skills and techniques needed to provide exceptional customer service
Module Lessons:
1. Identifying Customer Needs
2. Customer Service Skills and Techniques
3. Handling Customer Service Challenges
Description:
The federal budget process is complex. It involves thousands of staffers in the executive and legislative branches, the president, Congress, and federal agencies. Because the federal budget and the policies that guide it have a direct impact on work performed in an organization, it is critical for supervisors to understand the process.
Module Objective:
Support budget activities during each phase of the federal budget process
Module Lessons:
1. Federal Budget Overview
2. The Federal Budget Process
3. Budget Formulation and Execution
4. Module Capstone: Supervisors and the Federal Budget Process
Description:
Creative thinking and innovation are integral to organizational success. However, individuals, teams, and organizations often struggle to maximize their creative capacity. The ability to form new ideas, connections, and patterns is a critical leadership skill that can be practiced and improved over time. Expanding your own capacity for creativity allows you to better access the creative strengths of others. By cultivating a community of creative thinkers, leaders can drive innovation at the organizational level.
Module Objective:
Support a workplace environment that continually fosters creativity and innovation
Module Lessons:
1. Creativity and Innovation Overview
2. Encouraging Creativity
3. Supporting Innovation
Description:
Building strong and constructive relationships in the workplace is critical to effective leadership. Our work requires collaboration with others who share common goals and purposes. When we collaborate, we work together to achieve benefits to our organizations. Encouraging and fostering collaboration is an indication of successful management.
Building and maintaining a network of connections can provide you with valuable information, connect you with others who can be helpful to you or your organization, provide you with perspective, and help advance your career. Collaboration takes different forms. At times, we work together in real time—in person, in online meetings, phone calls, or using collaboration software. We can also time-shift our interactions. Sharing documents, sharing workspaces, or contributing to wikis are also a form of collaboration.
Module Objective:
Discuss best practices for building relationships and encouraging collaboration
Module Lessons:
1. Building Relationships
2. Expanding Your Network
Description:
Have you ever been in a situation in which you let raw emotions determine your behavior? Emotions are powerful drivers and can lead us to act in ways counter to our long-term interests. Managing these emotional responses is at the heart of emotional intelligence. Effective leaders understand how to keep their emotions in check and help others do the same. This requires an acute sense of awareness of our own emotions and the emotional responses of others.
Module Objective:
Demonstrate emotionally intelligent leadership skills
Module Lessons:
1. Understanding Emotional Intelligence
2. Self-Awareness and Management
3. Leading Emotionally Intelligent Teams
Description:
Unlike the private sector, where the focus is on generating profits and maximizing shareholder value, public-sector organizations maximize the value of taxpayer dollars by providing outstanding service to the American people. For this reason, government employees need a more externally focused mentality when approaching their careers. This commitment to the greater good is at the heart of the public service mindset. This frame of mind allows employees to better execute essential programs and provide necessary assistance to their communities. This mindset also has personal benefits, as public servants feel increased job satisfaction and engagement.
Module Objective:
Analyze the importance of cultivating a public service mindset
Module Lessons:
1. Introduction to the Public Service Mindset
2. Maintaining Momentum for Public Service
Description:
Today's leaders are expected to manage projects as well as people. Frequently, supervisors are tasked with managing informal, small, or low-risk projects as part of their regular job functions. Even if you do not have formal project management training, it is important to have a basic understanding of how to plan for project success. Additionally, building project management skills allows you to better guide and support the members of your team.
Module Objective:
Analyze effective project management practices
Module Lessons:
1. Project Management Basics
2. Scope, Schedule, and Cost
Description:
Conflict is a natural part of human interaction in everyday life and in organizational settings. Conflict is usually uncomfortable but, if managed effectively, conflict can favorably impact the organization and enrich individuals. Conflict can actually improve organizations by encouraging creative problem-solving. For this to happen, you must know how to resolve conflict using a collaborative approach to leave everyone feeling satisfied. Because it is a natural part of human interaction, conflict cannot and should not be eliminated. It is necessary to understand its nature, distinctions, causes, and effects to manage conflict effectively.
