Instructor Led Programs

University-wide Employee Resource Groups at Penn State

This session will provide information on how to form new University-wide Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) at Penn State and how to join existing ones. ERGs are voluntary, employee-led groups open to all staff and faculty. They are created by employees around common identities, backgrounds, or interests, and they help to promote community and belonging while also supporting employee personal growth and career development. ERGs define their own mission and vision which often include fostering inclusion and belonging, and furthering personal and professional development of employees. ERGs goals are aligned to the success of Penn State’s goals and mission, including student success, employee development, and impacting our communities and fulfilling Penn State's land-grant mission.

Mentoring 101: The Basics for Mentees

Have you been thinking about finding a mentor but don’t know where to start? 

You’re in luck!  Join us for an information session to learn more about: 

• The benefits of mentoring 
• The roles of the mentor and mentee 
• Characteristics of a successful mentoring experience 
• How to find a mentor 
• We will share mentoring best practices, hear from a mentoring pair about their mentoring journey (and why it was worth the time and effort) and provide a next step action plan to get you on your way as a mentee! 

Professional Writing Essentials: Grammar

Who is this class for? Or is it “whom”? Build your writing skills with this grammar review that provides the basics on subjects such as misplaced modifiers, pronoun case, active and passive voice, and much more. This course is designed to equip employees with a firm foundation in the English language so that they can properly and effectively communicate. Learners will participate in discussions and exercises to sharpen their grammar skills. 

Performance Management - Giving & Receiving Feedback for Individual Contributors

The information will be presented via Zoom,  Join us to be given useful guidelines, exercises, and examples that you can apply to ensure that your performance conversations with your supervisor are as helpful as possible throughout the year.

Performance Management - Giving & Receiving Feedback for All Supervisors

The information will be presented via Zoom. Join us to learn how to begin providing feedback to your direct reports and receive feedback as a direct report.  You’ll be given useful guidelines, exercises, and examples that you can apply to your performance conversations!

The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team

This course introduces participants to Pat Lencioni’s Six Types of Working Genius model and how to apply it personally and professionally.  Participants will use their individual assessment results to understand themselves better including what types of work bring them joy and energy and which ones rob that joy and energy.  They’ll then learn to use the model to better understand others and improve relationships.  Finally, they’ll learn how to apply the model to accomplish work and how the geniuses of a team impact the team’s performance. 

Play to Your Strengths: Foundations of CliftonStrengths

You don't have to change who you are to be successful. Instead, success comes from applying what you do best - your natural areas of talent - to your role. This course will introduce participants to those natural areas of talent so they can grow their talents into strengths, use them to do their work, and offer maximum value to their teams, partnerships, and relationships. We'll explore the concepts of talent, strength, and weakness and introduce a strengths-based approach to development that will help each participant identify and own their talents and apply them to their areas of responsibility.  Each participant will complete Gallup’s CliftonStrengths assessment ahead of time. 

Project Management Series

***Please note that this is a four-part, introductory program and that participation is expected in all four parts of the program to receive credit for attending.***

Program Schedule (*Please note varying days and times of schedule)
Part I: Friday, November 1, 2024, 10:00am-12:00pm
Part II: Friday, November 8, 2024 10:00am-12:00pm
Part III: Friday, November 15, 2024, 10:00am-12:00pm
Part IV: Friday, November 22, 2024, 10:00am-12:00pm

Performance Management - Giving & Receiving Feedback for Individual Contributors

The information will be presented via Zoom,  Join us to be given useful guidelines, exercises, and examples that you can apply to ensure that your performance conversations with your supervisor are as helpful as possible throughout the year.

The Emotionally Intelligent Leader and Team

An emotionally intelligent leader and an emotionally intelligent team have been shown to greatly improve employee retention and engagement. The purpose of this module will be to solidify what is and how to be an emotionally intelligent leader and how to establish and maintain an emotionally intelligent team. The presentation will be based on ‘Emotional Intelligence 2.0’ by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves and ‘Team Emotional Intelligence 2.0’ by Jean Greaves. An understanding of emotional intelligence would be desired; however, a basic review of emotional intelligence will be conducted. Along with the presentation, there will be break-out rooms and a case study to solidify the learning.  

Performance Management - Giving & Receiving Feedback for All Supervisors

The information will be presented via Zoom. Join us to learn how to begin providing feedback to your direct reports and receive feedback as a direct report.  You’ll be given useful guidelines, exercises, and examples that you can apply to your performance conversations!

