Management Training Program Sessions

Communication, Time and Project Management
Effective Skills for Leadership and Team Building
Utility Planning and Risk Management
Utility Accounting and Finance
Personnel Issues
Customer Service and Public Relations


SESSION A: COMMUNICATION, TIME AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Topics include:
  • How to plan your time and evaluate your success
  • Prioritizing your obligations
  • Providing constructive input and clear answers on projects
  • Tracking projects to assure nothing falls through the cracks
  • Giving clear directions that are understood the first time and listening well for good feedback.
  • Sorting out urgent from important
  • Breaking down barriers
  • Understanding and communicating your department’s role in the bigger picture
  • Preparing for effective/efficient meetings
  • Creating a positive working environment
  • Knowing what information to share with whom and when

SESSION B: EFFECTIVE SKILLS FOR LEADERSHIP AND TEAM BUILDING
Learn to:
  • Describe the qualities that enable someone to lead effectively
  • Compare and contrast the differences between leading effectively and managing well
  • Assess your own leadership and management capacities
  • Describe the characteristics of servant leadership and the value of servant leadership to a leader’s effectiveness
  • Empower your team through delegation
  • Manage conflict more effectively by understanding its origins, your own conflict response style, and an innovative approach to controlling or resolving conflict when it occurs
  • Develop a personal leadership/management development plan to enhance your effectiveness at meeting the needs of your team, city leaders, the utility and its customers

SESSION C: UTILITY PLANNING AND RISK MANAGEMENT
Topics include:
  • Strategic planning - thinking outside the box (moving past “it’s the way we always do it”)
  • How to work with change in the industry and in your utility
  • Overcoming resistance to change
  • Planning and maintenance versus reacting and repair
  • Setting your department up for successful transitions (succession planning)
  • Wisconsin law regarding the bidding process for construction projects
  • Developing effective Requests for Proposals; how to determine an accurate “scope of work” to be completed by engineers, contractors and/or employees (identify timeline and responsibility)
  • Assessing your utility’s risk areas and insurance coverage needs
  • Security concerns

SESSION D: UTILITY ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE
Topics include:
  • How to read financial statements
  • How to develop and track your department budget
  • How proper invoice coding/inventory tracking affects the bottom line
  • Why decisions are made from a financial perspective
  • Your responsibility to ratepayers and community leaders
  • Internal control methods
  • Audits and regulatory reports (PSC uniform system of accounting)
  • Financial tools for assessing utility health
  • Electric and water rates (wholesale and retail)
  • Public Service Commission of Wisconsin regulations and other industry regulations
  • Understanding utility tariffs

SESSION E: PERSONNEL ISSUES
Topics include:
  • Personnel policies and work rules
  • The importance of accurate and updated job descriptions
  • Identifying the true qualifications of the job
  • Interviewing dos and don’ts
  • Discipline and firing - legal issues to consider during the selection process
  • Orientation tips to make new employees feel welcome and competent in their position
  • Legal considerations when termination is necessary
  • Union negotiation and bargaining considerations
  • The basics of employee insurance and benefits
  • The performance review - why it’s important and how to do it best
  • Your utility’s current safety and regulatory compliance program
  • A primer on Wisconsin Open Records and Open Meeting laws

SESSION F: CUSTOMER SERVICE AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
Topics include:
  • Customer service is every employee’s job
  • Knowing your customer (internal and external)
  • Customer service is more than providing a service -- it’s providing a quality of life
  • Value added services for your customers
  • Dealing with difficult customers and difficult situations
  • How to deal with a customer when it's really their fault
  • How to deal with a customer when it's really your fault
  • Inspiring a customer-oriented attitude in all your employees