Have you ever wondered why it seems so difficult to talk with some people and so easy to talk with others? Can you recall an occasion where you met someone for the first time and immediately liked that person? Something about the individual made you feel comfortable.

A major goal of this two-day workshop is to help you understand the impact your communication skills have on other people. You will also explore how improving these skills can make it easier for you to get along in the workplace, and in life.

What Will Students Learn?

Identify common communication problems that may be holding you back
Develop skills to ask questions that give you information you need
Learn what your non-verbal messages are telling others
Develop skills in listening actively and empathetically to others
Enhance your ability to handle difficult situations
Deal with situations assertively

What Topics are Covered?

Creating positive relationships
Growing our self-awareness
Communication basics and barriers
Asking questions and listening skills
Body language
Communication styles
Creating a positive self-image
Frame of reference
Techniques for the workplace
Assertiveness

Your brain, thoughts, and behaviour are at the core of everything that you do every day, even if you aren’t aware of it. In order to truly achieve the results that you want to achieve, you must master the art of bringing your unconscious thoughts to the surface, so that you can have real choice over how you interact with and respond to the world. Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) can give you the tools to do just that. In this 2-day workshop, you will learn the basics of NLP. We will give you the tools to manage your thoughts, and thereby manage yourself. We will also give you some hands-on experience with important NLP techniques, including anchoring, establishing congruency, developing rapport, creating outcomes, interpreting and presenting information efficiently, and even some self-hypnosis techniques.

What Will Students Learn?

Define neuro linguistic programming (NLP) and its key terms
Describe the key presuppositions of NLP
Describe the five key senses as seen by NLP
States of mind/modes of thinking using predicates & visual cues
Develop and refine response strategies for any situation
Use enriched language to engage your audience
Interpret body language based on NLP principles
Ask clean, precise questions to get the information you need
Use hypnotic language and positive commands to get results
Develop a deeper rapport with others
Use anchoring to create a desired state of mind
Become congruent with your inner self
Understand and apply basic self-hypnosis techniques
Create goals with momentum using NLP’s outcome framework
Present, interpret, and analyze information using the 7±2 rule and the chunking technique

What Topics are Covered?

What is Neuro Linguistic Programming?
The NLP Presuppositions
The Senses According to NLP
Using Enriched Language
Interpreting Body Language
Asking Clean Questions
The Power of Hypnotic Language
Putting it All Together
Developing Rapport
Getting in Tune with Yourself
Self-Hypnosis
Creating Comprehensive Outcomes
Creating a Desired State with Anchoring
Chunking Information

When we talk about influence and persuasion, we often talk about marketing and sales. However, we influence in many ways and with great frequency. If you want a raise, sometimes you need to persuade your boss. If you want to convince your team to adopt a change, help your staff make choices, or choose the best place for lunch, there is often influencing taking place. This one day workshop will help participants learn how to influence and persuade in a variety of areas.

What Will Students Learn?

Make decisions about using persuasion versus manipulation
Apply the concepts of pushing and pulling when influencing others
Describe different techniques for getting persuasive conversations and presentations underway
Make a persuasive presentation by using the 5 S’s
Apply storytelling techniques to extend influence
Leverage concepts of neuro linguistic programming in everyday influence and persuasion

What Topics are Covered?

Understanding persuasion
Preparing to persuade
Getting off on the right foot
Presentation strategies
Using stories to persuade
Using neuro linguistic programming (NLP) techniques

It’s no secret that the sales industry continues to change and evolve rapidly. This is an exciting and dynamic profession, although it is often underrated and misunderstood. The back-slapping, high pressure, joke-telling sales person has disappeared. In his place is a new generation of sales professionals: highly trained and well groomed, with the characteristics of honesty, trustworthiness, and competence. This one-day workshop will help you learn how to be one of those smart sales professionals!

What Will Students Learn?

How to explain and apply concepts of customer focused selling
How to use goal-setting techniques as a way to focus on what they want to accomplish and develop strategies for getting there
How to apply success techniques to get the most out of work
Productivity techniques to maximize their use of time.
Ways to find new clients and network effectively

What Topics are Covered?

