Ever get stuck answering a question for a reporter? What about when communicating with an elected official? Have you ever written a technical paper and after presenting it, your audience was still not able to comprehend the message you were trying to deliver? These are all issues that many of us in public works occasionally struggle with.

Over the past few years, the APWA Leadership and Management Committee has been committed to the effort of developing a body of knowledge and a standard set of skills to utilize as the basis for training public works professionals. Many of those skills come as an inherent part of working in a public works department: technical training, supervisory and interpersonal skills, and an understanding of the services you provide. However, the training that is sometimes forgotten, and is often overlooked when bringing a manager or a supervisor into the role of executive or leader, are the soft skills that are not specific to public works technical functions.

Some of these could include the ability to speak articulately to the public, advisory boards, or elected bodies; it could include how to interact (appropriately) with the news media; or it could even be the basic skills of communicating a message effectively through written correspondence.

Knowing that these skills are sometimes not easily taught and sometimes even harder to learn. Come and learn how to sharpen YOUR executive soft skills.

After viewing this program, participants will be better able to:

Communicate articulately to the public, advisory boards, or elected officials.
Determine how to interact (appropriately) with the news media.
Communicate a message effectively through written correspondence.

Eric Jones

Appearances