Note:
Online registration is currently closed, but spaces are still available. If you would like to attend this event, please call NWPPA at 360-254-0109, and our staff will be happy to help you.
Who Should Attend:
Administrative assistants, executive assistants or employees in administrative or service-oriented roles.
Course Overview:
This is a four-day series of classes that provides utility-specific information directed toward administrative assistants and executive secretaries who want to become more effective in managing their tasks and in communicating with others. By registering for all four classes, you will receive a discount off the total registration fee.
Administrative Professional Certificate Level 3: Day 1 – Organizational Dynamics, Teams and Diversity
This one-day course serves as an overview of basic business organization principles, including structure and operation. This class is designed to assist participants in learning the skills of being an effective team builder, member and leader. Other topics to be covered include:
- Understanding the organizational culture.
- Understanding the basics of teams and individual contributions to successful teams.
- Learning about the challenges that utilities are facing, including increasing diversity in workforce and customer base.
- Overcoming conflicts and differences between generations for improved communication and knowledge transfer.
Administrative Professional Certificate Level 3: Day 2 – Project Management
This one-day class is designed for executive and administrative assistants as well as other administrative professionals with responsibility for projects. The training session will provide valuable information on how to be successful in the areas of project scheduling, budgeting and planning. Participants will learn how to understand a project cycle and develop one that works. In addition, the seminar will provide participants with the confidence to take on projects from conception to completion. Topics to be covered include:
- Identifying how to plan, organize and control projects of any size.
- Applying the skills for organizing and tracking project resources.
- Identifying potential problems and fixing them as they arise.
- Using time management skills for setting priorities.
- Recognizing the skills of exerting influence without authority.
Administrative Professional Certificate Level 3: Day 3 – Getting Support for Your Ideas/Presentation Skills
This course will build specific skills that help attendees explain and gain support for ideas which may entail tough decisions and/or complicated or unpopular policies or changes. Skills covered will include how to state the purpose and main point of a message, how to present points to aid understanding while checking for understanding and reactions, how to summarize main points and how to handle reactions to what is presented. One-on-one interactions as well as skills for presenting ideas to a group will be covered. Attendees will leave with a process that will lessen stage fright through a series of steps that will help them organize, prepare and present their ideas. Other topics will include:- Identifying current attitudes and issues with communication of ideas (especially in a group).
- Analyzing the types of information that each person must convey.
- Gaining a step-by-step process for overcoming nervousness when presenting.
- Participating in presenting a topic.
Administrative Professional Certificate Level 3: Day 4 – Performance Management/Self-Appraisals/Goal Setting
The ability to set and reset performance expectations swiftly and in a straightforward manner is a critical skill for all employees. This class provides a process for handling conversations about work expectations in a way that reduces ambiguity, increases trust and strengthens the working relationship between employees—on peer-to-peer as well as peer-to-manager levels. The purpose of this course is to provide participants with skills to discuss performance expectations with others in a way that gains their commitment and sense of ownership. Topics to be covered include:
- Understanding how an individual's work supports the team's and the organization's goals .
- Learning key actions for performance planning.
- Learning how to create verifiable, objective goals using specific criteria.
- Recognizing the challenges individuals may have in achieving their goals and developing strategies to overcome these challenges.
- Learning how to prepare for focused performance management conversations to address expectation setting, performance issues and performance appraisals.
Course Instructor:
Debra Ballard, Continuum Education + Training
Course Schedule:
Registration will begin at 8 a.m. on the first day, and the classes will run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day. Lunch, along with morning and afternoon breaks, will be provided every day.
Course Location & Hotel Information:
Courtyard Seattle Downtown/Pioneer Square
612 2nd Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104-2204
(206) 625-1111
Room rate: $169 for a single/double
Please book your room as soon as possible, but no later than Monday, November 20, 2017, to secure this rate. Mention that you are with NWPPA Administrative Professionals Level 3 when booking your reservation.
Course Fees:
Utility Member Early Bird (ends 11/11/2017): $1,300
Utility Member Standard: $1,375
Associate Member Early Bird (ends 11/11/2017): $1,950
Associate Member Standard: $2,025
Non-member Early Bird (ends 11/11/2017): $3,900
Non-member Standard: $3,975