Staff Development
Companies that invest in staff development for their employees increase skill sets and ensure greater loyalty. An untrained or underdeveloped workforce means poor communication, absenteeism, turnover, conflict, tension, low productivity, complaints, wasted time, and low morale. Be positive and proactive – develop staff and prepare them for success.
Anger & Conflict Management
an eight-hour training session for up to 20 participants
PART I – Anger Management
Being successful means that you must control your emotions, especially anger. Controlling anger can be one of the most challenging things to do, yet it is vital because you need to stay calm, think clearly, and make the right decisions. This program will ensure healthy and productive reactions to personal anger. You’ll learn techniques to control your emotions and influence others’ emotions, leading to more favorable interactions and outcomes.
Attendees will be able to:
- Learn what causes anger;
- Identify behaviors that cause anger, as well as those that will create a pleasant workplace environment; and
- Learn how to sidestep the temptation to become annoyed and angry.
PART II – Conflict Management
All organizations have conflict. Conflict makes organizations flourish because it tests existing orders and forces selection of new best practices. Learning to manage conflict and turn it into an opportunity for growth and innovation is a learned skill that will grow with training and experience. This program will help participants learn to resolve differences in a respectful way that will not alienate or hurt others.
Attendees will be able to:
- Learn ways to resolve new and existing conflicts;
- Work through barriers such as: not listening, fear, being right, bad attitude;
- Apply assertive Conflict Management techniques and principles to actual existing discord,
- Express and acknowledge emotions appropriately, and
- Find shared-power solutions through negotiation and/or mediation.
Assertiveness
a two-hour training session for up to 20 participants
Topics:
- Definitions and reactions
- Tips for becoming more assertive
- Interactive communication exercise with individual assertiveness coaching
- Personal commitment to becoming more assertive (role play)
Attendees will be able to:
- State wishes clearly and directly, taking others into account;
- Be honest about thoughts and feelings;
- Share ideas and opinions, even if they are different from those of others.
- Directly address that which is bothersome.
Self-expression is crucial for emotional well-being. This session of staff development will help participants learn to express themselves in a respectful way that will not alienate or hurt others. In contrast to being assertive, there is passive (unassertive) or aggressive (overassertive) behavior.Both of these kinds of behavior need to (and can) be changed, because they are less effective and can harm others.
Critical Thinking & Decision Making
a six-hour training session for up to 20 participants
In this staff development session, participants are empowered with the key points of critical thinking to use as a guide for any problem or dilemma. We review and use the stages of critical thinking to provide a reliable starting point and direction for any issue. In the Decision Making segment, we focus on data-gathering, deadline creation, and modeling, to ensure that timely decisions are made with the best chance for success.
Attendees will be able to:
- Begin to think critically as a reliable starting point for any issue;
- Use critical thinking on any problem or dilemma;
- Engage in effective decision making to ensure that timely choices are made with the best chance for success.
Email Etiquette
a two-hour training session for up to 20 participants
Front-line communication affects public perception of every company. This training gets writers to organize ideas and communicate clearly. As a result, electronic communication in your company will be more concise and confident. Efficient email means more productivity, increased performance satisfaction, and a true dialogue with the audience. For professionals who must meet the needs of the public, these areas of development are necessities. Improved communications means increased internal and external customer satisfaction.
Attendees will be able to:
- Identify audience and determine purpose, increasing efficiency;
- Organize structure and style of writing to increase professionalism;
- Write correct, successful emails, increasing profitability and reducing wasted time;
- Build rapport by responding with diplomacy and providing solutions for challenging issues;
- Communicate more clearly and positively, fostering an increased perception of expertise; and
- Be better at articulating needs, procedures, and results, facilitating greater productivity.
Executive Coaching and 360-degree Assessment
Improving Communications now provides executive coaching and assessment services. We use 360-assessments to benchmark and identify opportunities to improve executive self-awareness and performance. One-on-one coaching sessions will then assist the executive to develop and execute a plan to address areas of performance opportunity.
The purpose of the 360-degree feedback is to assist each individual to understand their strengths and weaknesses and to contribute insights into aspects of their work needing professional development.
360–degree feedback (also known as multi-rater feedback) is a process through which feedback from an employee’s subordinates, colleagues, and supervisor(s), as well as a self-evaluation by the employee themselves is gathered.
Improving Business Relationships
a sixteen-hour training session for up to 20 participants
Improving Business Relationships strengthens participants’ ability to apply a UB4me-focused approach to working with others. It is exercise-based, highly interactive and designed to yield results that can be put to use immediately.
- Understanding Productivity Styles: Gain awareness of Learning & Productivity Styles as a vehicle for maximizing on-the-job performance.
- Developing Greater Emotional Intelligence: Understand emotional intelligence as it relates to personal and professional success.
- UB4me: Focus on others to project a UB4me, customer-centered attitude.
- Clear Communication: Gain greater awareness of audience and how to communicate ideas more effectively.
- Gain Cooperation & Selling Ideas: Use UB4me, positive communication to win trust and build rapport.
- Assertiveness: State wants and needs directly, taking others into account.
