Programs for organizational effectiveness

Mainsail Associates, Inc. has several flexible programs that can be tailored to the precise needs of a client organization. They are all practical, skill based programs designed to give target populations tools which they can put to immediate use.

Assessment Interview Training

The Mainsail Associates, Inc. Assessment Interview Training focuses on raising standards, formulating strategy and reformatting skills. The program is appropriate for HR Professionals and managers at any level who participate in the staffing process.

STANDARDS are reflected by attention to the Job Screen, which identifies those candidates with the functional skills and abilities to meet current task requirements, and the Quality Screen, which identifies candidates with those more elusive characteristics that set the top performers apart from the merely good.

STRATEGY includes identifying both the real job to be filled and the actual performance specs, planning the scope and objective of each interview, plus assuring that all relevant information gets factored into the decision making process.

SKILLS are developed through observation and structured practice with a proven, patterned interview guide.

Click here for more information on the Assessment Interview program.

Skills training for newly appointed managers

The transition from being an engineer, a chemist or a systems analyst to being the manager of other professionals or technical employees is a challenge. It demands significant qualitative changes in mind-set, understanding of the business and, most importantly, interactive skills. New managers do not often fail because of their functional skills; they fail because they do not make these other important transitions.

Mainsail Associates, Inc. has developed extensive programs to help new managers survive and thrive. Combined with information about your business, its structure, and how it operates, skill building in the following areas can help the new manager get off on the right foot.

Communications skills Message Development One-on-one Delivery Active Listening Conducting Meetings Influencing

Shaping performance Delegating Correcting Problems Coaching Giving Recognition Performance Feedback

Both the Assessment Interview Skills module and the Fostering Innovation module described below can be incorporated into this training.

Fostering innovation

Whether the business goal is quality improvement, process improvement, shorter cycle times or better customer service, an underlying thread is INNOVATION.

At Mainsail Associates, Inc. we take the approach that management's role is to establish a climate that allows the innovative potential of the work force to surface and flourish. At the same time, we recognize that in a business setting, innovation must be goal directed and practical. A typical Innovation Workshop will use presentations and exercises to focus attention on:

• The process of innovation: barriers and enablers.
• Tools and techniques to facilitate innovation.
• Behavioral expectations: what do managers want their employees to do?
• Experiencing the "feel" of an innovative climate.