Module Objective:
Discuss strategies and techniques for managing conflict effectively
Module Lessons:
1. Recognizing Conflict
2. Conflict Management Approaches
3. Conflict Resolution Process
Description:
If the only constant in life is change, this is especially true for federal and commercial organizations where leaders are tasked with maintaining fiscal responsibility, improving efficiency, and responding to stakeholder demands in the face of dramatic internal and external pressure. Changing circumstances can be unsettling and stressful, even when we are well prepared. Leaders face the additional challenge of helping others navigate through organizational changes and may be asked to champion changes that are unpopular and disruptive. By focusing on potential opportunities and taking a proactive, people-centered approach to change, leaders can reframe even the most difficult changes into opportunities for growth.
Module Objective:
Use effective approaches to lead organizational change
Module Lessons:
1. Navigating Change
2. Leading Others Through Change
Description:
The modern workforce is comprised of individuals from multiple generations, creating new levels of complexity in how we communicate and work together. While each generation has unique formative experiences, employees across generations share many important similarities. Focusing too heavily on generational differences gets in the way of fostering a workplace environment that is inclusive, welcoming, and engaging. Only by building workplace relationships grounded in mutual respect for individuals—from all generations—can we ensure that all ideas, perspectives, and contributions are given an opportunity to flourish.
Module Objective:
Analyze leadership strategies for promoting inclusiveness and engagement among people from different generations
Module Lessons:
1. Exploring Generational Perspectives
2. Managing Generational Diversity
Appraising Performance
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Becoming a Supervisor
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Building Effective Teams
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Building Emotional Intelligence
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Building Relationships Through Collaboration
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Coaching
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Cultivating Motivation and Engagement
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Delegating
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Developing Interpersonal Skills
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Diagnosing Performance Issues
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Diversity and Inclusion
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Fostering a Public Service Mindset
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Giving and Receiving Feedback
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Improving Performance and Productivity
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Influencing
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Interviewing Techniques
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Making Effective Decisions
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Managing Beyond Generational Differences
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Managing Change
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Managing Conflict
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Managing Customer Service
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Managing Projects
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Mentoring
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Negotiating
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Preparing Effective Writing
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Promoting Creativity and Innovation
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Running Effective Meetings
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Thinking Strategically
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Working within the Federal Budget Process
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Writing Essentials
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Description:
The ability to think critically is an essential leadership skill in an increasingly complex world. Leaders are frequently asked to make difficult decisions that impact the members of their teams and the organization as a whole. To make informed decisions, leaders need to distinguish fact from fiction, evaluate trade-offs, and make coherent arguments. Improving critical thinking skills will help you navigate difficult workplace situations and effectively solve problems.
Module Objective:
Analyze the importance of critical thinking as a leadership capability
Module Lessons:
1. Becoming a Critical Thinker
2. Overcoming Obstacles to Critical Thinking
Applying Critical Thinking
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Description:
Most people in leadership or supervisory positions are asked to deliver presentations on a regular basis. These presentations can take many forms, with varying levels of formality. Regardless of the number of people in the audience or the medium in which the presentation is delivered, the ability to speak coherently and comfortably to an audience is an essential leadership skill. But presenting can spark anxiety for even the most experienced leader. Through practice and careful planning, you can gain confidence in public speaking and deliver presentations that make a real difference in the organization.