Your success as a manager can often depend on how well your team operates. How are their problem-solving skills? Are they enthusiastic and motivated to do their best? Do they work well together? There have been hundreds of studies demonstrating that human beings function better and learn better in groups. If you want to develop your team leadership skills and unleash the talent of your individual team members, this workshop is a practical look at current leadership practices that work.

How You Will Benefit:

Identify different types of teams.
Build teamwork by recognizing and tapping into the twelve characteristics of an effective team.
Promote trust and rapport by exploring your team player style and how it impacts on group dynamics.
Recognize the key elements that move a team from involvement to empowerment and how to give these elements to your team.
Develop strategies for dealing with team conflict and common situations.
Understand how action planning and analysis tools can help your team perform better.

What You Will Cover:

Types of teams

Introduction and Course Overview

You will spend the first part of the day getting to know participants and discussing what will take place during the workshop. Students will also have an opportunity to identify their personal learning objectives.

Organizations Today

To begin the day, we will look at how changes in organizations have affected teams.

Types of Teams

During this session, we will define the word “team.” We will also look at some different team models, including traditional teams, task forces, and cyber teams.

Team Norms

This session will look at some of the benefits and pitfalls of teams. We will also establish some team norms: ground rules that a team can use to help them work together.

Towers

One way of looking at team development is the TORI model. Participants will experience this model through a fun exercise.

Beckhart’s Activities

Richard Beckhart said in 1972 that there are four activities a group should perform on a regular basis if they desire to grow into a team. Since researchers today still agree on these four activities, we will spend some time exploring each activity.

The Four Stages of Team Development

Every group of people, whether they are a team or just a group working together, grows and evolves. We will spend this session looking at Tuckman and Jensen’s four stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, and performing.

Parker’s Characteristics

The twelve characteristics of effective teams were developed by Glenn Parker, who has devoted his whole life’s work to studying teams. We will discuss each of them in detail through a combination of lectures, small group work, and case studies.

Glenn Parker Team Survey

During this session, participants will complete a survey constructed by Glenn Parker. This survey will help participants identify their team player style. Participants will then work in small groups to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their style.

The Trust/Relationship Model

We will look at how trust impacts relationships through a lecture and small group work.

Creativity

This session will examine two types of thinking: lateral and vertical. We will also look at how these thinking models affect creativity.

The Six Thinking Hats

During this session, we will discuss Edward De Bono’s six thinking hats. Then, we will explore how these hats can help us in a team environment.

Team Shaping Factors

First, we will discuss the four factors that shape a team during a lecture. Then, participants will apply the knowledge to a case study.

Problem Identification

This session will demonstrate a key point of problem solving: you can’t fix it if you don’t know what is broken!

Exploration, Analysis, and Evaluation

Team problem solving needs a three-phase approach: exploration, analysis, and evaluation. We will look at this model through a combination of lectures and group work.

Other Problem-Solving Techniques

During this session, we will look at some other key problem solving tools, including the fishbone technique, the lasso, and force field analysis.

Interventions

This session will look at some common problems that teams face and some recommended solutions.

Resolving Conflict

Solving conflict in a positive way is key for building a strong team. This session will look at types of conflict and tips for resolving conflict. Participants will also take part in a role play to demonstrate the concepts learned.

SWOT Analysis

Performing an analysis of the team’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats can be a great measuring stick. We will discuss how to perform such an analysis, and then participants will work in small groups to complete a case study.

Developing Team Action Plans

To wrap up the day, we will look at some planning tools that teams can use to help them grow and improve, including improvement plans and action plans.

Workshop Wrap-Up

At the end of the day, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and talk with the trainer.

Emotional intelligence, also called EQ, is the ability to be aware of and to manage emotions and relationships. It’s a pivotal factor in personal and professional success. IQ will get you in the door, but it is your EQ, your ability to connect with others and manage the emotions of yourself and others, that will determine how successful you are in life.

We have all worked with and listened to brilliant people. Some of them were great and… well, some were not so great. The mean and the meek and all those in between can teach us more than they realize. When we look at the truly extraordinary people who inspire and make a difference you will see that they do this by connecting with people at a personal and emotional level. What differentiated them was not their IQ but their EQ – their emotional intelligence.

