Engineering Management Academy ACAD09

Interpersonal Communication Skills - Greg Moss

As we gain experience and grow in our professional careers, we each develop our own communication style, and we tend to operate within that style with great comfort. However, in higher leadership roles, we must recognize that we need to raise our communication effectiveness in many more situations and with a much wider variety of people. In this section, you will learn skills that will allow you to communicate effectively with direct reports, co-workers, management and suppliers. Successful completion of technical projects, engineering research and analysis is only a fraction of an engineering manager's job. An equally important portion involves communicating the results of these technical projects effectively to gain acceptance for the next stage of implementation. Effective communications, both written and verbal, are paramount to our success.

Foundations of Communication
The Five Foundations;

• Monitor Your Behavior
• Remain Assertive in Your Behavior
• Develop Reciprocal Relationships
• Stay Focused on What You Can Control and Influence
• Take on Personal Accountability

• Communication Behaviors
• Effective Listening Skills
• Asserting Your Ideas
• Handling Responses to your Message

• Hot Buttons / Hooks
• Situations
• Responding Effectively

• Saying "No," sidetracked, disengaging, etc.

Decision Making - Atul Kalia
We know people who regularly make good decisions - and some who routinely find decision making to be a challenge. When we're in our business environment and we want to improve decision making (either our own or by developing subordinates), we have several widely available and accepted tools. But do the tools solve the issue? Not necessarily. That's because, behind the tools, we make many judgments. In other words, people who make flawed judgments can make perfect use of the tools and still end up with less than optimal decisions. So this module focuses on improving our judgments, which, when applied to the tools, can produce dramatically better results.

Introduction

• Past and Current Decisions
• How Problem Solving and Decision Making Intertwine
• Ways of Thinking

• Change Process
• Biases That Affect Our Judgment
  • The Big Dozen

• Is/Is Not Matrix
• Results Framework
• Decision Matrix

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DAY TWO
One2One: Giving Positive and Constructive Feedback - Greg Moss
 One2One is a series of skill development modules focused on successful conversations between a supervisor and a direct report - from "Good work" to "What happened?"; from performance reviews to salary discussions. There is a way to do it easier and get better results. This session will concentrate on the three elements that are essential to every feedback discussion and the steps for two key topics: Giving Positive Feedback and Giving Constructive Feedback. By practicing these steps using your own real-life situations, you will develop skills that you can use frequently and immediately.

Introduction

• Feedback that Made a Difference
• Our Approach
• Elements of Mutual Respect

Selection Interviewing - Greg Moss
Organizations are only as successful as the people they hire. The process should be an opportunity for two-way communication and interaction to determine the fit between the candidate and the employer. Unfortunately numerous hiring mistakes take place during the interview process. This section will focus on a behavioral interviewing system to help you improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the hiring process in your organization.

Introduction

DAY THREE

Coaching and Mentoring - Jaspreet Singh
Coaching is a highly effective teaching, training, and development process in which an individual gets support while learning to achieve a specific personal or professional result or goal. Good managers are excellent coaches. They know how to stretch their team members by giving them responsibility and supporting them in their endeavors. Engineering Management professionals are very analytically driven and thus often overlook some key pieces of how to coach and develop their team members to build a culture of high performance and sustainable execution. In this section you will learn specific techniques for coaching and mentoring your staff. Attendees are given ample opportunities to practice these skills, receive feedback, and evaluate their coaching and mentoring experience.

How to Connect Your Team to Their Jobs

Guest Speaker Panel and Networking Event
Note: The Guest Speaker Panel and Networking Event will take place from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the SAE Troy Office immediately following the Summary and Action Planning for the day.

DAY FOUR

Conflict Resolution and Negotiation - Atul Kalia
Employees at all levels in an organization have to deal with conflict on a daily basis. Whether it's an internal conflict between team members, between management and employees, or an external conflict between employees and customers or employees and suppliers; improper handling of a conflict, can lead to a dysfunctional workplace and lowered productivity. Yet, very few employees are properly trained in how to handle conflicts effectively. This section will equip you with influencing techniques to achieve acceptance for your solutions to workplace conflicts. In contrast to many conflict/negotiation courses that focus on winning and gaining maximum advantage, this section first seeks to understand all parties" interests and then proceeds to achieve mutually beneficial solutions. Attendees are given ample opportunities to practice these skills, receive feedback, and evaluate their conflict resolution and negotiation experience.

Introduction to Conflict

DAY FIVE

Building High Performance Teams - Atul Kalia
Engineering supervisors and managers in today's organizations have to work in cross-functional teams consisting of personnel from Manufacturing, Purchasing, Sales, Quality and Program Management. In addition, such engineering management professionals are often responsible for leading technical engineering teams in their workplace. Whether working as a team member on a cross-functional team or as a team leader for technical teams, engineering professionals need specific training and skills to ensure that the team functions at its optimal best. In this section you will learn appropriate skills that allow team leaders to optimize their team's output, and highlight key characteristics of high-performance teams. Team building exercises and activities will be used to enhance learning of these concepts.

Team Experience

For individuals interested in completing the SAE General Management and Leadership Certificate Program, this academy may be substituted for the Managing Engineering and Technical Professionals and Leading High Performance Teams requirements.

SAE offers a number of other courses to prepare engineers for the challenging roles of managers and leaders. Please visit sae.org for a complete list.