Module Objective:
Practice delivering and planning for effective workplace presentations
Module Lessons:
1. Qualities of Effective Presentations
2. Preparing for the Presentation
Delivering Effective Presentations
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Description:
Burnout poses a significant and often overlooked occupational hazard that detrimentally impacts productivity and job satisfaction. Research reveals that organizations face severe consequences when employees experience burnout: employees are 63% more likely to take sick days, 2.6 times as likely to actively seek new job opportunities, and often exhibit reduced confidence and engagement. Burnout can trigger a downward spiral in individual and organizational performance, leading to increased turnover and decreased efficiency. Notably, burnout among leaders can have particularly harmful effects, including destructive leadership behaviors and compromised teamwork. Prioritizing employee well-being and implementing strategies to prevent and manage burnout is essential for maintaining a healthy, productive, and thriving workplace.
Module Objective:
Develop strategies to manage workplace burnout with self and others
Module Lessons:
1. Understanding and Diagnosing Burnout
2. Strategies for Managing and Preventing Burnout
Managing Burnout
PGSP modules are only available through group training. Call 888.545.8573 to schedule.
Description:
Retaining top talent is a critical consideration with implications that extend far beyond financial calculations. The departure of fully trained, highly productive, and impactful staff members negatively affects our organization's capacity, efficiency, morale, and the successful execution of crucial strategic objectives. When key players leave, they take with them their invaluable expertise, accumulated wisdom, institutional knowledge, and the creative innovation derived from their experience. Therefore, it is imperative for us to proactively identify and address situations where we may be at risk of losing valuable team members. Developing effective diagnostic skills and implementing timely interventions can help preserve our talent pool and sustain a high-performing workforce.
Module Objective:
Assess leadership strategies to retain top talent in the organization
Module Lessons:
1. Fundamentals of Employee Retention
2. Promoting a Culture of Retention
Retaining Top Talent
Reset
Because PGSP modules are combined in a unique manner specifically for your agency or organization, they are only available through Private Group Training. Call 800.506.4450 to schedule.
Writing Essentials
Working within the Federal Budget Process
Thinking Strategically
Running Effective Meetings
Retaining Top Talent
Promoting Creativity and Innovation
Preparing Effective Writing
Negotiating
Mentoring
Managing Projects
Managing Customer Service
Managing Conflict
Managing Change
Managing Burnout
Managing Beyond Generational Differences
Making Effective Decisions
Interviewing Techniques
Influencing
Improving Performance and Productivity
Giving and Receiving Feedback
Fostering a Public Service Mindset
Diversity and Inclusion
Diagnosing Performance Issues
Developing Interpersonal Skills
Delivering Effective Presentations
Delegating
Cultivating Motivation and Engagement
Coaching
Building Relationships through Collaboration
Building Emotional Intelligence
Building Effective Teams
Becoming a Supervisor
Appraising Performance
Applying Critical Thinking
Description:
Business documents vary in style and content, but should all follow certain fundamentals of effective writing. Effective documents demonstrate strong sentence structure with easy-to-understand language. They are grammatically correct and use appropriate spelling, punctuation, pronouns, and subject-verb agreement. Your writing must be organized with topic sentences to identify the purpose of each paragraph, supporting sentences to defend the topic, and transitions that help the reader make sense of the information. If your writing does not meet these expectations, your readers might struggle to fully comprehend or digest your message. When readers are distracted by grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors or confusing language, they are not internalizing—and ultimately acting upon—your intended message.
Module Objective:
Use writing best practices to communicate clearly in the workplace
Module Lessons:
1. Elements of Effective Writing
2. Best Practices for Strong Sentences
3. Structuring Effective Writing
Writing Essentials
Description:
The federal budget process is complex. It involves thousands of staffers in the executive and legislative branches, the president, Congress, and federal agencies. Because the federal budget and the policies that guide it have a direct impact on work performed in an organization, it is critical for supervisors to understand the process.
