"I liked the videos and the games. They proved that we all need to listen more effectively. Active Listening Skills taught me that we don't have to agree with what we hear, but we have to understand it before we disagree. This was the best course I have had in 15 years with the company. Thank you."…Manager, Solar Turbines, Inc.
"Telephone Communication Skills gave me some "real-world" techniques to use when I deal with customers over the telephone. This workshop made me stop and realize that answering the telephone is like welcoming a guest to a party."…Customer Service Representative, Blockbuster Videos
"We have been told that the customer is always right. 'The Customer Isn't Always Right-But He Is Still the Customer' Workshop showed us how to be creative in solving customer problems when the customer isn't right. This workshop gave me another way to look at customer complaints, issues, and problems."…ISO Management Representative, Primo Microphones, Inc.
Work Well – Communication Skills, Time & Stress Management Skills
(a 1-day workshop)
"In true listening, we reach behind the words, see through them, to find the person who is being revealed."…John Powell
Listening is more than simply hearing. Listening is the chief skill effective managers and team members have mastered. Learn the physiological and cultural reasons behind our poor listening skills. Practice all four skills of active listening – Attending, Focusing, Interpreting, and Reflecting, to improve your ability to listen for results. Use a personal Listening Styles Profile to determine your and others' predominate listening styles and learn to consciously select a different listening style to communicate more effectively.
(a 1-day workshop)
"We don't get what we deserve; we get what we negotiate."…Dr. Chester Karras
What is successful negotiation? You know the feeling of satisfaction when you have negotiated successfully to a win-win conclusion. Negotiation is present everywhere in life. It precedes every decision we make. Use a simple, proven, and tested six-step process for successful negotiation. This process uses the positive attitude that both parties in a negotiation are "right"; neither must lose, and both parties can and do win. Modern business negotiations must build relationships as well as accomplish tasks. According to negotiation expert, David Berlew, "The view of negotiation as something that tough people do in adversarial situations must be modified. People must understand how the process of negotiation can be used as an important tool for solving everyday problems." Use a personal Negotiation Styles Assessment Instrument to identify your predominate negotiating style and through role plays, video scenarios, and interactive practical exercises, learn how to adapt your style to best negotiate in different situations.
(a 1/2 day workshop)
"Stress is a natural part of life. Every day there are responsibilities, obligations, and pressures that change and challenge you." …Dr. C. Everett Koop
Today's workplace demands high performance, but high performance means putting work ahead of everything else. Yesterday's organizations ignored the reality of life outside work. They accepted the peaks and valleys of productivity crated by high stress and burnout. Today's dynamic, team-oriented organizations require flexible, creative, sustainable performance - the kind that only comes with people who know how to balance the urgent demands of work life and personal life without sacrificing either. Use a personal Stress Management Assessment Instrument to identify your major causes of stress on the job and your predominate way to deal with stress. Learn new coping resources to decrease stress and improve performance.
(a 1/2 day workshop)
"Don't confuse activity with productivity."…B.W. Luscher, Jr., U.S. Postal Service
As technology enhances and complicates our business environments, time becomes more and more valuable. We are working on multiple projects with multiple critical success factors and deadlines. Managing multiple projects with strict deadlines and dealing with a wide diversity of managers, customers, team members, and co-workers can seem chaotic at times. The only element in our lives that remains constant is time. We can't stop it or add to it. What we can do is manage the hours that we are allotted to increase productivity and self-satisfaction. Use a personal Time Management Assessment Instrument to gauge how effectively you manage your time. Then, learn strategies to help you plan and schedule your activities. Learn tips to handle interruptions, meetings, procrastination, and other daily "time eaters" to increase your productivity.
(Facilitating Organizational Change)
(a 1-day workshop)
"No one likes change except a wet baby." …Anonymous
What is successful change management or organizational transition? Change is the norm in today's business environment of mergers, acquisitions, team building, and restructuring. Learn how to facilitate change in its three distinct steps: (1) Promotion of the Change (2) Preparation for the Change, and (3) Facilitation and Leadership of the Change. There is one secret to successful organizational change – "Employees must become owners of the change; managers must become advocates for change." Using Change Readiness Assessment Instruments, we identify participants' current attitudes toward the change process and help them move forward to create a supportive environment for change.
(a 1/2 day workshop)
"I don't think I understand people very well. I only know whether I like or dislike them."
…E.M. Forster, Passage to India
Understanding yourself and others leads to mutual respect and trust. Use a personal Assessment Instrument to discover your and others' behavioral strengths and gain an appreciation of different work styles. Research proves that the most effective people are those who know themselves, recognize the demands of the specific work situation, and adapt strategies to meet those demands. Explore your behavioral style across four primary dimensions: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness and begin to foster more cohesive teamwork. Remember, we can't begin to understand others until we begin to understand ourselves.
(a 1 day workshop)
"Much of management doesn't seem to understand the importance of the human factor."
…Prince Charles, Prince of Wales
Obtaining desired results often depends on how effectively you can motivate and influence others. Use a Managing Performance Action Planner to understand the "human factor" of management and develop effective ways to coach and lead your staff or team. Participants, whether managers or staff, can assess their strengths and motivations and then plan and implement strategies to encourage productivity. We provide a practical process to define expectations for specific roles and to compare your current or potential role. Learn people-reading techniques and apply specific strategies to manage others based on their personal communication styles, abilities, and levels of motivation.
