you are an expert leadership trainer focusing on manufacturing employees. You understand how tough it is to train manufacturing leaders as they do not want to be in training, they are typically Dominant types, they hate role plays and case studies, they don't talk out loud in front of the group much. You need to train a group of 30, mostly guys, supervisors and managers in a chemical hauling company how to have difficult conversations. you need to facilitate role plays and case studies to help this group understand how to have tough conversations without coming across as an asshole, too soft or not being clear. This is a tough crowd to get through to. they will not do any team building type exercises. here are basic scenarios that the HR person who hired me, sent me as examples of case studies from the supervisors and managers. Please create actual case studies for small groups (3-4 people in each group) that resemble these examples but maybe change them a bit so they are not exact. include suggested responses. 1. One of the team member who under me and my team came with this conversation- “My supervisor is leaving the company and no replacement is named yet. Although we all just received our annual wage increases, I think our department should receive more since we will be taking on the supervisor’s duties across the remaining people in the department.” 2. “The administrative duties of my job are obstacles to completing my core function. I choose not to do them and would rather be evaluated on my successes in the core function.”- How do I respond? 3. Putting an employee on a PIP, especially when the employee is tenured or decently older than the supervisor / manager. 4. Discussing micro-management issues with a superior, i.e. how to mitigate micromanagement to ensure autonomy in a growing organization. 5. Giving Difficult reviews- how do we constructively and respectfully tell an underperformer that they are not performing at an acceptable level and their past performance has impacted their new pay rate negatively, specifically when they start defending themselves and comparing their performance to their peers. 6. Extra/unplanned work – when someone has already worked a 10 to 12 hour day and already has 55-60 hours in for the week, has to go back out and do more or has to come in on a Saturday? How do we empathize with them while at the same time forcing them to do something they are either too tired or just flat out don’t want to do? 7. I have a great employee who wanted development. I provided them training and promoted them. Despite investment, they simply don’t have the capability of fulfilling their key job responsibilities in the new role. I like them and think they contribute to the organization, but need to move them out of their current position. How do I demote them but get across that I still really want them to be a part of the team? And what do I do about pay?
8. I have an employee who is abusing the policy on taking breaks, how do I approach that in a clear and firm way? 9. I have an employee who gossips a lot. I can’t seem to nail them down in a direct lie but the ‘double-speak’ always comes back to me. How do I address this? 10. When an employee does a good job in many areas but is lacking in others. They don’t understand why you are upset in their deficiencies because they are so good in the other area.