Module Objective:
Support budget activities during each phase of the federal budget process
Module Lessons:
1. Federal Budget Overview
2. The Federal Budget Process
3. Budget Formulation and Execution
4. Module Capstone: Supervisors and the Federal Budget Process
Working within the Federal Budget Process
Description:
Spend any length of time at an organization and you will undoubtedly hear someone express the need to take a more strategic approach. Broadening our perspective in this way may seem antithetical to the ordinary tasks we need to accomplish. In fast-paced work environments, the daily pressures of our roles often force us to focus narrowly on assignments that require our immediate attention. However, this limited perspective can obscure our ability to see the bigger picture and recognize our influence over those around us. When we are able to expand our thinking to a more strategic level, we are better able to achieve long-term goals and appreciate the impact of our behaviors.
Module Objective:
Use strategic thinking to plan and achieve long-term goals
Module Lessons:
1. Thinking Approaches
2. Developing a Strategic Perspective
Thinking Strategically
Description:
Meetings are an essential part of business communication but can easily lead to wasted time, inefficiency, and ineffectiveness. As a meeting organizer and facilitator, you can combat these issues by taking the time to carefully plan your meeting, create a meeting agenda, and follow up on action items. Meeting facilitation skills are valuable for helping groups and organizations determine clear solutions to their challenges.
Module Objective:
Demonstrate how to plan and facilitate effective meetings
Module Lessons:
1. Principles of Effective Meeting Planning
2. Facilitating Meetings
Running Effective Meetings
Description:
Retaining top talent is a critical consideration with implications that extend far beyond financial calculations. The departure of fully trained, highly productive, and impactful staff members negatively affects our organization's capacity, efficiency, morale, and the successful execution of crucial strategic objectives. When key players leave, they take with them their invaluable expertise, accumulated wisdom, institutional knowledge, and the creative innovation derived from their experience. Therefore, it is imperative for us to proactively identify and address situations where we may be at risk of losing valuable team members. Developing effective diagnostic skills and implementing timely interventions can help preserve our talent pool and sustain a high-performing workforce.
Module Objective:
Assess leadership strategies to retain top talent in the organization
Module Lessons:
1. Fundamentals of Employee Retention
2. Promoting a Culture of Retention
Retaining Top Talent
Description:
Creative thinking and innovation are integral to organizational success. However, individuals, teams, and organizations often struggle to maximize their creative capacity. The ability to form new ideas, connections, and patterns is a critical leadership skill that can be practiced and improved over time. Expanding your own capacity for creativity allows you to better access the creative strengths of others. By cultivating a community of creative thinkers, leaders can drive innovation at the organizational level.
Module Objective:
Support a workplace environment that continually fosters creativity and innovation
Module Lessons:
1. Creativity and Innovation Overview
2. Encouraging Creativity
3. Supporting Innovation
Promoting Creativity and Innovation
Description:
Your writing is essentially an expression of yourself. Every time you write something, you are putting forth a visible statement that represents your thoughts, feelings, and ideas. In the workplace, you are constantly assessed not just on what you write, but how you write it—writing with clarity and purpose is critical. It is imperative to improve written communication skills in order to effectively interact with any audience.
Module Objective:
Communicate business information by writing in a professional manner
Module Lessons:
1. Planning for Business Writing
2. Using Plain Language
3. Developing an Effective Writing Voice
Preparing Effective Writing
Description:
President John F. Kennedy famously said, "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." In both our personal and professional lives, we frequently use negotiation to improve our circumstances and build new opportunities. For some, negotiation has a negative connotation, implying an adversarial relationship between two parties with different goals. However, effective leaders use negotiation skills in a productive and principled manner, looking for opportunities to achieve mutual gain and long-term benefits for the organization.
Module Objective:
Analyze how negotiation can be used as a leadership competency
Module Lessons:
1. Understanding Negotiation
2. Planning for Negotiations
Negotiating
Description:
Very few of us have advanced to this point in our lives and careers without the help of a trusted teacher or mentor. These relationships help us navigate uncharted territory in our personal and professional lives using guidance and advice from someone who has been through it already. In this way, mentorship provides significant opportunities for growth among individuals and for the organization as a whole. By sharing knowledge and experiences with others, we enrich the skill sets of those around us and provide enormous benefits to our teams and organizations.