(a 1-day workshop)
"The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on."…New York Herald Tribune 4/14/45
Foster your self-awareness for long-term performance improvement. Explore leadership from three points of view: self as leader, another person as leader, and the need for situational leadership. Let us guide you in your personal assessment of four aspects of leadership: Character, Analysis, Accomplishment, and Interaction. Use a personal Leadership Assessment Instrument to determine your leadership characteristics and qualities and to develop a greater acceptance of others' approaches to leadership.
Four Memory Enhancement Techniques
(a 1/2-day workshop)
"No man and no force can abolish memory."…Message to the Booksellers of America, 5/6/42
In business, as well as in our personal lives, a great memory is a huge advantage. Knowledge is power…but only if you can remember it! Unleash your natural memory abilities. Learn why you forget birthdays, anniversaries, names, dates, etc. Understand the basic principles underlying memory.
In the "Manage your Memory" Workshop, we cover the basics of memory performance and show how memory works. We discuss the history of memory and the differences between short and long term memory. Finally, we provide four memory enhancement techniques to improve your memory performance.
Customer Service Skills
(a 1-day workshop)
"Ask why your customers aren't satisfied with your service; then give them service that exceeds their expectations."…Sony Corporation
Develop attitudes that keep customers coming back. Learn the latest techniques to provide exceptional customer service the first time, every time. Use our easy process to maintain customer loyalty in even the most difficult situations. Learn how to C.A.R.E. for your customers (Connect, Attend, Respond, and Empathize). Convey a quality image through effective use of words, tone, voice, body language, and the listener's imagination.
Customer Service Over the Telephone
(a 1-day workshop)
"Hello, Neil and Buzz. I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House, and this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made." …Richard Nixon, US President speaking to the first men to land on the moon, 7/20/69
Telephone communication skills are about the bottom line. Customer service begins with the first telephone communication. We introduce ourselves, our products, our services, and our organization with the very first impression that we make over the telephone. People always have and always will want to do business with people they like and trust. Excellent telephone communication skills help to build positive lasting relationships with customers and employees. Learn an easy step-by-step process to turn every telephone call into a positive business contact. Build strong professional telephone communication skills from the initial "hello" to the final "goodbye".
(a ˝-day workshop)
"None of us is as smart as all of us."…Ray Kroc, Founder of MCDonalds
The direction of current leadership is work teams. We review the history of teams in the US and provide basic steps to organize teams around a mission, charter, critical success factors, values, and principles. We discuss the four stages of team formation participants experience: forming, storming, norming, and finally, performing. Learn techniques to avoid "group think" and build consensus. Create a team charter, norms, and measurements to evaluate team effectiveness.
(a ˝-day workshop)
"If you can dream it, you can do it."…Walt Disney
Visioning is the first step to setting goals. Participate in a structured visioning session followed by a 9-step process to set SMART goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, results-oriented, and time bound. Learn how to ensure that your vision and goals support your organization's mission statement and your team's values.
(a ˝-day workshop)
"No matter how ambitious, capable, clear-thinking, decisive, wise, and witty you are, if you don't relate well to other people, you won't make it."…Debra Benton in Lions Don't Need to Roar
Communicate well to build effective working relationships. Learn the four essential team communication skills - listening, speaking, asking questions, and clarifying for mutual understanding. Experience the differences in personal/performance communication and one way/two way communication. Use a personal Communications Styles Assessment Instrument to identify your predominate communication style and learn to consciously use other styles depending on the communication situation.
(a ˝-day workshop)
"Conflict is simple; it is any time our ideas, beliefs or feelings differ from those of another. In other words, conflict is inevitable."…Anonymous
Conflict is inevitable; unmanaged conflict isn't. It is not the conflict itself that is destructive, but rather, the failure to manage it successfully to a "win-win" resolution. Use a personal Conflict Management Assessment Instrument to identify your predominate style of handling conflict. Learn how to select and use five different styles of conflict management based on specific situations.
(a ˝-day workshop)
"The average supervisor or manager spends 40% of the workweek in meetings." …Cheryl Hamilton, Communicating in the Workplace
Meetings can either be extremely productive or extremely stressful and a total waste of time. We identify 6 types of meetings, define criteria to select meeting participants, and provide a structured 10-step approach to effectively facilitate and participate in meetings. Learn tips to handle the logistics of an effective meeting and how to deal with difficult meeting participants. Apply the 10 requirements of an effective meeting and never again vanish into the black hole of unproductive meetings.
(a ˝-day workshop)
"Decision making refers to the act of choosing between alternatives; problem solving creates the alternatives."…Cheryl Hamilton, Communicating in the Workplace
Do you have the common problem that many team or management decisions need to be re-addressed later? We distinguish between decision making and problem solving and present 5 types of decisions. Use a 6-step process to identify, evaluate, and select the best alternatives to reach team decisions by consensus. Use a task criteria-based decision making matrix to evaluate the impact and effort of each alternative.
(a ˝-day workshop)
"Personal relations are the most important thing for ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger."…E.M. Forster
Do you leave problem-solving meetings frustrated? We discuss 10 common problems that teams face and how to resolve them. Use our problem-solving model to identify the problem, set objectives, analyze the problem, generate and evaluate alternative solutions, select the best solution, create an action plan to implement the solution and finally, evaluate the results of the solution. Learn 5 structured methods to solve problems creatively and effectively.