Neurodiversity in the Workplace

Maximizing employees’ strengths to create successful teams requires an objective awareness of those strengths. One way to do this is to examine biases of what is “normal”. In this presentation, attendees will be given an opportunity and tools to recognize the benefits of supporting and maximizing the resources that neurodiverse employees bring to the workplace. Additionally, this session offers the opportunity to apply what you've learned in a breakout session. Provided by SupportLinc. 

Effective Email Communication

This session will explore how to communicate with others via email and messaging apps. Learn how to craft strong emails that get to the point professionally and quickly. The session will also briefly examine messaging apps, such as Microsoft Teams, to uncover the best practices for these modes of communication.

Leading with Your Strengths

There's only one right way to lead... YOUR way.  And the CliftonStrengths for Leaders report will help you figure out what that is and how to do it. This course is a great investment for leaders at any level, as it helps people see how their innate talents contribute to greater success in their leadership role.   

If you’re new to CliftonStrengths, you’ll begin by taking an assessment and then receive your personalized CliftonStrengths for Leaders report.  If you already have a CliftonStrengths assessment, you’ll get a code that will allow you to access your personalized CliftonStrengths for Leaders report based on your previous results.   

TIAA: RETIRE! Write your next chapter: 5 steps to setting your retirement date

For anyone starting to think seriously about when to retire, this webinar takes you through five steps that help you decide when the time is right, including estimating retirement expenses, closing any income gap and understanding key milestones that can impact your retirement finances.

Accessibility 101 @ PSU -- An Introduction

This session introduces the main points of accessibility policy and guidelines and uses demos of assistive technologies, such as screen readers, and testing strategies and tools to show how following accessibility guidelines benefits everyone. The session ends with information on how to learn the skills and strategies to successfully implement accessibility guidelines based on your job duties and technological environment. 

Military Cultural Competency – Be a Veteran Ally

Do you know a military service member or veteran?  Have you ever worked with one?  What are they like and what were their experiences while they served?  What challenges do they experience while serving or as they transition back to civilian life?  How are they different from you and I, if at all?  How do I engage and talk to them?   

The Importance of Adaptability and Flexibility

The purpose of this training is to provide a knowledge base as to the role in which qualities such as adaptability and flexibility play in professional and personal success.    

We will discover ideas and discuss strategies to help you become more adaptable.  We will build upon current skills to aid in adapting to both personal and professional change.  We will uncover coping mechanisms and learn how to take risks.  Lastly, we will develop an action plan to apply to a current situations.

Celebrate What’s Right with the World: An exercise in positive thinking

In Celebrate What's Right with the World, Dewitt Jones asks: Do we choose to see possibilities? Do we really believe they’re there? He assures us that there is always more than one right answer.

Celebrating what's right with the world helps us recognize the possibilities and find solutions for the challenges before us. 

This inspirational, best-selling training program utilizes stunning photography and powerful dialogue to help viewers approach their lives with celebration, confidence, and grace. 

Effective Meeting Facilitation: How to Stop Wasting Time in Meetings

Do you plan or lead meetings?

Join us for a facilitated discussion on the concepts introduced in the “How to Stop Wasting Time in Meetings” LinkedIn Learning course.

Learn how to set a clear meeting purpose based on the stakeholders and the type of meeting, and how to get aligned on a direction and ensure all voices and perspectives are heard; while discovering guidelines for effective meetings, how to follow up, and how to hold people accountable for take aways after your meeting.

Performance Management - Giving & Receiving Feedback for All Supervisors

The information will be presented via Zoom. Join us to learn how to begin providing feedback to your direct reports and receive feedback as a direct report.  You’ll be given useful guidelines, exercises, and examples that you can apply to your performance conversations!

Performance Management - Giving & Receiving Feedback for Individual Contributors

The information will be presented via Zoom,  Join us to be given useful guidelines, exercises, and examples that you can apply to ensure that your performance conversations with your supervisor are as helpful as possible throughout the year.

The 3 Ps: Problem-Solving, Process Improvement, and Project Management

In this interactive session, you’ll use problem-solving and decision-making methods to determine a probable solution, then apply gap analysis techniques to ensure the best project outcome and learn how to manage the implementation by applying the Project Management life cycle to help make your next project more streamlined, efficient, and effective. 