Module Objective:
Promote continuous learning through mentoring relationships
Module Lessons:
1. Mentoring Roles and Responsibilities
2. Building a Mentoring Relationship
3. Mentoring Conversations
Mentoring
Description:
Today's leaders are expected to manage projects as well as people. Frequently, supervisors are tasked with managing informal, small, or low-risk projects as part of their regular job functions. Even if you do not have formal project management training, it is important to have a basic understanding of how to plan for project success. Additionally, building project management skills allows you to better guide and support the members of your team.
Module Objective:
Analyze effective project management practices
Module Lessons:
1. Project Management Basics
2. Scope, Schedule, and Cost
Managing Projects
Description:
Customer service is vital to every organization. Your interactions with both internal and external customers impact your organization's reputation and influence how work is accomplished. Customers expect clear communication and responsiveness to issues. By learning skills and techniques associated with exceptional customer service, you can meet the needs of your customers in a professional and efficient manner.
Module Objective:
Discuss skills and techniques needed to provide exceptional customer service
Module Lessons:
1. Identifying Customer Needs
2. Customer Service Skills and Techniques
3. Handling Customer Service Challenges
Managing Customer Service
Description:
Conflict is a natural part of human interaction in everyday life and in organizational settings. Conflict is usually uncomfortable but, if managed effectively, conflict can favorably impact the organization and enrich individuals. Conflict can actually improve organizations by encouraging creative problem-solving. For this to happen, you must know how to resolve conflict using a collaborative approach to leave everyone feeling satisfied. Because it is a natural part of human interaction, conflict cannot and should not be eliminated. It is necessary to understand its nature, distinctions, causes, and effects to manage conflict effectively.
Module Objective:
Discuss strategies and techniques for managing conflict effectively
Module Lessons:
1. Recognizing Conflict
2. Conflict Management Approaches
3. Conflict Resolution Process
Managing Conflict
Description:
If the only constant in life is change, this is especially true for federal and commercial organizations where leaders are tasked with maintaining fiscal responsibility, improving efficiency, and responding to stakeholder demands in the face of dramatic internal and external pressure. Changing circumstances can be unsettling and stressful, even when we are well prepared. Leaders face the additional challenge of helping others navigate through organizational changes and may be asked to champion changes that are unpopular and disruptive. By focusing on potential opportunities and taking a proactive, people-centered approach to change, leaders can reframe even the most difficult changes into opportunities for growth.
Module Objective:
Use effective approaches to lead organizational change
Module Lessons:
1. Navigating Change
2. Leading Others Through Change
Managing Change
Description:
Burnout poses a significant and often overlooked occupational hazard that detrimentally impacts productivity and job satisfaction. Research reveals that organizations face severe consequences when employees experience burnout: employees are 63% more likely to take sick days, 2.6 times as likely to actively seek new job opportunities, and often exhibit reduced confidence and engagement. Burnout can trigger a downward spiral in individual and organizational performance, leading to increased turnover and decreased efficiency. Notably, burnout among leaders can have particularly harmful effects, including destructive leadership behaviors and compromised teamwork. Prioritizing employee well-being and implementing strategies to prevent and manage burnout is essential for maintaining a healthy, productive, and thriving workplace.
Module Objective:
Develop strategies to manage workplace burnout with self and others
Module Lessons:
1. Understanding and Diagnosing Burnout
2. Strategies for Managing and Preventing Burnout
Managing Burnout
Description:
The modern workforce is comprised of individuals from multiple generations, creating new levels of complexity in how we communicate and work together. While each generation has unique formative experiences, employees across generations share many important similarities. Focusing too heavily on generational differences gets in the way of fostering a workplace environment that is inclusive, welcoming, and engaging. Only by building workplace relationships grounded in mutual respect for individuals—from all generations—can we ensure that all ideas, perspectives, and contributions are given an opportunity to flourish.
