Managing Your Time

Creating a clear and effective process for managing your time is more vital today than ever. Many employees are performing multiple tasks across departmental lines, working longer hours, and experiencing overload. Most would agree that there are not enough hours in the day. While there are many tools to help us manage our projects and timelines, focusing on an effective core strategy sets the foundation for achieving our goals: doing more in less time, focusing on what is important, and feeling less stressed in the process. This workshop focuses on the development of an individualized time management strategy. After the workshop, participants should be able to:

• Lower their work stress
• Develop a sense of control over their personal/professional productivity
• Identify ways to do more in less time
• Cultivate joy and achieve balance in their lives
• Separate meaningful from meaningless activity

When:          February 20, 1:30—3:30 PM

Where:         FAH 205

Open to:      All SMC employees

Presenter:   Felicia Williams, Consultant for MHN

Register Here for Managing Your Time

Caring for Aging Parents - Session 3

In this workshop we will focus on specific communication skills and techniques for having challenging conversations with our older parents. Participants will be provided with a list of multiple ways to start, continue and close these conversations. Learning outcomes will include:

• How to use clarifying statements and clarifying questions
• Use of "I" statements in our conversations

When:             Mar 11, 12:30—2:00 PM

Where:            FAH 205

Open to:         All SMC employees (This workshop is open to all employees, whether or
                             not you attended earlier sessions).

Presenter:     Mary McCall, SMC Psychology Dept.

Register Here for Caring for Aging Parents - Session 3.

Staff-Faculty Partnerships

It takes strong, productive staff-faculty relationships to create the best in education, research and organizational effectiveness. Working with faculty members takes special insights, approaches and creativity. It helps to understand the structure and culture of academic institutions, faculty mindsets and work-styles, and how to get things done on campus. This interactive training offers strategies and best practices for working with faculty in a college setting. As a participant, you will:

• Identify the impact of academic structure and culture on staff-faculty relationships
• Learn about faculty mindsets, work styles, priorities and stresses
• Discover principles, strategies and best practices for building effective staff-faculty partnerships
• Appreciate your role, contributions, and challenges in working with faculty

When:              March 14, 10:00 AM—12:00 PM

Where:            Orinda, SODA Center

Open to:          All SMC employees

Presenter:      Susan Christy, author of Working Effectively with Faculty: Guidebook  
                               for Higher Education Staff and Managers, 2010

Register here for Staff-Faculty Partnerships

Accountable Team Members: A Leader’s Goal

Leadership puts us in complex relationships with other people. Employees want to do a good job. How can we engage their good intentions and abilities, provide clear direction and feedback, redirect them when they are off-track, and get them to take responsibility for their performance?  As a participant, you will:

• Identify the realities employees face and the realties you face when holding them accountable
• Define how you can take responsibility for the conversation and your impact on employees
• Plan how to move past employees’ defensiveness, redirect them, and support their problem solving, planning and accountability 

When:            March 14, 1:30 AM—3:30 PM

Where:            Orinda, SODA Center

Open to:          Supervisors and Leaders

Presenter:       Susan Christy

Register here for Accountable Team Members

Tracking Performance and Holding Performance Conversations

One of the most important responsibilities of a supervisor is to hold conversations with your direct reports about their performance. Ideally, these conversations are taking place throughout the year, even when performance is right on track. However, performance conversations are especially critical when there are gaps between an employee’s current performance and the required standards. Having usable performance notes will make your performance conversations, including year-end performance reviews, far easier to conduct. In this workshop, participants will:

• Review practical tips for tracking and recording employee performance
• Discuss the key ingredients of effective performance conversations
• Distinguish between informal and formal conversations and appropriate uses of each type

When:              February 15, 1:00—3:00 PM

Where:            Hagerty

Open to:          Supervisors and Leaders

Presenters:    Sunny Bradford, Director-Learning & Org. Effectiveness and Peter Chen,
                               Director-Employee Relations/Compensation

Register Here for Tracking Performance/Holding Conversations

Interviewing Skills: More Than a Gut Feeling

Whatever role you occupy at the College, you might lead or participate in a search committee that is responsible for interviewing and recommending final candidates for an open position. This workshop will provide tips and guidelines to increase your effectiveness with the interview process. During this program, participants will:

• Review how to prepare adequately for an interview
• Recognize effective interviewing strategies
• Discuss how to deal with difficult situations that may arise during an interview

When:              April 11, 10:00 AM—12:00 PM

Where:            Hagerty

Open to:          Any employees who might serve on interview committees

Presenter:       S. Jamila Buckner, Director-Faculty & Staff Recruitment & HR
                               Consultation

Register Here for Interviewing Skills

The Grieving Employee

Grief and the process of grieving is not always well understood in our larger culture, despite the fact that losses, both large and small, touch everyone’s life. When employees experience loss (e.g., a death, a significant relationship that doesn’t work out, a health or financial change), the physical, emotional, and cognitive effects of grief may impact them in the workplace. During this program, participants will:

• Recognize how grief can affect employees at work
• Identify appropriate ways to support a grieving employee
• Discuss ways a grieving employee can support him/herself through these challenges 

When:             April 26, 12:30—2:00 PM

Where:            Claeys, SODA Center

Open to:         All SMC employees

Presenter:     Sunny Bradford, Director-Learning & Org. Effectiveness (Sunny has been
                             trained as a bereavement support facilitator and has overseen the
                             work of other volunteer facilitators).       

Register Here for The Grieving Employee

Managing Change: The Human Factor

Change is a permanent feature of most organizational landscapes.  Whether change is self-initiated or mandated by someone else, a manager today must know how to handle not only the technical, but also the human side of change in the workplace. In this course, you will learn realistic techniques for communicating about change, responding to resistance, and maintaining employee morale and support, in the face of ongoing change. Program participants will:

• Discuss how to communicate change effectively to employees
• Review the key stages of any change process
• Recognize why people may resist change and explore appropriate responses

• Identify methods to help your team transition through the stages of change

When:           May 9, 1:00—3:30 PM

Where:            Orinda, SODA Center

Open to:         Supervisors and Leaders

Presenter:      Sunny Bradford, Director-Learning & Org Effectiveness

Register here for Managing Change