Team Dynamics: Six things to think about

Promoting a productive and safe work environment involves fostering trust, delegating effectively, and maintaining open communication. By incorporating the tips from this training program, managers can develop the skills and mindset needed to counteract any tendencies toward micromanagement and instead build trust and foster a more positive and productive work environment that benefits you and everyone on the team. 

Penn State Police: Who We Are and What We Do

Information on how to contact University Police and Public Safety and services and resources provided by University Park police.

TIAA: INVEST! Make the move toward long-term financial security: Your mid-career retirement check-in

For anyone halfway down the road to retirement, this webinar is a critical checkpoint. It covers successful money management, how to juggle competing financial demands and retirement-saving strategies that can help put you on the path to lifelong financial security.

Thinking Critically

In this facilitated discussion, we will review the concepts introduced in the, “Developing Your Critical Thinking and Cognitive Flexibility Skillsoft video training that you will complete before the session.  
This session will help you improve your critical thinking skills. You'll learn about the intake, investigate, and act stages of critical thinking, as well as how to use analytical techniques to assess information. You’ll also learn the advantages of keeping an open mind through cognitive flexibility.

Generations in the Workplace : Maximize Resources

From jokes to communication to relationship dynamics, the impact of generational differences is present every day in the workplace. This presentation addresses the concept of “generation” as well as how to benefit from generational influences and perspectives. Attendees will receive tools and insights to maximize and work toward supporting more productive workplace dynamics. Provided by SupportLinc.

Accessibility 102 @ PSU - Accessible Word Templates

In this session, we will walk through using a Word template to create accessible documents using Microsoft Word with templates as an example. We will reformat a report so that it includes headings, image ALT text, accessible tables, and an accessible bar chart with a description. We will also discuss how to share an accessible template for multiple documents and how to modify the styles of a template.   

Enhance Your Personal Brand: Lessons from the World's Most Successful Companies

Apple. Google. Target. Twitter. Coca-Cola. Starbucks.  These are some of the most famous brands in the world.  But did you know that you have a brand as well?  Your personal brand is the essence or promise of what will be experienced by others when interacting with you.  Through self-reflective exercises and creative thought experiments, this program will show participants what factors comprise their personal brand, which ones may be increasing or decreasing their effectiveness, and how to develop a personal brand that enhances personal and professional success. 

Performance Management - Giving & Receiving Feedback for All Supervisors

The information will be presented via Zoom. Join us to learn how to begin providing feedback to your direct reports and receive feedback as a direct report.  You’ll be given useful guidelines, exercises, and examples that you can apply to your performance conversations!

Performance Management - Giving & Receiving Feedback for Individual Contributors

The information will be presented via Zoom,  Join us to be given useful guidelines, exercises, and examples that you can apply to ensure that your performance conversations with your supervisor are as helpful as possible throughout the year.

Understanding Transgender and Gender Diverse Identities—Support and Advocacy

The Transgender and Gender Diverse Identities workshop is designed to provide participants an opportunity to better understand nuances around the transgender and gender diverse communities. Included in the session: language regarding gender diversity, challenges faced by the community, and most importantly how to support trans and gender diverse folks in the community. 

Managing Change: How to think about it in a different way

Change is an essential element of the world and can be perceived as “good” or “bad”. Change affects everyone differently, so there is no “normal”. And, in many ways, how we adapt to change is impacted by our attitudes and perspective.

Therefore, our past experiences, attitudes and our energy influences our perception of change. Thinking about how to manage change differently can help us move forward even in difficult times.

Resume Crafting Strategies Workshop

In this session, you will learn about the vetting process that recruiters use when reviewing candidate resumes, along with the implications this has on what you decide to include on your resume and how you plan on formatting it.  The presenter, Dr. Bob Orndorff, will reinforce the importance of crafting your resume strategically versus slapping your content onto a piece of paper.  You’ll also learn how to customize and tailor your resume to the needs and values of the recruiter and their organization. 

Run Hide Fight: Active Attacker Response Program

Guidance on how to respond to an Active Attacker situation for Faculty, Students and Staff can be obtained through the Run Hide Fight: Surviving an Active Attacker Program, presented by the University Police. The Run Hide Fight: Surviving an Active Attacker Program provides information on the steps you can take to mitigate the actions of an Active Attacker.