Some of the ways you will benefit:

Understand what emotional intelligence means
Recognize how our emotional health and physical health are related
Learn techniques to understand, use, and appreciate the role of emotional intelligence in the workplace
Understand the different emotions and how to manage them
Create a personal vision statement
Understand the difference between optimism and pessimism
Validate emotions in others

What You Will Cover:

This one-day workshop will help you teach participants how to:

Understand what emotional intelligence means
Recognize how our emotional health and physical health are related
Learn techniques to understand, use, and appreciate the role of emotional intelligence in the workplace
Understand the different emotions and how to manage them
Create a personal vision statement
Understand the difference between optimism and pessimism
Validate emotions in others

Introduction and Course Overview

You will spend the first part of the workshop getting to know participants and discussing what will take place during the workshop. Participants will also have an opportunity to identify their personal learning objectives.

History of Emotional Intelligence

This session outlines some of the milestones and important people who have contributed to the world of emotional intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence Defined

You will introduce a few definitions of emotional intelligence and then have participants create their own definition.

EI Blueprint

Next, you will cover skills and concepts behind identifying emotions, understanding and managing emotions, and using and communicating emotions.

Optimism

This session outlines the basics of optimism and how it differs from pessimism.

Validating Emotions in Others

In this session, you will give participants two models to validate emotions in others.

Emotions

This session will explore the seven primary human emotions.

Setting Your Personal Vision

Participants will explore their own emotions by looking at their principles, values, strengths, talents, potential obstacles, and relationships.

Workshop Wrap-Up

At the end of the workshop, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and fill out an action plan.

People who can master the art of negotiation find they can save time, save money, develop a higher degree of satisfaction with outcomes at home and at work, and earn greater respect in the workplace.

Negotiating is a fundamental fact of life at any level. Whether you are working on a project or fulfilling support duties, this two day workshop will provide you with a basic comfort level to negotiate with both internal and external clients. This interactive workshop includes techniques to promote effective communications and gives you techniques for turning face-to-face confrontation into side-by-side problem solving.

How You Will Benefit:

Understand how often we all negotiate and the benefits of good negotiation skills.
Recognize the importance of preparing for the negotiation process, regardless of the circumstances.
Identify the various negotiation styles and their advantages and disadvantages.
Develop strategies for dealing with tough or unfair tactics.
Gain skill in developing alternatives and recognizing options.
Have the opportunity to practice the “how to” of these skills in a supportive environment.
Understand basic negotiation principles, including BATNA, WATNA, WAP, and the ZOPA.

What You Will Cover:

This workshop will help you teach participants:

The benefits of good negotiation skills.
The importance of preparing for the negotiation process, regardless of the circumstances.
Various negotiation styles and their advantages and disadvantages.
Strategies for dealing with tough or unfair tactics.
How to develop alternatives and recognize options.
Basic negotiation principles, including BATNA, WATNA, WAP, and the ZOPA.

Introduction and Course Overview

You will spend the first part of the day getting to know participants and discussing what will take place during the workshop. Students will also have an opportunity to identify their personal learning objectives.

What is Negotiation?

To begin, participants will explore the different types of negotiation (including positional bargaining) and the phases of negotiation.

The Successful Negotiator

Next, participants will explore key attributes of a successful negotiator.

Preparing for Negotiation

During this session, participants will learn the elements of preparing for negotiation: identifying your fears and hot buttons; doing research into your issues and the opponent’s issues; and preparing your WAP, BATNA, WATNA, and ZOPA.

The Nuts and Bolts

This session will give participants some tips on preparing their documentation and choosing a place for the negotiation.

Making the Right Impression

Next, participants will learn the importance of self-presentation during the negotiation, including small talk, attire, first impressions, and their handshake.

Getting off to a Good Start

During this session, participants will explore how to establish common ground and how to use ground rules.

Exchanging Information

This session will look at how to exchange information, and what to do if the negotiation gets off to a bad start.

The Bargaining Stage

Participants will learn six techniques for negotiating success and they will have an opportunity to practice and observe these techniques through a role play.

Inventing Options for Mutual Gain

Next, participants will learn about the four obstacles to mutual gain, and how to turn them into negotiation advantages.

Getting Past No and Getting to Yes

This session will look at ways to get past no and how to break an impasse, so that you can get to “yes.”

