Module 1: Role of Supervisor
Your ability to conduct your role effectively as a supervisor is critical to your department’s ability to achieve its goals. As a supervisor, your work is done primarily with and through others. This course presents an overview of the role of a supervisor in a human service setting, covering what is expected of you and techniques that can be used to guide the work of others. Participants will learn ways to create an environment that encourages people to do their best work and develop a new mindset that shifts the learner’s perspective from “I” to “we.”
Module 2: Emotional and Social Intelligence
As we know, it’s not always the smartest people who are the most successful at work or in life. You know people who ae highly intelligent or even very skilled, but who struggle to get promoted and may only be moderately successful in the workplace. While IQ is valuable and certainly important, it is our emotional intelligence (EQ) that provides us the ability to manage our stress and emotions in the face of adversity. EQ is the key to forging positive working relationships and creating influence. Participants will learn the fundamentals of EQ and the importance of developing these skills as they embrace their role as supervisor.
Module 3: DISC in the Workplace – Effective Communication Strategies for Supervisors
DISC in the Workplace provides participants with techniques to improve self-awareness and awareness of others, in order to be more effective in the workplace and contribute to a positive workplace culture. By delivering personalized insights built around an easy-to-understand model, DiSC helps participants at all levels of an organization build key social and emotional skills, improving workplace satisfaction, results and relationships. The Fundamentals modules provide key grounding in the DiSC model and show participants how to start using it to better understand themselves and their colleagues. During the workshop, participants will increase their self-knowledge about how they respond to conflict, what motivates them, what causes stress and how they solve problems. The assessment will assist supervisors in improving working relationships by recognizing the communication needs of team members.
Module 4: Crucial Conversations
Assessing and managing employee performance is a primary responsibility of those holding positions that supervise others. It is a continuous and sometimes complex process. Done correctly, it is a tool that can enhance the operation of the agency and recognize employees for satisfactory performance, encourage professional development and provide employees with recommendations for improvement. This session is designed to provide supervisors with the skills and confidence to both give and receive feedback effectively to and from others in the agency.
Module 5: Team Building
Developing effective teams is a primary responsibility of a supervisor. The preliminary stages of team development are about establishing the purpose of the team and its key goals, but once the team is up and running, the supervisor has a prominent role to play in guiding the team to success. This session will help supervisors develop a shared vision or understanding for a high-performing team, determining the critical elements and individual contributions that comprise this vision, and guiding plans or agreements to realize this vision in their own agencies. It will promote practice on key skills needed to address the inevitable challenges that arise in teams, notably appreciating individual differences, communicating collaboratively, and managing conflict.
Module 6: Coaching and Feedback
The work environment in a human services agency requires employees to be skilled in performing complex tasks in an efficient, customer-service based and safe manner. It is the supervisor’s responsibility to support the growth and development of employees who are new to their team, when they identify a performance gap due to lack of knowledge or skill, or to support a change initiative within the agency. In this session, supervisors will learn to help troubleshoot performance problems and identify the appropriate intervention.
Module 7: Time/Energy Management and Putting It All Together
The goal of this session is two-fold: part of the day will be spent on time and energy management, and the rest of the day will be spent making connections from the series. Participants will identify how to effectively protect and prioritize their time while balancing the needs of their organization and their teams. This module will focus on the importance of effective time management, successful delegation as a means of building capacity, supporting time management, planning for and facilitating meaningful meetings. The second half of the day will be spent reviewing, making connections and acknowledging how participants will utilize the material as they move forward in their supervisory role. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss and devise personal plans of action as they return to the workplace