Essential Skills of Leadership is one of two foundation courses in the V2A Solutions Leadership Essentials Series, which help to develop skills that are basic to all the other courses in the series. Learners acquire these skills through a variety of exercises and skill building techniques. The audience for this course consists of team leaders, supervisors, and first-line managers. When you have completed the Essential Skills of Leadership course, you will be able to:

• • – Deal with your team members on a day-to-day basis in such a way as to maintain and enhance their self-esteem.

• – Base your discussions about performance and work habits on your team member’s behaviors rather than on their personalities or attitudes.

• – Involve your team members in goal setting, solving problems, and making decisions.

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Essential Skills of Communicating provides the tools necessary to develop clear, concise messages. Focusing on communication as a two-way process, the program can help even experienced managers improve their messages by making them clear, well organized and aimed at the needs and interests of the listener. By developing the essential skills of communicating, managers improve relations with their team members and increase productivity. When you have completed the Essential Skills of Communicating course, you will be able to:

• • – See that communication is a two-way process.

• – Construct clear, concise messages in the interest of the receiver.

• – Manage nonverbal behaviors to reinforce the intent of your message.

• – Listen actively to improve communication.

• – Create a climate of open communication which increases your team members’ motivation and commitment.

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Developing Performance Goals and Standards focuses on interpersonal skills, emphasizing communication and improvement of management skills by using behavior modeling. This module shows trainees how to establish specific, measurable, attainable, results-oriented, and time-framed performance goals. When you have completed the Developing Performance Goals and Standards course, you will be able to conduct a successful meeting with a team member to coach them on how to perform a job, task, or skill by:

• • – Defining goals, objectives and performance standards.

• – Identifying and set performance standards that are specific, measurable, attainable, results-oriented, and time-framed, using concrete active language.

• – Establishing time limits for all performance standards.

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Delegating focuses on interpersonal skills emphasizing communication and improvement of management skills by using behavior modeling. Focusing on ensuring that the individual understands what is required helps facilitate a successful result – the work is done correctly, and the individual gains the benefits of a new experience and increased confidence and responsibility. When you have completed this workshop on Delegating, you will be able to:

• • – Understand the importance of effective delegation as well as the problems associated with the lack of delegating or delegating poorly.

• – Communicate both the need for and the “why” of every delegated assignment and task.

• – Use delegation as a powerful motivational tool. Use delegation to improve your team members’ skills.

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Coaching Job Skills focuses on interpersonal skills, emphasizing communication and improvement of management skills by using behavior modeling. Coaching Job Skills provides the tools necessary to successfully coach individuals to perform a job, a task, or a skill. In order to achieve results, coaching must go beyond just showing how to do something. Coaching involves observing, analyzing demonstrating, and giving feedback. When you have completed the Coaching Job Skills course, you will be able to conduct a successful meeting with a team member to coach them on how to perform a job, task, or skill by:

• • – Understanding the special nature of coaching; a one-on-one activity that involves showing a team member how to perform a task.

• – Distinguishing between performance problems that require coaching and those that can best be handled by clearer instructions or by other means.

• – Understanding the importance of observation and analysis before coaching a team member, since coaching, like all effective training activities, must be well thought-out and carefully planned.

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Providing Performance Feedback shows the way evaluation is done by the experts. First, relevant performance standards are established. Then the team member’s own performance evaluation is solicited. This accomplished, the stage is set for a summary evaluation that will be clear and credible to the team member. When you have completed the Providing Performance Feedback course, you will be able to conduct a successful meeting with a team member to coach them on how to perform a job, task, or skill by:

• • – Basing assessments on facts and behavior.

• – Assessing performance.

• – Using positive performance feedback to encourage self-motivation of team members.

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Effective Discipline helps managers learn effective techniques for addressing problem behavior. Using communication skills, the manager works to preserve the individual’s self-respect and encourage the best kind of discipline – self-discipline. When you have completed the Effective Discipline course, you will be able to conduct a successful meeting with a team member to coach them on how to perform a job, task, or skill by:

• • – Using techniques of effective discipline to eliminate problem behavior.

• – Communicating in terms of behavior rather than perception or opinions.

• – Recognizing the importance of team member participation in defining the problems and their solutions.

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As the leaders on the front line, managers and team leaders are often the first to hear team member complaints. And though sometimes they may seem unimportant, each complaint should be addressed and resolved. This module shows how to resolve simple complaints and identify the hidden agendas that so often underlie the chronic grievances. When you have completed the Managing Complaints course, you will be able to conduct a successful meeting with a team member to coach them on how to perform a job, task, or skill by:

• • – Understanding why all team member complaints must be dealt with rather than ignored or dismissed.

• – Being more sensitive to all the problems—major or trivial, real or imagined—that can lie behind complaints.

• – Understanding techniques used to determine underlying problems, which are not always the same as those the team member thinks are responsible for his/her difficulties.

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Improving Work Habits provides the tools necessary to recognize and to address poor work habits – even those of a team member who may be successful in his or her job. By focusing on the negative behavior and gaining the individual’s acceptance and commitment to change, the manager effectively addresses the issue before it develops into a disciplinary problem for everyone on the team. When you have completed this workshop on Improving Work Habits, you will be able to:

• • – Distinguish between job performance and work habits.

• – Understand the importance of dealing with unsatisfactory work habits early, before they require disciplinary action.

• – Explain clearly and specifically to a team member the nature of his/her unsatisfactory work habits, focusing on behavior rather than personality or attitude.

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Resolving Conflicts helps managers develop skills to identify the source of team member conflicts. Using effective communication and management techniques, managers can help individuals understand another point of view and move beyond the conflict. When you have completed the Resolving Conflicts course, you will be able to conduct a successful meeting with a team member to coach them on how to perform a job, task, or skill by:

• • – Distinguishing between the two major sources of team member conflicts: personality clashes and work structure problems.

• – Being aware of the positive and negative impacts of conflicts.

• – Accepting conflict as an inevitable part of all work situations, one that must be dealt with, not ignored.

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Supporting Change helps managers learn how to understand and interpret change. By understanding change, managers can more clearly communicate what is changing to their team. This clear communication helps to reduce misunderstanding and anxiety. It also helps the change initiative gain acceptance more quickly – thereby minimizing stress, anxiety, and decreased productivity. When you have completed the Supporting Change course, you will be able to conduct a successful meeting with a team member to coach them on how to perform a job, task, or skill by:

• • – Understanding and interpreting change and the impact it will have on your team members.

• – Viewing change and the anxiety it can cause team members as natural and inevitable.

• – Assisting your team members as they adjust to change.

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Most managers and team leaders realize the importance of upward communication, but few accept the responsibility for the quality and effectiveness of communicating with their own managers. Managers and team leaders will learn how to frame communication so that a desired result is achieved. When you have completed the Communicating Up course, you will be able to conduct a successful meeting with a team member to coach them on how to perform a job, task, or skill by:

• • – Understanding the importance of framing all communication with your manager in terms of his/her self-interest.

• – Entering meetings with your manager armed with a well-thought-out and clearly stated objective.

• – Clearly linking your objective with facts that support plans and goals.

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