Module Objective:
Analyze leadership strategies for promoting inclusiveness and engagement among people from different generations
Module Lessons:
1. Exploring Generational Perspectives
2. Managing Generational Diversity
Managing Beyond Generational Differences
Description:
We make countless decisions each day in our personal and professional lives. Many are subconscious decisions as we react to stimuli in our environment. Other decisions require higher-order thinking and the ability to weigh conflicting priorities. Asking "How can I get the most out of my career?" or "How can I keep my teammates engaged?" require careful reflection about how we want the future to look and what concrete steps we need to follow to achieve it. Organizational success is predicated on leaders making informed, rational decisions. By understanding how decisions are made and taking an intentional approach, leaders can maximize the positive impact they have on their teams while supporting the overall mission and vision of the organization.
Module Objective:
Assess strategies for making more informed workplace decisions
Module Lessons:
1. Decision-Making Overview
2. Decision-Making Framework
Making Effective Decisions
Description:
An organization is only as successful as the people representing it. Though human resource specialists own the talent acquisition process, organizational leaders have an important role to play in screening potential candidates. Interviews often provide the best insight into how a candidate will perform in a given role. Taking the time to sufficiently prepare for interviews ensures the right questions are asked and the best candidates are selected.
Module Objective:
Use effective interviewing techniques to hire the best talent, manage internal promotions, and ensure consistent processes
Module Lessons:
1. Preparing Interview Questions
2. Conducting Effective Interviews
Interviewing Techniques
Description:
Influence is a critical aspect of leadership and takes time and effort to build. Influence comes with responsibility and must be used wisely, and entails listening, interacting, and building strong relationships. The meaningful application of influence can help leaders to overcome obstacles, inspire change in others, and generate results.
Module Objective:
Discuss appropriate techniques for influencing others
Module Lessons:
1. Principles of Influencing
2. Behavior and Influencing Techniques
Influencing
Description:
Have you ever been expected to complete an assignment without proper direction? These situations occur frequently in the workplace, leading to confusion, rework, and inefficiency. Setting and communicating clear goals are crucial steps in advancing the mission and vision of an organization. This requires leaders to communicate openly with their colleagues and identify work practices that maximize productivity and time management.
Module Objective:
Participate in performance planning to support the mission of the organization
Module Lessons:
1. Aligning Goals and with Individual Performance
2. Performance Planning Conversations
3. Productivity and Time Management
Improving Performance
and Productivity
Description:
Feedback is an essential ingredient to successful leadership. Feedback not only improves communication and drives performance, it also builds motivation and trust. Leaders who create an environment on their teams where feedback is used consistently and effectively have happier, healthier, and higher performing teams. Feedback is a two-way street. Supervisors must be willing and able to give helpful feedback to their employees. They also need to be willing and able to solicit and accept feedback from others.
Module Objective:
Demonstrate the ability to give and receive feedback effectively
Module Lessons:
1. Characteristics of Effective Feedback
2. Providing and Receiving Feedback
3. Module Capstone: Giving and Receiving Feedback
Giving and Receiving Feedback
Description:
Unlike the private sector, where the focus is on generating profits and maximizing shareholder value, public-sector organizations maximize the value of taxpayer dollars by providing outstanding service to the American people. For this reason, government employees need a more externally focused mentality when approaching their careers. This commitment to the greater good is at the heart of the public service mindset. This frame of mind allows employees to better execute essential programs and provide necessary assistance to their communities. This mindset also has personal benefits, as public servants feel increased job satisfaction and engagement.