Dealing with Negative Emotions

During this session, participants will explore some ways to deal with negative reactions during a negotiation.

Moving from Bargaining to Closing

Next, participants will learn how to tell when it’s time to move from the bargaining phase to the negotiation phase.

The Closing Stage

This session will discuss ways to build win-win solutions, achieve a sustainable agreement, and reach consensus.

Workshop Wrap-Up

At the end of the day, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and fill out an action plan.

A great presenter has two notable qualities: appropriate skills and personal confidence. Confidence comes from knowing what you want to say and being comfortable with your communication skills. In this two-day workshop, you will master the skills that will make you a better speaker and presenter.

What Will Students Learn?

Establish rapport with your audience	Learn techniques to reduce nervousness and fear
Understand your strengths as a presenter and how to appeal to different types of people	Recognize how visual aids can create impact and attention
Develop techniques to create a professional presence	Learn some different ways to prepare and organize information
Prepare, practice, and deliver a short presentation

What Topics are Covered?

Communication skills	Personality types
Positive self-talk, rapport, and body language	Maximizing meetings
Managing sticky situations	Overcoming nervousness
The five S’s	Writing and planning a presentation
Audience profile	Your speaking voice
Add punch to your presentation

What’s Included?

Instruction by an expert facilitator
Small, interactive classes
Specialized manual and course materials
Personalized certificate of completion

This workshop will help you teach participants how to:

1. Establish rapport with your audience
2. Learn techniques to reduce nervousness and fear
3. Understand your strengths as a presenter and how to appeal to different types of people
4. Recognize how visual aids can create impact and attention
5. Develop techniques to create a professional presence
6. Learn some different ways to prepare and organize information
7. Prepare, practice, and deliver a short presentation

Course Overview

You will spend the first part of the day getting to know participants and discussing what will take place during the workshop. Students will also have an opportunity to identify their personal learning objectives.

Communication

To begin, participants will explore key communication skills, including how to start and end a conversation.

Stop! Check Your Mouth!

Next, participants will learn about characteristics that can make or break the audience’s impression of a speaker, including volume, clichés, slang, diction, jargon, and tact (or lack thereof).

What’s Your Type? How About Mine?

During this session, participants will explore their personality type and what it means for them as a speaker.

Positive Self-Talk

In this session, participants will learn how to build their self-confidence – a key skill for any public speaker.

Trust

This session will explore the idea of rapport and how it can help build relationships.

Maximizing the Most of Meetings

Meetings are a central part of communication and cooperation within any organization. This session will give participants some ways to successfully prepare for and present at any meeting.

Body Language

During this session, participants will learn some ways to make sure their body language is sending the right message.

Sticky Situations

This session will give participants some tools to deal with uncomfortable situations.

I Can Just Send an E-mail, Right?

Next, participants will explore the value of oral presentations.

Overcoming Nervousness

To conclude the first day, we will look at some suggestions for handling nervousness.

The Five S’s

To begin the second day, participants will learn about the five S’s of a good presentation: significance, scenario, solutions, sequelae, and suggestions.

Start Writing!

This session will focus on the nuts and bolts of creating your presentation.

Audience Profile

Next, participants will look the value of audience profiles.

Your Speaking Voice

This session will look at the eight key parts of a presenter’s message.

Add Punch to Your Presentation

There are many types of visual aids. We will provide an overview of, and tips for, the most common visuals during this session.

Your Presentation

To wrap things up, participants will prepare and present a short presentation. Participants will evaluate each other and provide constructive feedback.

Workshop Wrap-Up

At the end of the workshop, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and fill out an action plan.

Coach, Role Model, Counselor, Supporter, Guide...do these words ring a bell? Being a coach involves being a role model, sometimes a counselor or supporter, and always a guide. Coaching is based on a partnership that involves giving both support and challenging opportunities to employees. Knowing how and when to coach is an essential skill that can benefit both you and your organization. This one-day workshop will help you become a better coach in all senses of the word.

How You Will Benefit:

Understand how coaching can be used to develop your team.
Develop the coaching skills that help improve individual performance.
Demonstrate the behaviors and practices of an effective coach.
Recognize employees’ strengths and give them the feedback they need to succeed.
Identify employee problems and ways you can help to correct them.

