Leadership and Management

Resources for "Staff Leadership at Northwestern" participants

Tools for Managers

Leadership and Management Series: 2009 Schedule

ADA Accommodations: Step by Step Guidance for Supervisors and Managers

Grace Under Pressure

 

How Compensation Works: An Overview for Managers

 

Leader as Coach

Leadership Book Club

Manager Power Hour

 

Tools for Managers

Status Report Template

Regularly checking in with your staff members accomplishes several goals:

• Increases connection with staff and their work
• Helps staff keep track of accomplishments, issues, which makes Performance Excellence updates easier
• Shortens meeting time since everything is documented
• Reduces stress because everything is written down
• Helps manager keep track of work and issues
• Helps manager provide more frequent ongoing feedback

Click below to download a standard template in Microsoft Word format.

Weekly Status Report Template

Find more tools for managers in the Hiring Manager Toolkit.

 

Leadership and Management Series: 2009 Schedule

The series of workshops provides a foundation of leadership principles and tools for Northwestern's frontline supervisors and managers. It is offered twice annually: in Evanston during winter and spring, in Chicago during summer and fall.

Participants register to complete the full six-part series on either campus for $725. A continental breakfast and lunch are provided at each workshop. Listed below are the workshop titles, dates, and the course ID numbers. Workshops may not be taken individually.

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Part 1: Leadership and the Role of Management

This workshop carefully considers the transformation to a manager’s role and the responsibilities of effective management. Participants assess their leadership strengths and development opportunities. The advantages of a flexible and situation-based management style are discussed. The foundation for the entire series will be set through a leadership model.

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Part 2: Recruiting and Hiring Great Staff

This workshop uses a blended learning approach where participants learn via a self-study program on their own time, and then attend a live hands-on workshop. The workshop is organized around Northwestern's seven-step recruitment process. Participants not only get great tools and resources for making the hiring process easier and more efficient but also learn how to make better hiring decisions – the most important decision a manager makes.

Click here for Candidate Interview Guide.

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Part 3: Performance Excellence for Managers I & II

Participants are provided a slightly condensed version of the Performance Excellence for Managers I and Performance Excellence II workshops. In Part 1 of this highly interactive workshop, managers learn how to initiate the University's Performance Excellence Process and receive valuable guidelines and tools. Participants are asked to bring copies of the formal descriptions of their jobs and of those of the employees they directly supervise. In Part II, managers learn how to complete the Performance Excellence yearly cycle. Discussions and exercises focus on five key leadership responsibilities.

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Part 4: Effective Delegation and Resource Utilization

Managers and supervisors add value by getting work done through others.  Successful resource utilization means making full use of the manager’s skills, the skills of those with whom the manager works, and the resources of the institution.  In this context, prioritizing, time management and delegation are the “soft tools” of the effective manager. Participants will identify opportunities and develop the skills to increase productivity, their own and others’, through thoughtful time management, delegation and resource utilization.  

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Part 5: Building Strong Teams

As a leader, you have many jobs. You are charged with helping your team to build strong relationships with one another. You must get results. And, you must set the tone for a cooperative and positive work environment. This session will answer the following questions: How do I get your team moving together in one direction? How can we foster trust and collaboration? How can we surface and resolve conflicts? How can I be inclusive? How can I foster and support my diverse work team? This highly interactive session will help you to: Navigate the phases of team development; Resolve team conflicts; Set your team up for success; Model and embrace diversity; and Practice inclusion.

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Part 6: Dealing with Performance Problems & Taking Leadership to the Next Level

The successful management of people who haven’t been getting the job done is often the biggest challenge for leaders. Personal problems, emotional difficulties, and poor attitudes can affect performance. The Dealing with Performance Problems half-day workshop helps managers to effectively diagnose the cause of a problem and take constructive action. Special attention is given to employee discipline and coaching in turn-around situations. University policy and resources are also considered.

In the Taking Leadership to the Next Level final session of the series, participants get an opportunity to come back together and discuss what insights they’ve had and skills they’ve acquired over the past six months. It’s a time to ask questions and get assistance about how to take those skills to the next level and transfer learning back on the job. It’s a celebration! This workshop is held in the afternoon following Dealing with Performance Problems.

