Essential Leadership Skills: Challenging Conversations

This half-day workshop is one of seven in a series across one school year designed to give Headteachers, HR personnel and any staff with line management responsibility practical skills and knowledge to lead staff and school systems effectively.

Challenging Conversations

One of the most challenging parts of being responsible for managing staff is having to have that difficult conversation that you have been putting off and hoping will naturally go away. Rarely do matters just disappear. In fact, if ignored or brushed under the carpet, the matter is far more likely to become worse and escalate which might reflect badly on you.

In this workshop we explore the barriers that stop us from having difficult conversations at a time that is most effective. You will learn the consequences of not managing the situation and gain practical tips to make it much easier to do so.

Aims & Objectives:

• To understand the differing types of challenging conversations and personal issues that arise in the workplace and how they may impact upon work performance.
• Understanding the responsibilities of managers when handling challenging situations and what role you play in supporting individuals, including how to maintain boundaries.
• To gain practical skills, tips and tools to hold meetings and prepare for difficult conversations.
• Understanding the benefits of effective management of issues in the work place, for you, the employee and the organisation.

Full programme of workshops in the Essential Leadership Skills series:

• Employment Law: The Essentials - 16th February 2022
• Managing Absence - 1st March 2022
• Managing Discipline and Grievance - 28th March 2022
• Employee Engagement - 26th April 2022
• Managing Performance - 16th May 2022
• Managing Change - 13th June 2022
• Challenging Conversations - 27th June 2022

Each session is capped at a maximum of 12 participants to ensure the training will be interactive.

The workshops are bookable individually or as a set, to fit your needs and develop your staff knowledge and skills.

Workshop facilitator

Theresa Mayne, FCIPD, is director of an HR Consultancy providing HR and Employment Law services to businesses across the UK. She has worked with a large number of independent and state maintained schools and clients such as NHS England, BBC, John Lewis, Central England Co-op and HSBC. She is a governor in an Oxfordshire school and is committed to supporting schools get the best from and for their staff.

Accessing the online event

Following registration for this event you will receive an email from Eventbrite confirming your place. If you did not create an account at the time of booking or someone else booked on your behalf, you will need to create an Eventbrite account. Open your booking confirmation email, select ‘Claim Your Order’ and then choose a password. Make a note of your email address that was used to make the booking and your new password – you will need these to access the Eventbrite page containing the link to the event.

A minimum of 48 hours before the event begins you will receive another email from Eventbrite containing a direct link to the event and to the Eventbrite Online Event page. Login to Eventbrite, using the same email and password you used to create your account. You will now have access to the online event link and any pre-event materials. This link must not be shared with other people.

Please test the link the day before the event to make sure you can connect. If you need help please email info@otsa.org.uk or call 01865 647999 in good time before the event begins. We will be unable to help during the event itself. Please note, if you unsubscribe from Eventbrite before the event takes place you will not receive any further emails from Eventbrite and therefore will not receive the email with the link to the event.

We do not provide refunds if you are unable to access the event due to technical issues that are beyond our control.

Participation in the online event

Our online events aim to be interactive and you will be expected to have your camera and microphone on, although your microphone should be muted. We may use ‘Raised Hands’, ‘Reactions’, ‘Chat’, ‘Polls’, shared whiteboards and shared screens during the session. We may also use ‘Breakout Rooms’ to allow you to work in a smaller group.

This event will not be recorded for copyright and privacy reasons.

Payment

Payment is required at the time of booking by credit card, debit card or Paypal.

Refunds

No refunds will be given with less than 30 days notice.

In the event of a refund request, please note that the Eventbrite booking fee of 6.5% plus 0.49p per ticket is not refundable.

To keep our event fees as low as possible, we are not able to issue manual invoices for later payment by cheque or bank transfer and we are not able to reserve places without payment.

We strongly recommend that you take out 'event ticket insurance' which may cover the cost of your fee should you be unable to attend the event.