- Coaching – Giving & Receiving: Develop skills and strategy for coaching others, increasing employee satisfaction/productivity while decreasing alienation, disciplinary procedures, and turnover.
- Conflict Management: Learn ways to resolve new and existing conflicts.
- Team Building & Alignment: Understand the team dynamics and use them to greatest effectiveness.
- Running Effective Meetings: Gain new perspective and methods to create better, more productive sessions.
Improving YOUR Communications
a two-hour training session for up to 20 participants
This dynamic, informative, and even entertaining presentation joins the best and most salient points of Effective Business Writing and Introduction to Public Speaking – two strong components for any staff development program. Improving YOUR Communications is an enjoyable and valuable training session. The focus is on your idea organization and clear communication for an audience. As a result, you will be more concise and confident.
Communication:
- Self-perception
- Audience awareness
- Preparing for the audience
Writing (Accuracy, integrity, style)
- Format
- Letters & email
- The finishing touches
Speaking / Presentation
- Overcoming nervousness
- Connection with the audience
- Body language
- Vocal matters
Attendees will be able to:
- Communicate clearly and with conviction;
- Project a confident, positive, and credible image;
- Overcome nervousness;
- Edit their own work with confidence;
- Motivate and persuade the audience with facts and examples;
- Be more relaxed and natural when making presentations.
MEDIA TERRORISM
a one- or two-hour training session / keynote address
MEDIA TERRORISM is the use of media power to generate fear or take away people’s ability to think for themselves. As a result, employees have an increased sense of world danger, unrest, and an overall fear that the worst is going to happen. This seminar examines these issues and offers an opportunity to generate company-wide awareness of this problem. During the session, a historical perspective shows media techniques for generating fear and taking away peoples’ abilities to think for themselves and methods for being less susceptible to this.
Topics include:
- Definition, examples, history
- “Rubbernecking”
- Using fear to control
- Methods/Messages
- Media Outlets
- Solutions
Attendees will be able to:
- Define and explain “Media Terrorism;”
- Learn and understand the origins of media-generated fear and mind control;
- List the harmful effects of media-generated fear on the workforce;
- Realize the methods and media outlets used to control society;
- Discover and utilize solutions to avoid media-generated fear and control; and
- Generate company-wide MEDIA TERRORISM awareness to promote increased employee mental/physical health.
Positivity in Communication & the Power of Praise
a two-hour training session for up to 20 participants
Mistaken beliefs and communication difficulties break rapport with others. To undo these barriers, participants are given tools to: asses their own attitude, use positive language, increase clarity, and reduce stress.
Positivity in Communication
Language affects how people feel and how they view the world. In addition, communication affects how receivers feel and perceive the sender. With that in mind, style and choices have tremendous power. Here, we look at communication styles and their effect on others. Negativity at work results in absenteeism, turnover, conflict, tension, low productivity, complaints, wasted time, and low morale. Topics covered include: requests vs. demands, positive vs. negative language, accurate vs. vague language, inclusive communication and respectful expression.
The Power of Praise
Praise is an extremely powerful motivator. With it, people feel good about themselves. Subsequently, they perform better. Here, participants learn what praise brings out in people and, conversely, what lack of praise does to them at well. We go over a formula for quality-focused praising, followed by a segment in which participants write letters of praise to colleagues/coworkers/employees.
Attendees will be able to:
- Increase awareness of impact on others through speech and behavior,
- Respect everyone they lead and meet, and
- Contribute more effectively to the organization.
Stress Reduction
a two-hour training session for up to 20 participants
“Stress” is a fancy word for “fear.” Experts agree that fear is corrosive, and paralyzes people, or causes them to take counterproductive action. The good news is that fear (stress) can be managed and viewed accurately, to allow for progress and success.
The Stress Reduction session gives participants a chance to identify their own stress and its causes. Then, in a series of activities, attendees see how they can shift perspectives and engage in activities that, by default, reduce personal fear. They’re set on a course of action that points them toward positivity and smart goal-focused decisions.
Attendees will be able to:
- Define and assess stress,
- Identify and discover causes of personal stress, and
- Develop strategies for managing and reducing stress (addressing perceptions, goals, time management, prioritizing, and personal influences).
Team Building & Alignment
a two-hour training session for up to 20 participants
In Team Building & Alignment, participants identify and articulate the key elements of the organizational belief system.Experts agree that fear is corrosive, and paralyzes people, or causes them to take counterproductive action. The good news is that fear (stress) can be managed and viewed accurately, to allow for progress and success.
Attendees will be able to:
- Define four key elements of organizational belief system – Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals.
- Identify qualities that support the organization and its philosophy.
- Create a Quality Improvement Plan that defines supporting behaviors and goal setting for achievement.
- Take stock/conduct a personal assessment (inventory taking) in these areas: teamwork, communication, productivity, attitude, business acumen, selflessness, meeting challenges, navigating politics
- Manage change; gain greater understanding of fear and why people perceive change fearfully.
- Determine approaches to help overcome staff resistance to and fear of change.
The material presented by Improving Communications was well-suited to our audience. Rich provided us with easy-to-use tools, and gave us the opportunity to practice them in the session. His use of humorous examples allowed us to laugh and drove home the concepts needed to improve our communications.
Barbara Saat