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HRD690 - ADA Accommodations: Step by Step Guidance for Supervisors and Managers
This interactive workshop instructs supervisors and managers on the basic requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and its impact on the workplace.

Key Points

• Understand the definition of a disability
• Identify employees who are protected
• Learn about employer requirements, University policy and procedures
• Determine appropriate responses to performance deficiences that may be linked to a disability
• Determine appropriate responses to requests for accommodations

**$50 no-show/cancellation fee. Chart string (formerly CUFS) required to register.**
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HRD960 - Advanced Communication Skills: How to Hold Difficult Conversations with your Staff, Peers or Manager
Crucial conversations take place every day in our work. You know the type -- conversations where there are high stakes, differences of opinion, and strong emotion. The difference between mediocre and top performance lies not in strategies, hardware, or even in processes, but in how people handle those difficult conversations. At the heart of all problems in a team or organization are conversations that are either not being handled, or not being handled well.

Key Points

• Identify the conversations that are keeping you from your desired results
• Speak persuasively not abrasively, no matter the topic
• Make it safe for others to share their honest opinions
• Deal with people who either clam up or blow up
• Gain control of your own emotional responses
• Disagree without being disagreeable
• Influence without exerting force

This is a practical and powerful 1.5 day workshop that is geared towards managers, though open to all staff.  This workshop typically costs $995 and is called Crucial Conversations , based on the book of the same name, one of the top 10 bestselling business books in 2005.

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HRD660 - Grace Under Pressure

It's that sort of day.

The phone is ringing off the hook. You're put on the spot in a meeting. All the problems are getting dumped in your lap.

You can feel yourself becoming reactive. You know you're not thinking clearly, that you're not being effective, but you don't know what to do. How can you turn a bad situation around?

“Grace Under Pressure” offers new tools for remaining calm, focused and open-minded during difficult encounters – real physical techniques that counteract what our bodies do during stress.

Many of these new approaches come from recent brain research.

In this lively, memorable half-day workshop, you'll go far beyond theory. You'll practice these techniques and make them your own, ready to put to use the next morning – or even on the way home that night.

Key Points

• Maintain composure in difficult situations
• Reduce stress on the spot
• Reverse the “fight or flight” reaction
• Think more clearly under pressure
• Be more present in difficult situations

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HRD755 - How Compensation Works: An Overview for Managers

This workshop provides an understanding of Northwestern University 's compensation philosophy and how the Office of Human Resources Compensation Division partners with Schools and departments to manage and administer a fair, equitable and competitive pay program for staff employees.

Key Points

• Structuring a job description
• How jobs are evaluated and the use of salary surveys
• How performance relates to merit increases
• Salary ranges: how they're developed and how to use them for salary administration
• When to ask for additional pay

**$50 no-show/cancellation fee. Chart string (formerly CUFS) required to register.**
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HRD970 - Leader as Coach

As a leader, your role is to turn your staff's strengths and weaknesses into outstanding performance.  Effective coaching can bring potential to the surface and create a work environment that is more positive, enthusiastic and productive. 

A Master Certified Coach will work with you during this two-day workshop to help you bring out the best in your staff using practical tools and skills that you can begin using immediately to get results.  You'll learn how to use a brain-based coaching approach that gives people the opportunity to  find their own way of moving forward by thinking differently about how they do what they do.

Key Points

• Recognize when to coach, and how to build and maintain trust
• Learn to ask powerful questions and get to core issues quickly
• Engage your staff in meaningful dialogue to clarify goals and solve problems
• Implement a clear step-by-step coaching process

Bonus:  At the workshop, you will receive the book Quiet Leadership: Six Steps to Transforming Performance at Work, by David Rock.

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HRD915 - Leadership Book Club

Participants meet for occasional 50-minute bag lunch discussions of selected books on leadership. Membership is free.

Current Book:

8/25/09 12:00pm - 12:50pm Chicago Wieboldt 262 Free Register online
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HRD980 - Manager Power Hour

Participants meet for a 50-minute bag lunch discussion.

First topic is:

Documenting Business Practices: Enhancing Knowledge Retention and Accelerating Training

8/11/09 12:00pm - 12:50pm Chicago TBA Free Register online
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For more information, please contact Human Resource Development at training@northwestern.edu or 847-467-5081.

For more information, please contact Human Resource Development at training@northwestern.edu or 847-467-5081.