Below are our Communication Skills Courses. Please click for more information.
Communication Skills
Clear Communication
This course will help participants interact more effectively with others by sharpening their communication skills. Participants will build on their strengths and accommodate their challenges while learning the keys to successful and productive communication.
Objectives:
- Understand the basic principles of communication.
- Recognize and manage barriers to successful communication.
- Learn and use communication styles.
- Adapt to the behavior and communication of others.
- Use listening effectively.
- Understand importance of audience perceptions.
- Make appropriate language choices.
- Understand the effects of non-verbal behavior.
Speaking with Power
This course will help participants speak with increased competence in a variety of professional settings, by quickly and easily adapting the principles of effective communication to any situation. Participants will speak at meetings, make presentations, and respond to impromptu requests with confidence.
Objectives:
- Know how to apply basic communication principles to all situations.
- Learn strategies for speaking on the spot.
- Know ways to organize ideas quickly and clearly.
- Learn ways to avoid feeling intimidated or put on the spot.
- Develop an ability to speak at meetings, informal gatherings, or public events with minimum preparation.
- Learn how to adapt communication style to the demands of any situation.
- Use language to gain control of situations.
Multi-Cultural Communication
This course will help participants achieve better communication with coworkers in their multicultural work environments. Participants will consider cultural influences on behavior, and will learn ways to work with those who may employ different means to reach common goals.
Objectives:
- Consider the key elements of culture that influence behavior.
- Understand the impact of culture on communication.
- Learn strategies for expanding understanding.
- Develop flexible operating styles.
Assertiveness
This course will help participants speak with precision and power without damaging relationships or causing discomfort to others. Participants will learn that it is possible to disagree and to maintain one’s position while remaining collegial and professional.
Objectives:
- Understand the difference between assertiveness, and aggressive or submissive behavior.
- Know how to request consideration of your views.
- Learn how to disagree without disaster.
- Use language that is forceful but inclusive.
- Learn steps for engaging firmly and gracefully in stressful conversations.
Managing Daily Conversations
This course will help participants conduct conversations and engage in small talk with ease and grace. Participants will learn to interact with others in the daily workplace encounters that are often necessary for building good working relationships.
Objectives:
- Learn to welcome casual workplace encounters as opportunities.
- Use conversation to promote your interests, and work more effectively with others.
- Learn how to use conversation to demonstrate your facility with teamwork.
- Reduce feelings of discomfort and awkwardness.
- Learn tips for beginning, continuing, and ending conversations.
- Be ready at any time for communication encounters.
Watch Your Language
This course will help participants improve the clarity and precision of communication by strengthening word knowledge. Participants will develop strategies for expanding their personal vocabularies, and will learn to use words mindfully.
Objectives:
- Learn tips for expanding vocabulary base.
- Recognize and correct common vocabulary errors.
- Sharpen awareness of nuance in meaning of often used words.
- Make informed, appropriate language choices.
- Understand the relationship between skilled use of language and professional image.
Listening for Results
This course will help participants become strong communicators by improving their ability to listen to and be present for others. Participants will discover how listening will bring clarity to interactions, and make their own communication easier and more effective.
Objectives:
- Know why it is important to understand the position of others before speaking.
- Learn how and why to use the needs of others in creating your message.
- Learn what it means to listen in addition to hearing.
- Encourage others to express themselves.
- Maintain concentration and focus.
- Bring interactions to effective resolution.
Managing Up
This course will help participants develop a productive and collaborative relationship with their supervisors and others who are in positions of authority. Participants will learn techniques for taking an active role in their work relationships and will develop confidence in their ability to request adjustments and express opinions.
Objectives:
- Apply principles of good communication and assertiveness to work relationships.
- Recognize the importance of understanding the needs and behavior style of the supervisor.
- Learn goal-setting, planning, and prioritizing techniques.
- Guide the supervisor toward an effective style of work relationship.
- Understand the importance of listening.
- Make suggestions and request a more active role.
- Find ways to demonstrate your responsibility.
Networking and Socializing
This course will help participants become more comfortable in networking and business-social situations. Participants will learn techniques for navigating smoothly through a variety of conversational situations, and for strengthening their networking connections.
Objectives:
- Enter, circulate, and leave group gatherings with confidence.
- Determine the first impression you want to make and learn how to do it.
- Engage others in conversation.
- Begin and end interactions.
- Know what it means to network and learn how to do it.
- Prepare for business-social events.
- Know how and why to follow-up after the event.
Dealing with Difficult People and Situations
This course will help participants work with, rather than against, colleagues whose attitudes and approaches are difficult, and to better manage situations that cause conflict and tension. Participants will learn to adapt their preferred operating style to different situations, and to promote problem-solving techniques that minimize conflict.
Objectives:
- Recognize the characteristics of different behavior and communication styles and consider ways of working with them.
