The biggest challenges have been the variety of circumstances with customers. A customer may be an ex-offender and can only proceed if they get a Letter of Intent from a potential employer. A customer may apply for a grant but is required to list employers who will hire them after they complete training. The biggest successes have been the clear communication that allows customers to return their paperwork in a correct and timely manner.
If someone is angry and communicates in a frustrated tone, answering back in an equally frustrated tone will only increase the tension. Even if you haven't done anything wrong, don't take things personally, take a breath and calmly respond to de-escalate the situation.
Identify a common issue or goal that unites that contrasting stakeholders and focus on implementing the most pragmatic approach. This module reminded me how beneficial agenda summaries are to hand out to the various attendees.
A leader I look to is my supervisor in the Employment In-Training Department. Every time I have a question in regards to a customer she is always happy to lend a hand even if she has a dozen other priorities on her plate. Each week we hold staff meetings where shareholders like Career Counselors such as myself go over the wide variety of customer circumstances to best determine how to go about assisting them. In my opinion the best qualities a leader needs are patience and empathy.
Job Analysis reports are useful for determining the job fields with the highest demand and rate of employment.