Module Objective:
Analyze the importance of cultivating a public service mindset
Module Lessons:
1. Introduction to the Public Service Mindset
2. Maintaining Momentum for Public Service
Fostering a Public
Service Mindset
Description:
Today's workforce is more diverse than at any time in history, a trend that seems likely to continue over the next few decades. This level of diversity poses unique workplace challenges, but it also provides unprecedented opportunities. Organizations with clear expectations about creating inclusive workplace environments are more innovative, efficient, productive, and successful. For this reason, leaders must understand how to build relationships grounded in a mutual respect for all individuals, ensuring all ideas, perspectives, and backgrounds are valued and welcomed.
Module Objective:
Foster an inclusive workplace environment that leverages the diverse capabilities of employees
Module Lessons:
1 Exploring Workplace Diversity
2. Building an Inclusive Workplace
Diversity and Inclusion
Description:
What causes employees to underperform? This can be one of the most difficult questions for a supervisor to answer. Performance issues often have complex causes and cannot be resolved by disciplinary action alone. As a supervisor, it is your responsibility to uncover the underlying performance issues of your employees. This requires an ability to suspend immediate judgment, check your assumptions, and identify how you can collaboratively forge a new path forward.
Module Objective:
Identify strategies to effectively diagnose employee performance issues
Module Lessons:
1. Common Performance Issues
2. Elements of Performance Diagnosis
3. Supervisory Responsibilities
Diagnosing Performance Issues
Description:
What makes some people easier to work with than others? If you spend enough time working in a group setting, you will likely gravitate toward people with certain personality traits. We like to surround ourselves with people we trust, who listen and communicate clearly, and who demonstrate empathy. These people-centered abilities are at the core of interpersonal skills. As with any ability, interpersonal skills are not fully innate and can be learned and improved over time. Developing successful interpersonal relationships contributes to better performance, enables effective problem-solving, and assists in appropriate decision-making.
Module Objective:
Use interpersonal skills to respond appropriately to the needs and feelings of coworkers
Module Lessons:
1. Interpersonal Skills Overview
2. Effective Communication Practices
Developing Interpersonal Skills
Description:
Most people in leadership or supervisory positions are asked to deliver presentations on a regular basis. These presentations can take many forms, with varying levels of formality. Regardless of the number of people in the audience or the medium in which the presentation is delivered, the ability to speak coherently and comfortably to an audience is an essential leadership skill. But presenting can spark anxiety for even the most experienced leader. Through practice and careful planning, you can gain confidence in public speaking and deliver presentations that make a real difference in the organization.
Module Objective:
Practice delivering and planning for effective workplace presentations
Module Lessons:
1. Qualities of Effective Presentations
2. Preparing for the Presentation
Delivering Effective Presentations
Description:
Delegation is more than just unburdening yourself of unnecessary work. In fact, it can be one of the most challenging skills for leaders to master. Delegation is crucial to the overall functioning of your team as well as the organization. When done well, delegation communicates trust to your team and provides opportunities for growth. It also affords you the opportunity to pursue other leadership capabilities, such as mentoring, coaching, and supervising.
Module Objective:
Use effective principles of delegation to assign tasks and responsibilities to team members
Module Lessons:
1. Delegation Overview
2. How to Delegate
Delegating
Description:
Leaders and supervisors are often tasked with ensuring their employees are motivated and engaged. This can be a difficult endeavor for even the most experienced leader. Individuals are driven to work by a variety of internal and external factors that can change over time. For this reason, leaders must openly communicate with the members of their team to find out more about their individual needs. It also requires building a workplace environment that allows individuals to thrive based on their own motivations.
Module Objective:
Identify best practices for elevating employee motivation and engagement
Module Lessons:
1. Assessing Motivation
2. Fostering Employee Engagement
Cultivating Motivation
and Engagement
Description:
When the term coaching is used, many people immediately think of athletics. Effective athletic coaches motivate and inspire their players to perform to the best of their abilities and improve on a daily basis. In the business world, coaching plays a similar role in cultivating performance improvement. While coaching in professional athletics requires years of experience, the skill of coaching in the workplace is accessible to anyone willing to help others reach their full potential. By practicing the fundamental skills of coaching and engaging in meaningful conversations that encourage continual growth, supervisors can maximize the effectiveness of their teams.