What You Will Cover:

This one-day workshop will help you teach participants how to:

Use coaching to develop their team

Develop the coaching skills that help improve individual performance

Demonstrate the behaviors and practices of an effective coach

Recognize employees’ strengths and give them the feedback they need to succeed

Identify employee problems and ways you can help to correct them

Introduction and Course Overview

You will spend the first part of the day getting to know participants and discussing what will take place during the workshop. Students will also have an opportunity to identify their personal learning objectives.

Defining Coaching

The first part of the morning will be spent exploring what coaching means (in general and to participants), reviewing coaching skills, and evaluating the pre-assignment.

Interpersonal Communication Skills

Communicating well is a key aspect of successful coaching. During this session, participants will explore different communication skills and create an action plan.

Self-Disclosure

Joe Luft and Harry Ingraham developed the Johari windows concept, a way of looking at our self-awareness and our ability to ask feedback of others. This session will look at the window and examine how we can use it when coaching.

Critical Coaching Skills

Participants will examine important coaching skills in small groups, including helping, mentoring, teaching, and challenging skills.

More on Communication

This lecturette will examine two powerful, simple coaching tools: asking questions and listening.

Learning Styles and Principles

We learn in three different ways: by seeing, by hearing, and by doing. In a large group discussion, participants will identify ways to incorporate these methods into coaching.

Benefits/Consequences

During this session, we will examine a tool that coaches can use to help gain buy-in for change from employees.

Skills Involved in Coaching

Participants will work in small groups to complete a mix-and-match exercise that will familiarize them with key coaching skills.

The Coaching Model

This session will explore a four-step coaching model that can be applied to any situation.

Feedback

Feedback is an essential component of coaching. You will discuss types of feedback and offer some tips in lecture format during this session.

Coaching Problems

To wrap up the day, participants will examine case studies and offer solutions.

Workshop Wrap-Up

At the end of the day, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and fill out an action plan.

Today’s workforce is experiencing job burnout and stress in epidemic proportions. Workers at all levels feel stressed out, insecure, and misunderstood. Many people feel the demands of the workplace, combined with the demands of home, have become too much to handle. This one-day workshop explores the causes of such stress, and suggests general and specific stress management strategies that people can use every day.

How You Will Benefit:

Understand that stress is a positive, unavoidable part of everybody’s life
Recognize the symptoms that tell you when you have chronic stress overload
Identify those situations in your life that cause you the greatest stress
Identify those actions which add to your stress
Change the situations and actions that can be changed
Deal better with situations and actions that can’t be changed
Create an action plan for work, home, and play to help reduce and manage stress

What You Will Cover:

What’s Included?

Instruction by an expert facilitator
Small interactive classes
Specialized manual and course materials
Personalized certificate of completion

Specific learning objectives include:

Introduction and Course Overview

You will spend the first part of the day getting to know participants and discussing what will take place during the workshop. Students will also have an opportunity to identify their personal learning objectives.

Defining Stress and How It Affects Us

To begin, participants will discuss how they would currently handle stressful situations. Participants will also define stress, and they will learn what their score on the pre-assignment (the Holmes-Rahe stress scale) means. To conclude the session, participants will discuss the role of gender and health on stress.

What Is Stress About?

This session will explore the four things that stress is about. Participants will also learn about the positive effects of stress and what eustress is.

Building a Solid Foundation

Next, participants will learn about the four pillars of stress management. Special focus will be given to relaxation techniques.

Mental Strategies

This session will give participants two mental strategies to manage stress.

Stress at Work

During this session, participants will complete a stress inventory to help them identify areas of stress at work. Participants will also identify some solutions for work-related stress.

Time Management Tips

A little bit of planning can go a long way towards reducing stress. Participants will work in small groups to brainstorm ways of managing time.

Stress at Home

Next, participants will get some tips on running their household in a way that reduces stress, including budgeting, planning meals, general organization, and chores.

Drainers and Fillers

To wrap things up, participants will identify the things that drain and energize them. They will also take another look at the stressful situations from this morning to see how they might approach those situations differently now.

Workshop Wrap-Up

At the end of the day, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and fill out an action plan.