- Consider one’s own possible contribution to tension or conflict.
- Recognize and manage the effects of emotion.
- Find language that is neutral and not emotionally loaded.
- Review communication strategies for clarifying problems, goals, and procedures.
- Learn conflict management and problem-solving procedures.
Dealing with Negative Attitudes
This program will help participants work productively in the face of negative attitudes and behaviors in the workplace. Participants learn strategies for avoiding negative influences while advancing their own agendas and operating styles.
Objectives:
- Identify common types of negative behavior.
- Consider causes of dissatisfaction and tension in the workplace.
- Develop your own positive positions.
- Recognize factors that influence morale.
- Use communication strategies for countering negativity.
- Develop team building behavior.
Team Building Basics
This course will help individuals develop the skills necessary for working in teams, and will help teams work productively together. Participants learn to recognize, value, and use the contributions that each member can bring to the team.
Objectives:
- Know the characteristics of dynamic teams.
- Know the steps of building strong teams.
- Identify the skills that individuals need to bring to a team.
- Know the principles of effective team work from goal setting to project evaluation.
- Use communication skills appropriately.
- Understand how to lead a team and how to follow the leader.
Creating Harmony in the Workplace
This course will help small groups or teams contribute to the tone and energy of their work environments in a positive way. Participants will learn to promote morale-building behaviors in themselves and others, and to practice positive communication skills.
Objectives:
- Identify and celebrate the variety of skills represented in the work environment.
- Recognize others for their contributions.
- Establish goals of collegiality and cooperation.
- Find ways to acknowledge and reward desired efforts.
- Develop processes for peer learning and idea exchanges.
Customer Service
This course will help participants provide the kind of service to their customers that reflects the grace and cordiality of their organizations. Participants will learn and use the highest standards of communication, and will become proficient in problem-solving, listening, and bringing situations to satisfactory conclusions.
What will be learned:
- Review examples of excellent customer service and identify ways to adopt them.
- Understand the importance of being the face of the organization.
- Identify common customer service barriers to excellence.
- Identify one’s own customer complaint triggers and develop strategies for managing them.
- Identify customer service behavior that would be good, better and best for your organization.
- Learn strategies for exhibiting tact, diplomacy, and patience.
Body Language: The Stealth Communicator
This course will help participants recognize the non-verbal communication elements that are sent with every message, by learning how attitude, emotion, facial expressions, and other elements affect meaning. Participants will learn to adjust their messages to account for non-verbal aspects, and to better recognize these elements in the messages of others.
Objectives:
- Understand the importance of non-verbal behavior in communication.
- Learn what some behaviors usually indicate.
- Know your own non-verbal communication.
- Adapt messages in response to audience reactions.
- Learn to control your non-verbal behavior.
- Recognize non-verbal behavior in others.
Working the Room: Managing Business-Social Events
This course will help participants navigate gatherings, meetings, pre-conference social hours, and other situations that can be awkward and uncomfortable. Participants will learn strategies for conducting themselves with confidence and competence in a variety of unscripted situations.
Objectives:
- Establish goals for the event.
- Understand the importance of preparation.
- Learn tips to conquer shyness.
- Learn to initiate and maintain conversations.
- Use listening effectively.
- Identify the elements of a graceful exit.
Collegial Communication
This course will help participants communicate gracefully and confidently by learning ways to impart interest, acceptance, and courtesy in their interactions. Participants will learn that building and strengthening relationships can depend on communication style and behavior.
Objectives:
- Review basic elements of communication
- Learn common barriers to effective professional relationships
- Understand the role of style and behavior on communication
- Recognize concerns and interests that can underlie communication behavior
- Learn strategies for inclusive interactions
- Develop a flexible communication style that encourages respect and trust
Dealing with Ambiguity
This course will help participants navigate and thrive in the workplace climate of uncertainty and change by recognizing and managing their attitudes and behaviors. Participants will learn strategies for anticipating, adjusting, and adapting to new and uncertain conditions.
What will be learned:
- Understand that resistance to ambiguity is normal
- Recognize the causes and conditions of change in your workplace
- Accept the need to act and make decisions without details
- Identify and accept what you do and do not control
- Work with others to develop processes and resources for facing risk and uncertainty
- Maintain supportive relationships with your team
Working with Hybrid Teams
This course will help participants work with and manage teams whose members work both in-person at the workplace, and remotely by learning and overcoming the barriers of proximity. Participants will learn to anticipate problem situations, and will develop strategies for motivating and encouraging others.
Objectives:
- Identify the characteristics and constraints of a hybrid team
- Recognize common problems with the dynamics of a hybrid team
- Address potential issues of proximity bias, divisiveness, and isolation
- Determine the necessary tools for working in a hybrid team
- Develop strategies for collaboration and interaction
- Consider how to position yourself within the hybrid team