Module Objective:
Use effective coaching practices to improve everyday interactions with employees
Module Lessons:
1. The Role of Coaching
2. Effective Coaching Practices
3. Coaching Conversations
Coaching
Description:
Building strong and constructive relationships in the workplace is critical to effective leadership. Our work requires collaboration with others who share common goals and purposes. When we collaborate, we work together to achieve benefits to our organizations. Encouraging and fostering collaboration is an indication of successful management.
Building and maintaining a network of connections can provide you with valuable information, connect you with others who can be helpful to you or your organization, provide you with perspective, and help advance your career. Collaboration takes different forms. At times, we work together in real time—in person, in online meetings, phone calls, or using collaboration software. We can also time-shift our interactions. Sharing documents, sharing workspaces, or contributing to wikis are also a form of collaboration.
Module Objective:
Discuss best practices for building relationships and encouraging collaboration
Module Lessons:
1. Building Relationships
2. Expanding Your Network
Building Relationships Through Collaboration
Description:
Have you ever been in a situation in which you let raw emotions determine your behavior? Emotions are powerful drivers and can lead us to act in ways counter to our long-term interests. Managing these emotional responses is at the heart of emotional intelligence. Effective leaders understand how to keep their emotions in check and help others do the same. This requires an acute sense of awareness of our own emotions and the emotional responses of others.
Module Objective:
Demonstrate emotionally intelligent leadership skills
Module Lessons:
1. Understanding Emotional Intelligence
2. Self-Awareness and Management
3. Leading Emotionally Intelligent Teams
Building Emotional Intelligence
Description:
The axiom that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts is true of effective organizational teams. When individuals bring a diverse set of skills, ideas, and experiences to a team setting, they produce better results. However, building teams that perform at a high level requires a conscious and sustained effort. Leaders need the ability to communicate, plan, and cultivate trust to successfully build and sustain successful teams.
Module Objective:
Analyze best practices for supporting high-performing teams
Module Lessons:
1. Characteristics of Effective Teams
2. Promoting Team Growth
Building Effective Teams
Description:
The transition from an individual contributor to a supervisory role is challenging. Over the years, your experiences with supervisors have shaped the leader that you hope to become. As you move into a supervisory role, it is helpful to reflect on the attributes of effective supervisors, consider key elements of the supervisory role, and explore the importance of leading others with integrity.
Module Objective:
Examine the responsibilities and challenges faced by supervisors
Module Lessons:
1. Attributes of Effective Supervisors
2. Elements of Supervision
3. Module Capstone: Supervisor Self-Assessment
Becoming a Supervisor
Description:
As a supervisor, you are asked to measure employee performance on a regular basis. But how do you communicate that measurement in a meaningful and effective way? What types of preparations and planning are necessary to ensure effective appraisals are provided to the employee? Where do these plans fit into the performance cycle as a whole? Mastering the art of giving performance appraisals means creating a respectful and trustful workplace where employees know what is expected of them and providing them with clear opportunities to succeed.
Module Objective:
Apply best practices for conducting performance appraisals
Module Lessons:
1. The Performance Cycle
2. Elements of Performance Appraisals
3. Module Capstone: Conducting a Performance Appraisal Meeting
Appraising Performance
Description:
The ability to think critically is an essential leadership skill in an increasingly complex world. Leaders are frequently asked to make difficult decisions that impact the members of their teams and the organization as a whole. To make informed decisions, leaders need to distinguish fact from fiction, evaluate trade-offs, and make coherent arguments. Improving critical thinking skills will help you navigate difficult workplace situations and effectively solve problems.
Module Objective:
Analyze the importance of critical thinking as a leadership capability
Module Lessons:
1. Becoming a Critical Thinker
2. Overcoming Obstacles to Critical Thinking
Applying Critical Thinking
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