The Case working as an associate producer for a fairly large production company specializing in corporate video. Part of your role is recruiting from within, and your boss wants you to organize appropriate seminars and workshops to groom the potential talent from the technical ranks of the company. Recently your boss asked you to organize an optional (but highly recommended) seminar on interpersonal and communication skills to be offered to all employees who have recently applied for promotions to the management and production side, but were not successful in their applications… yet. “Listen,” your boss says, “these people have potential and they have the desire, but they’re lacking some of the ‘soft’ skills. They’re awesome on the technical side, but they’re not quite ready to lead others or interact with clients on the more delicate issues like proposals and finances.” “Sure, that makes sense,” you say, “but the seminar would be voluntary, right?” “Absolutely,” she answers, “But of course you should make it sound enticing, a great opportunity, all that. Without insulting them or making them feel bad about not getting their promotions yet.” This 1-day course will be led by Daisy Steiner from BCIT. Daisy is well known in the Lower Mainland as an excellent teacher and coach, so you’re lucky to have her train your staff. You’re talking to her on the phone to work out some of the details: Daisy: So, tell me a bit about what the group I’ll be working with is like. You: Sure: they’re all technicians who have recently applied to be promoted to supervisory positions. They have all demonstrated that they have great technical skills, and they’ve shown that they have the potential to lead. Daisy: Potential to lead, but not experience leading. I get it. You: Right. Some of them are a bit uncertain about communicating with their colleagues in a leadership role. They’ll need some strategies to help build their confidence. Daisy: All right, I can work with that. How many of them are there? You: We’ve got 17 people who have either just applied for promotions but not gotten them or are actually on track to be promoted soon. We want to offer the course on two days, giving them the option to pick one day – whichever day is better for them. Fortunately, the days that everyone is available match your schedule: January 13th and 20th. We’re posting a sign-up on the company’s internal site, and people can choose their preferred date on a “first come” basis, with a max of 9 people per day. Daisy: Great. And where will we be meeting? Do you have an appropriate space in your office, or will we meet off site? You: We’ve reserved the main meeting room – we’ll have a computer and data projector set up if you want to use PowerPoint, and we’ve also got a whiteboard and a flipchart there. Daisy: I’ll probably use a little of all three, so that’s good. What about the time? I prefer to work from 8:30-4:30 with a coffee break in the morning, a half-hour for lunch, and a coffee break in the afternoon. Will that work for your staff? You: Sure. We’ll have the lunch catered for everybody, and we’ll supply coffee and snacks for everyone so they won’t need to have long breaks to go and get food. Daisy: That’s helpful. Good. You: What should they do to prepare for the course? Do they need any books or anything? Daisy: Nope, I’ll supply copies of my book, Interpersonal Communication Strategies, included in the course fee. You: Wow, that’s a great deal for them, especially since the course itself is free for them – totally covered by the company – and it’s worth $275 per person! I guess they’ll need to take notes, so they should have their laptops, too. Daisy: Seems obvious, I know, but it’s amazing how many people forget stuff like that! If you could remind them, that would really help. You: No problem. Now that we’ve got all these details straightened out, I’ll email everyone. The staff have heard about the course in general terms, since your boss mentioned it at the last company meeting, but they don’t have any of the details yet. Write the email to those eligible employees (those applying for or on track for promotions) to make sure they’ve got all the details they need to be ready for this course, including the details they’ll need to motivate them to sign up to attend in the first place. Please include the email header (to, from, date, Subject Line) at the top of your email, and an email “signature” at the bottom.
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